Lacto Bug

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bernerbrau

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So after close to a year and several failed batches, I'm ready to declare myself the victim of a house lacto bug.

My latest ruined batches were a pair of lagers. I used my autosiphon to take a sample one weekend, then again the following weekend, and the second weekend there was this awful bitter funk that's not hoppy in the slightest, and a thin waxy film had formed on both beers.

Thing is, the autosiphon is covered in little miniature cracks on both the outer and inner tube, so I'm willing to bet the autosiphon is what's harboring it. I'm relatively sure this is lacto because of (a) the appearance of the waxy film compared to lacto pictures, and (b) I both ferment and crush grain in my garage.

So here's the plan:

0. Pitch fresh krausen in the ruined lagers to try and salvage them.
1. Replace my autosiphon, hoses, carboy caps, beer lines, airlocks, better bottles, funnels, thief, and buckets.
2. Bleach bomb my keezer, fermentation freezer, kegs, starter flask and one remaining glass carboy.
3. Shop vac the whole garage and install an air filter.
4. In the future, condition my grain before milling to reduce airborne grain dust, and mill outdoors away from all active fermentation.

Any other advice?
 
0. Adding new yeast and food would do nothing to kill off your infection. It would just potentially make it worse, since the bacteria often times can outpace yeast.

1. Absolutely

2. Absolutely, but just make sure you rinse anything that comes in contact with fermenting beer REALLY well to avoid chlorophenols.

3. Seems like a waste of money, but if you've got it, you can't spend it when you're dead.

4. If you are keeping your fermentation vessels air tight, then they could be submerged in a broth of lactobacillus and not get infected.

Now, as an aside. What you are describing is most likely not lactobacillus. Lacto has a difficult if impossible time consuming more complex sugars, so it's introduction into an already fermenting wort puts it on a really short time-table. It also dies really quick in the presence of even very low levels of alpha acids, ie >10. There is a whole array of potential contaminants, but it doesn;t sound like lactobacillus is the culprit.

The biggest thing is to get a new autosiphon. It seems like that is the only linking piece to your infected batches.
 
+1 to what El Exorcisto said.

My LHBS has a sign above the autosiphons that reads something like "We do not endorse or encourage the use of autosiphons". They are a significant contamination issue, without any real benefits. They cost more, are difficult to clean, and people are really better off with a regular siphon hose.
 
I think I will be getting a stainless steel racking cane and a couple siphon hose clamps then. This is my 3rd or 4th autosiphon that I've had to replace.
 
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