Homebrewing frustrations..

Arrgg,

My last three beers just have not done so well. Homebrewing is a lot of fun until you have several beers in a row turn out terrible. Then you want to throw everything out.

My first beer was a delicious pumpkin beer, until I discovered what I now know is one hell of a pellicle. While some people actually try for this, def not what I was going for. So the next beer was going to be a maple porter, and learning from my previous mistake, I took lots of extra time to clean the crap out of everything with bleach and then sanitizer. Looking good for a while, then in the secondary, BLAM! Pellicle. Serious?

So with two beers KIA, thank god I had an oktoberfest ready to be kegged. Either that or I would have to wait 5 weeks to have a homebrew. Kegged it up, did a quick taste test, mmm great. I come back 30 mins later to hear a fizzing sound coming from inside the kegerator. Damn, CO2 leak. I pop the lid, and oh no, much worse. My Oktoberfest keg is floating on top of 8 inches of beer flood in the bottom of my kegerator. A hose clamp apparently broke in half on its own! Can you believe that?? So all my precious homebrew leaked out into the kegerator. How does metal just break?



Aaaah! I just needed to vent. It's been a while since the accident, and only now am I thinking about getting back on the horse. Been a tough stretch.

I dont understand.....this is from Wikipedia. Thers no mention of infection or bacteria???

Pellicle may refer to:

Pellicle (mycology), the outermost layer of a mushroom; often used only for a surface that is viscid and easily peels.

Pellicle (biology), a thin layer supporting the cell membrane in various protozoa

Pellicle mirror, a thin plastic membrane which may be used as a beam splitter or protective cover in optical systems

Pellicle (dental), the thin layer of salivary glycoproteins deposited on the teeth of many species through normal biologic processes

Pellicle, the protective cover which can be applied to a photomask used in semiconductor device fabrication. The pellicle protects the photomask from damage and dirt.

Pellicle (material), a brand name for a very resistant synthetic material used for covering different surfaces, such as that of the Aeron chair

While I may not understand the word pellicle, I do understand misfortune, and man, that broken clamp qualifies as that for sure! My sympathies for your departed beer..and your lack now of drinkable homebrew.

A pellicle is a white carpet like substance that will form on the top of the beer. It is made by bacteria/wild yeast to protect them from oxygen.

Here is a picture of a nice pellicle (I lifted this from Evan!).


To the OP,

Sorry to hear about you bad luck.

Are you sure it was a pellicle? Did you taste those beers? Could just be some weird yeast byproducts. If you have formed a pellicle, you should be able to taste something off too (sour, funk, etc.). Maybe post some pictures. If it is an infection and you have been using anything plastic it might be time to replace those items.

I don't know what to say about the hose clamp. I have never found the need to use them on the liquid side of the kegs. The tubing just fits tight. I guess those could break if they were overtightened.

Good question. I had no idea what a pellicle was either until I posted some pics in an earlier thread. You can check out the discussion here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/infection-advice-needed-87135/

If you are trying to make a sour ale, this is what you're going for. May not be the worst "infection", but certainly not what I wanted to make.

Most metals are subject to brittle fracture when under tension. Mild steels are notorious for this. About 30% of the Liberty ships built in WW2 fractured, although, not always this bad:

Brittle fracture of mild steel is also a strong function of temperature. Those ships did fine in equatorial waters for quite a while. When they started heading north (and getting cold) they started cracking half. Your kegerator might have been what did it in.

Some people think they have a pellicule forming in a secondary when in actuallity they kicked up fermentation again and it's a small krauzen....also some new brewers who dry hops misinterpret the strange effect of hop oils released from the hops trapping CO2 bubbles rising from the racking as one as well..

Biermuncher has a great pic of that somewhere. He posted it a couple weeks before I dry hopped for the first time, I'm glad he did, becasue it sure as heck looked like my beer was infected. The CO2 bubbles get stuck in an oily coating and look like a pellicule has formed.