How to fix infection problems

so I have been having some issues with minor infections. Nothing like the pictures I have seen, but my last 3 batches have tasted very sour after 2-5 weeks in the primary fermenters. As of now I am thinking it is my tap water that I have been using to top off. The water worked fine during the winter for topping off, but I guess now that the pipes are warmer it is harboring more bacteria.

I want to brew up a quick small batch with a full boil to see if that is the problem. I have about 2.5 lbs of extract and some cascade hops that I am going to just throw together with some muntons yeast to help keep the experiment cheap. I am worried about doing it in my mr beer keg, because I have already had the infection in both my bucket and my better bottle.

I have read reports of people saying to change any plastic that touches an infection, but then I have also read people saying not to worry about it. My bucket is terribly scratched up, so I don't plan on using that again, but I hope to save my better bottle.

Any advice on what to do from here?

I think I will try a full boil, then ferment in the mr beer to see if my water was the problem. If that gets infected too, then my next step is to change to iodophor instead of star-san.

Also I read a post that was saying a lot of people get infections around their 10th batch and then their 50th. My first infected batch was number 9.

topping off with unboiled tapwater could definitely do it. No doubt theres bacteria in your water even if its safe to drink.

Is it possible for bacteria to be in there just recently in the warmer months? During the winter and early spring I didn't have any problem using the top off water, and I used a much larger proportion.

And the bacteria didn't strongly overtake the yeast in any of my infected batches. Nothing like the pictures I have seen, but the taste and smell were very sour.

You could just buy some drinking water and brew it. See what happens. Try brewing without any plastic containers. They can retain nasty critters from previous batches.

I don't think you're supposed to use iodophor on plastic. Stick with the starsan, that's not your problem. Scratches most likely are, and tap water (unboiled) could be as well.

iodopher on plastic is fine. if it were me i would replace anything plastic if your getting infections. Plastic is cheap.

I read somewhere that people develop house strians of bacteria, that are resistant to a specific sanitizer. Seems possible, but I don't feel like its likely.

I am heating up my water now. I put my pot on two burners on my stove, and the water became cloudy sorta. Almost looked smokey inside. When I put it back on one burner, or just stirred it up for a minute it cleared up.

I have taken samples of the water to taste them, and they seem to taste normal to me, but my gf says they taste funny to her. Any idea what that could be? I just checked through my notes and I don't think I have had a successful batch with this new pot.

It is aluminum, but I have built up an oxide layer on it.

Just trying to rule out any possibilities. I guess I should try store bought water next.

Probably your water, all that sanitizing and boiling then using tap water would be my first guesss and seems starsan is better for the bucket because it can get in those hiding spots to sanitize it. I dont see the problem as long as you do a full boil or boil all of your water and just sanitize everything and dont spit in it. You dont want fans blowing or talking into your cooled wort when transferring or aerating either, sometimes its just a simple thing like this.

Water tastes different to different people. Water that is devoid of all minerals (distilled water) tastes like sandpaper. I'm from Northern Michigan. Our water is known to have very high iron and copper content. It tastes great to me, but most people who visit here can't take it. As I have learned on previous trips, water in Ohio tastes particularly gross to me. Its a locality thing. Palmer says, "If the water is good enough to drink, it is good enough to brew with." Maybe a beer that tastes great for you tastes off to someone from say, the west coast. The only reason may be the water that you started with.

I doubt its the water. Focus on the plastic.

Okay, I didn't think it was the water profile necessarily, but maybe the bacteria in the water. At least thats what I'm hoping. The batch that is on the stove now won't touch any plastic except for my mr beer keg which has no history of being infected. I just bottled a batch of apfelwein a few weeks ago that was in there, and it was fine.

If it gets infected I don't know what I am going to do. that will be 3 different fermenters all with infections in them. I guess glass is what I will be replacing them with

fuhmon said:

iodopher on plastic is fine. if it were me i would replace anything plastic if your getting infections. Plastic is cheap.

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Not to be that guy, but I believe you're wrong. A simple search will inform you that iodophor stains porous materials. Plastic is porous. More searching and a simple experiment will tell you that not only will it stain, but leave behinds a flavor. Try it, soak your bucket in iodophor solution overnight, rinse and ferment a brew in it, I'll bet dollars to donuts that you can taste the iodine.
And lastly, the five star display at Midwest supply has a chart nearby telling you what cleaners and sanitizers can be used on what. All just recommendations of course, to be followed or ignored at will. But it specifically shows that you shouldn't use iodine on plastic. Simply asking someone there why, I was told that it stains and leeches flavor into plastic.
Sorry for being that guy, but it's annoying as sh@t to be erroneously corrected cuz someone wants to throw in their two cents.

To the OP, it could be a water chem thing. It could be bacteria in your water. It could be a sanitation issue. All we can do is speculate. If I were you, I'd ditch the old plastic (I stopped using plastic for anything but my bottling bucket after similar issues to yours), start using spring water instead of tap. And stick with Starsan!!!. I switched from iodophor to starsan when I has issues with plastic. I did the research and found my off flavors came from iodine stained plastic.

Just updating this, I brewed a batch up with just random stuff I had lying around. I wasn't expecting the batch to taste good, so I didn't plan it out too much. It was in a new fermenter, but I didn't have an air lock for it, so I just vented it during fermentation, and then whenever it was bulging (I know terrible idea if I am already having infection problems). I didn't top off with any tap water, which is what I expected to be my problem.

I ended up dry hopping, but forgot that I did it. They have probably been in there about two weeks, but I'm not sure.

I just pulled a sample, and it tastes a bit sour as well. Not terrible, but not something I want to drink at all.


I brewed up ed's haus pale ale last tuesday, and did a full boil, new siphon hosing, an old racking cane instead of my auto-siphon, and have fingers and toes crossed it doesn't get infected.

If this one gets infected too, I might have to throw in the towel. I have had several great batches in the past, but this infection issue is just driving me crazy. I am tired of throwing money down the drain

I dont think you should be like that guy and soak your plasic overnight, 10 mins before using is all you need,simple solution to not being that guy.There have also been studies done using idophor and not rinsing from bottles and adding so much of an amout of it dilluted to beer and there was no detection.For plastic i just give it less than a half an hour or less then i just keep it in my glass fermenter until i brew a day or two later.

ya... let me just add that i've been using the same racking cane made of plastic from 1995 for taking gravity samples and this racking cane hasn't infected a beer ever. i'm not denying it stains plastic as well.
I've only used iodopher so far. Also i'm not against star san either. Iodopher was the last sanitizer i bought before research led me to find star san and will probably purchase it next time.

If it tastes cidery (like my last two batches it might not be an infection but a temperature factor. That's what I gathered from my research. But if its really sour than its an probably infection.

Wakadaka said:

I read somewhere that people develop house strians of bacteria, that are resistant to a specific sanitizer. Seems possible, but I don't feel like its likely.

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Its quite possible. A very quick pubmed search reveals this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8418063

There are plenty of acid loving bacteria in this world. Maybe try two different sanitizers... Iodophore + starsan, or One step + starsan.

I'm a noob so take what I say w a grain of salt. But it is possible to develop a strain of bacteria in a line or bucket that is resistance to certain sanitizers (as in my example starsan acidity).

i am questioning whether or not an infection even exists... It is VERY rare to have a "small" infection. You either start growing funky stuff in there, or you don't. Infected batches ferment down to really low gravity, they have weird looking stuff floating in them, they smell and taste awful, etc. I think you are mis-labeling your off taste. To figure this out, you need to get control over everything you can, and start working back towards "normal" brewing till the taste returns. Then you know where it's coming from. Do a full-boil brew with purchased water. Use starsan (or whatever you use) but be absolutely sure to mix it in the proper proportions. Take note of the fermentation temp too, and check it against the recommended temp for that strain. Use vodka in and AIR LOCK!!! etc etc etc.

shafferpilot said:

i am questioning whether or not an infection even exists... It is VERY rare to have a "small" infection. You either start growing funky stuff in there, or you don't. Infected batches ferment down to really low gravity, they have weird looking stuff floating in them, they smell and taste awful, etc. I think you are mis-labeling your off taste. To figure this out, you need to get control over everything you can, and start working back towards "normal" brewing till the taste returns. Then you know where it's coming from. Do a full-boil brew with purchased water. Use starsan (or whatever you use) but be absolutely sure to mix it in the proper proportions. Take note of the fermentation temp too, and check it against the recommended temp for that strain. Use vodka in and AIR LOCK!!! etc etc etc.

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You see thats what has been so confusing to me as well. Fermentation starts off fine, and everything looks good for about a week. After that it starts smelling and tasting awful.

I have noticed though that after it sits in the fermenter for a while, that film of infection has started forming like you see in pictures of infections.

I really didn't think infection could happen after fermentation though, or at least it was very very unlikely