Sooooo bummed about my first infection.

Well, it had to happen eventually. I brewed a nut brown ale a few weeks ago and racked to my secondary two weeks ago. All taste tests indicated a tasty brew in my future. Went to bottle today and... BAM, a mouthful of vinegary sourness (Acetobacter I'm assuming). I am sooooo disappointed. I almost wept as I was pouring it down the drain. The biggest problem is, I don't know what I did differently than my other batches. I used a blowoff tube, but I ran it into a bucket of starsan. Any ideas on how it got infected?

Infections are rare, but they do suck, nonetheless. A little more info about your process and sanitation will help, but it is likely something small like not thoroughly santizing your racking cane, or a small amount of krausen stuck in the bottling spigot of your bucket after the last batch. (had that one happen to me once...)

Think back... is there any chance you did not sanitize something, or maybe did not sanitize well enough...

I feel your pain. Just had my first after 41 batches.

Continual use of one sanitizer results in the propagation of bugs resistant to that specific sanitizer. I do a bleach bomb every 10 batches just to keep those bugs at bay -- so far so good *knock on wood*

Aside from sanitation, you should also look at how much air your beer was exposed to after the completion of fermentation. If you're splashing while racking or racking multiple times after a majority of CO2 has been released, then the exposure of oxygen will promote the growth of acetobacter.

I am very meticulous about my sanitation. I only racked one time (to the secondary) and I was quick about it. The only difference from most batches is that I started off with a blowoff tube. I was a little gun shy and trying to be proactive because the previous batch blew out my airlock. But the tube was washed and sanitized and it was running to a bucket of sanitizer. I am really stumped on this one.

rhamilton said:

Continual use of one sanitizer results in the propagation of bugs resistant to that specific sanitizer. I do a bleach bomb every 10 batches just to keep those bugs at bay -- so far so good *knock on wood*

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That's actually a very good idea, thanks for the tip.

rhamilton said:

Continual use of one sanitizer results in the propagation of bugs resistant to that specific sanitizer. I do a bleach bomb every 10 batches just to keep those bugs at bay -- so far so good *knock on wood*

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Source? I've certainly not found that to be the case. You aren't sanitizing with antibiotics, after all. A cell can't "build up" a resistance to getting its cell wall lysed, because it either kills the cell or it doesn't happen.

dwarven_stout said:

Source? I've certainly not found that to be the case. You aren't sanitizing with antibiotics, after all. A cell can't "build up" a resistance to getting its cell wall lysed, because it either kills the cell or it doesn't happen.

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exactly.