Can a room become infected?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Kaz

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 22, 2010
Messages
1,104
Reaction score
44
Location
Amish Country
I have an older friend/co-worker that used to brew. Everyone tells me he made great beers years ago. He hasn't brewed in like 10 years and tells me that it is because he got an infection in his basement that he couldn't get rid of and it ruined all his batches. Now, I realize that he probably just didn't want to brew anymore and this was a good excuse for himself, but it made me wonder if I can "get an infection" in my kitchen or elsewhere that could affect brewing?
 
+1 to what Gila said. The only place that I could think off of the top of my head that is even somewhat "not infected" would be a medical lab.
 
I understand that there are microbes everywhere, I have a degree in Biology. I guess I should've phrased my question to read more like....have you attributed an infection in your home brew to a particular room or space and had difficulty getting the problem corrected?
 
I understand that there are microbes everywhere, I have a degree in Biology. I guess I should've phrased my question to read more like....have you attributed an infection in your home brew to a particular room or space and had difficulty getting the problem corrected?

No. But I did just have a pelical form in my swamp cooler, which was pretty gross. That's what I get for using unsanitized water in my dust arse basement.
 
I've read some people say that they 'got a bug' and had to replace everything that was plastic/rubber and had to bleach or boil everything else. I've also read that some bacteria and wild yeasts are a ***** to get rid of once they get established.

Most homebrew has some amount of contamination, whether it's enough to detect or worse, ruin a batch, is another thing. Every time I taste anything 'off' in my beer I get a bit paranoid and start bleaching carboys/etc.
 
I guess my other reason for concern is that he gave me all the brewing stuff he had left...2 glass 5 gal. carboys, a thief, some thermometers, a hydrometer, bottle caps etc....don't want to pick up the same bug he had...
 
The safest approach would be to throw out anything plastic and sanitize the holy heck out of everything.

But, the plastic can be sanitized well enough also.
 
I think two of the most suspect items in any brewery is plastic buckets and the autosiphon. If the room has a crap load of acetobacter et. al. floating around, you should still be able to keep your fermenter sanitary.
 
Sure a room can be "Infected." In Belgium, the "terroir" is very important for making sour beer. Now that being said, modern brewing techniques should easily account for that. Making sure everything is sanitized and using an airlock should take care of everything.
 
Usually when a room is infected it means there's a large source of something growing in that area. having said that I would agree that if proper sanitation is followed is should be a non-issue.

Having said that I worked for a biotech company that had a lab infected with mold. It wasn't "cleanroom sterile" but it was cleaned daily. Needless to say enough people were getting contamination to the point where they stripped everything out of the lab and treated every surface with a spore-killing cleaning agent (something like peroxide and acetic acid). After that there weren't any issues.

Unless you're fermenter is sitting open next to something growing I think you should be fine. I've been dealing with micro-organisms far longer than I've been brewing. While sanitation is definitely important, the few basic steps should be enough to keep everything clean.
 
Back
Top