I need your help oh lords of homebrew. I have been brewing about twice a month for 6 months or so. I have never made a single drinkable batch of beer. Every single beer I do ends up with the same puckering, sour smell and taste, which I'm sure is an infection of some kind. I've been trying to troubleshoot by removing one element of my process at a time but nothing has worked. I've stopped making starters, pitching straight out of the smack pack (which i sanitize, along with the scissors i use to cut the pack). I've started only doing month long primary fermentations in order to reduce my chances of infection. I feel like I've tried everything.
I do 5 gallon all grain batches on my stove. I soak and scrub everything in PBW followed by StarSan. I'm very careful with cleaning and sanitization even pre-boil because I've gotten so obsessed with avoiding infection. I ferment in a glass carboy which I also soak overnight in PBW followed by a several hour soak in StarSan.
The only things I can think of are the fact that my electric stove doesn't exactly boil very vigorously so perhaps it's not killing off microbes in the wort? I also never cover the kettle when I'm using my wort chiller, perhaps the little guys are falling during that ten minute period?
I need to get this figured out. I would like to just once make something that I can actually enjoy instead of pouring it down the drain.
Any ideas/suggestions?
-Tubz.
I do 5 gallon all grain batches on my stove. I soak and scrub everything in PBW followed by StarSan. I'm very careful with cleaning and sanitization even pre-boil because I've gotten so obsessed with avoiding infection. I ferment in a glass carboy which I also soak overnight in PBW followed by a several hour soak in StarSan.
The only things I can think of are the fact that my electric stove doesn't exactly boil very vigorously so perhaps it's not killing off microbes in the wort? I also never cover the kettle when I'm using my wort chiller, perhaps the little guys are falling during that ten minute period?
I need to get this figured out. I would like to just once make something that I can actually enjoy instead of pouring it down the drain.
Any ideas/suggestions?
-Tubz.