So, a review of my saga (the first part of which is completely my fault):
A year ago, we upgraded from kit to extract/steeped grain brewing. Our first two batches, done back to back on stove top, with sink chilling, both ended up contaminated by wild yeast. At the time, we had no idea what had happened, and it took some months of reading and education before we realized that the phenolic/smoky flavours had an easy explanation, and that the issue was almost certainly the result of our (unwise) decision to chill with the lid off, gently stirring (as some sites advise)—the hour or so of open air exposure was the death of those beers. In the mean time, we saved the batches in bottles to see whether they would get any better. Of course, given that it turned out to be a yeast issue, they only got worse.
Fast forward many months (and successful brews later). We moved on to partial mash and then to all grain (Two Step at this point, still stove top and sink chilling), and were having good luck. Just before the summer, we decided to dump some of the bottles to reuse them, and chilled a new batch (open lid again, we still didn't know better) in the same sink that we dumped in. That batch was lost too.
Fast forward six months later (December). At this point, we've moved, ratcheted up our sanitation, built an immersion chiller, switched to an outdoor ten gallon with burner set up, switched up sanitizer, and are generally rocking along, with four months of successful brews and no problems. We brewed the Can You Brew it Moose Drool clone, and then repitched (which we had done successfully a number of times) some of the yeast into a Lagunitas IPA clone, and a batch of Jamil's Amber Red (a major brew effort for Christmas). The Moose Drool tasted fine when we harvested yeast, and everything was well sanitized. However, come time to check the kegs for progress, we realize that all of the batches have the same old smokey awfulness (the Taste of Failure, I describe it). We abandoned the kegs, but drank the bottled half batch of Red and a few of the bottled IPAs, since we still needed Christmas beer and most people didn't at all mind the flavour (it gets overpowering over time, but I moved the contaminated bottles to the frigid outdoors to put the yeast to sleep before it progressed too far).
OK, at this point I am angry. And frustrated. I obviously spread the contamination by repitching, but took reasonable precautions and am unsure how it got established in the first place. (Obviously, I introduced it into the house by dumping bottles again, but no liquid was transferred, so presumably I also established it into the air/dust.)
Next step: I replaced all of my hoses, switched to Star San (in case the source of contamination was rinse water), and sanitized my brew bucket with both boiling water and Star San. I also cut a hole out of the brew bucket and placed the bung in immediately after Star San-ing, inserting the hose from my auto-siphon into the bung, so that it was a closed system. I put my immersion chiller into the brew pot for 30 minutes during boil to sanitize it, and cut divots into my brew pot lid so that the lid could sit snugly on, with only the copper tubing extending out (and I covered this small gap with sanitized tin foil). I also pitched a dry yeast in boiled water to avoid the risk of making a starter.
I *did* run into a slight problem when transferring to the fermentation bucket: inserting the dip tube meant that the lid for the pot had to be raised slightly, but we are only talking an inch around half of the lid, and I covered most of this space with tin foil as well. Still, transfer was slow, due to lots of leaf hops, and I think this is the source of my problem.
Long story short, my new batch, which was supposed to be my Redemption Ale, is slowly fermenting a week and half in, and has dropped down to 1.010, from an OG of 1.064 (with a 10 point drop after krausen dropped). No off flavours are present, but I know the signs well enough now, i.e., the loss of flavour, plummeting gravity, and peculiar style of slow fermentation, to know I have another contaminated beer with my dastardly local yeast.
Going forward: My next step is to cut a hole in the lid of my brew pot (with a cap), so that the auto-siphon can be inserted without exposing any wort to the air post-chilling. This will hopefully work, but honestly the whole situation has gotten ridiculous—brewing is supposed to be fun, and sanitation is supposed to be something that you are careful, but not obsessive about.
Has anyone else battled a home yeast invasion before? If so, how did you deal with it?
I have obviously contributed to this by drinking the problem beers this last batch (and dumping contaminated yeast into the same sink that I need to use to run my immersion chiller); however, it seems that most people drink wild yeast contaminated beers, if they are palatable, presumably without serious consequence.
I suppose that I should:
1) Remove all bottles and equipment from my house and thoroughly nuke them with a bleach bath outside or throw them away
2) Sanitize all surfaces in my brew room (kitchen)
3) Try to chill/brew in an area other than my kitchen (this is logistically difficult)
4) Try to keep lids completely on everything at all times (this makes it impossible to check post-boil volumes, and so causes its own problems
5) Dump my most recent batch outside (despite the fact that it tastes fine at this point), to avoid perpetuating the cycle even more
Still, my beer needs O2, so I will need air in the brew. Air which has so far proven to be full of unwanted yeast.
Am I $&!*$%ed?
Suggestions? Similar stories?
Jason
A year ago, we upgraded from kit to extract/steeped grain brewing. Our first two batches, done back to back on stove top, with sink chilling, both ended up contaminated by wild yeast. At the time, we had no idea what had happened, and it took some months of reading and education before we realized that the phenolic/smoky flavours had an easy explanation, and that the issue was almost certainly the result of our (unwise) decision to chill with the lid off, gently stirring (as some sites advise)—the hour or so of open air exposure was the death of those beers. In the mean time, we saved the batches in bottles to see whether they would get any better. Of course, given that it turned out to be a yeast issue, they only got worse.
Fast forward many months (and successful brews later). We moved on to partial mash and then to all grain (Two Step at this point, still stove top and sink chilling), and were having good luck. Just before the summer, we decided to dump some of the bottles to reuse them, and chilled a new batch (open lid again, we still didn't know better) in the same sink that we dumped in. That batch was lost too.
Fast forward six months later (December). At this point, we've moved, ratcheted up our sanitation, built an immersion chiller, switched to an outdoor ten gallon with burner set up, switched up sanitizer, and are generally rocking along, with four months of successful brews and no problems. We brewed the Can You Brew it Moose Drool clone, and then repitched (which we had done successfully a number of times) some of the yeast into a Lagunitas IPA clone, and a batch of Jamil's Amber Red (a major brew effort for Christmas). The Moose Drool tasted fine when we harvested yeast, and everything was well sanitized. However, come time to check the kegs for progress, we realize that all of the batches have the same old smokey awfulness (the Taste of Failure, I describe it). We abandoned the kegs, but drank the bottled half batch of Red and a few of the bottled IPAs, since we still needed Christmas beer and most people didn't at all mind the flavour (it gets overpowering over time, but I moved the contaminated bottles to the frigid outdoors to put the yeast to sleep before it progressed too far).
OK, at this point I am angry. And frustrated. I obviously spread the contamination by repitching, but took reasonable precautions and am unsure how it got established in the first place. (Obviously, I introduced it into the house by dumping bottles again, but no liquid was transferred, so presumably I also established it into the air/dust.)
Next step: I replaced all of my hoses, switched to Star San (in case the source of contamination was rinse water), and sanitized my brew bucket with both boiling water and Star San. I also cut a hole out of the brew bucket and placed the bung in immediately after Star San-ing, inserting the hose from my auto-siphon into the bung, so that it was a closed system. I put my immersion chiller into the brew pot for 30 minutes during boil to sanitize it, and cut divots into my brew pot lid so that the lid could sit snugly on, with only the copper tubing extending out (and I covered this small gap with sanitized tin foil). I also pitched a dry yeast in boiled water to avoid the risk of making a starter.
I *did* run into a slight problem when transferring to the fermentation bucket: inserting the dip tube meant that the lid for the pot had to be raised slightly, but we are only talking an inch around half of the lid, and I covered most of this space with tin foil as well. Still, transfer was slow, due to lots of leaf hops, and I think this is the source of my problem.
Long story short, my new batch, which was supposed to be my Redemption Ale, is slowly fermenting a week and half in, and has dropped down to 1.010, from an OG of 1.064 (with a 10 point drop after krausen dropped). No off flavours are present, but I know the signs well enough now, i.e., the loss of flavour, plummeting gravity, and peculiar style of slow fermentation, to know I have another contaminated beer with my dastardly local yeast.
Going forward: My next step is to cut a hole in the lid of my brew pot (with a cap), so that the auto-siphon can be inserted without exposing any wort to the air post-chilling. This will hopefully work, but honestly the whole situation has gotten ridiculous—brewing is supposed to be fun, and sanitation is supposed to be something that you are careful, but not obsessive about.
Has anyone else battled a home yeast invasion before? If so, how did you deal with it?
I have obviously contributed to this by drinking the problem beers this last batch (and dumping contaminated yeast into the same sink that I need to use to run my immersion chiller); however, it seems that most people drink wild yeast contaminated beers, if they are palatable, presumably without serious consequence.
I suppose that I should:
1) Remove all bottles and equipment from my house and thoroughly nuke them with a bleach bath outside or throw them away
2) Sanitize all surfaces in my brew room (kitchen)
3) Try to chill/brew in an area other than my kitchen (this is logistically difficult)
4) Try to keep lids completely on everything at all times (this makes it impossible to check post-boil volumes, and so causes its own problems
5) Dump my most recent batch outside (despite the fact that it tastes fine at this point), to avoid perpetuating the cycle even more
Still, my beer needs O2, so I will need air in the brew. Air which has so far proven to be full of unwanted yeast.
Am I $&!*$%ed?
Suggestions? Similar stories?
Jason