This is getting retarded

So I started my infected beer marathon with a batch of old ale that is actually turning out to be a bad ass sour, but in the mean time, there is a belgian dark strong ale, and two individually racked one gallon batches of hefe that are infected now....

I have been doing the same sani methods for all of my beer, but like one in every three come out infected. what in the blue mother fff is going on?

Thor the Mighty said:

So I started my infected beer marathon with a batch of old ale that is actually turning out to be a bad ass sour, but in the mean time, there is a belgian dark strong ale, and two individually racked one gallon batches of hefe that are infected now....

I have been doing the same sani methods for all of my beer, but like one in every three come out infected. what in the blue mother fff is going on?

Click to expand...

What is your sanitizing method?

Do you have old plastic buckets and hoses?

What kind of off flavors are you getting?

If you're using plastic fermenters, maybe something is scratched and harboring bacteria. Or any plastic equipment used, like a wine thief or racking cane. And what sanitizer are you using?

See the thing is, regular sanitation methods work because the bacteria that cause infections are very few in number. Sanitation is not sterilization, there are still bacteria left on your brewing equipment but chances are they are bacteria that do no harm.

However, when you get an infection, the bacteria on your equipment are mostly the species that can re-infect your brews hence the few bacteria left by your sanitation methods are able to then cause a re-infection. Its kind of how pricking yourself with a needle isn't likely going to cause an infection, but stick that needle in an infected sore and re-prick yourself you are probably going to get an infection. Its all a mater of what bacteria predominate the environment. You unfortunately seem to have predominantly infectious bacteria.


Probably your best option is to go nuclear. Wash everything in soap and water, soak in a 1:10 dilution of bleach, wash again, soak in bleach again, rinse and then do it some more. Or if you can afford it, buy new gear.

I had a string of infections in the past. I went with David's "nuclear option". Strong bleach and lots of washing.

I had this same situation and its sickening. Get rid of everything plastic that you can. Hoses, etc. and replace them. Boil all small parts in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes. Soak everything in heavy solutions of bleach and then try again. You cannot miss anything.

You really have to go Nuclear!

m.

Ditto...I had a couple infections shortly after I started brewing, I just replaced everything plastic and have been infection free since. Over a year later the infected beer still tastes horrid...might be time to dump it lol

IMO, having an infection is kind of a good lesson. It teaches you to pay more attention. And really watch what you're doing.

I'd ditch the plastic stuff and get new. The cost of a couple of buckets and a couple of feet of hose is small compared to a couple of ruined batches. And bleach bomb the rest, or pressure clean it if you can.

are you using plastic buckets? are they food grade plastic?

I've never had an infection problem, but I know others who have. At what stage can you detect the infection? If it's in the fermenters before bottling or kegging, that at least indicates that it's not originating in the kegging equipment. I agree with the advice to go nuclear with detergents and bleach. Follow that with detergent and Iodophor. Follow that with detergent and Star San. Repeat several times allowing everything to dry well between attacks. Replace any of the cheaper equipment that you can afford to such as hoses. Boil what you can and douse everything possible with boiling water. Use a spray bottle with some Star San to mist everything you can think of and do it repeatedly, especially on brew day. Wash down all floors and any other surfaces you can in the brewing area. Then, brew something up and see what happens. If the infection is noticed only after kegging, disassemble, clean and sanitize all of your CO2 equipment including the regulator, hoses and keg connectors. Do the same with the kegs themselves. Unless you have some kind of super bug this should take care of the problem. Only if none of this stops the problem would I start tossing out the more expensive equipment.

What is your set up? I battled this last year. I first took steps to minimize grain dust. You can easily generate lots of dust when mashing in. I've taken to wearing rubber gauntlets for all steps through the mash-out to keep dust off of my arms.

Of course that was not enough. I use a pump and thought I had been cleaning all of my tubing well enough. I finally disassembled that part and was amazed at all of the gunk trapped inside. I suspect that was my main culprit.

I also bought a second pump so now I have one for pre-boil uses and one dedicated to only post boil uses. I had used one pump for both, which was likely the major source of my problems. After coming to this diagnosis, for awhile I would flush the system with hot PBW after the mash, rinse, and flush with Starsan before using the pump for the cooling step (previously I would jsut rinse, and then Starsan after mashing. I got tired of having to do the PBW step then so I bought the second pump. This way I'm more flexible in when I do my PBW flushing.

Just one question different from everyone else's. Did you use a lambic blend in your fermenter at some point? I have not personally made a lambic, but have read( from the yeast manufacturers) not use the that fermenter for anything else as the blend is much more potent than other yeasts and virtually impossible to kill.

Most grocery stores will give you free food grade buckets. just go to the bakery and ask if you can have all their used frosting buckets. I have about 10 of em. the only down side is they range in size from three to four gallons.

Before you go nuclear and/or throw anything away, look at your process and try to determine where the infection is happening. To really make this a learning experience you should try to figure out where your methods were lax in the past so you can correct for the future. Was the infection happening in the fermenter? Did it happen after you kegged/bottled? Since the infections just started and are now happening in all of your batches, i would think it is not just a general lack of sanitation when brewing but a concentration of bacteria somewhere. Do you use a bottling bucket with a spigot? Have you taken that apart and cleaned it recently? Ask questions about where the infection is from and then try to isolate the problem so your fix doesn't have to be as drastic as throwing everything away and starting over (although that might be necessary if you can't lock down the porblem and much cheaper in the end than wasting time and money on numerous infected batches). Good luck.

What about your water supply? Are you using tap water? You might try a batch using purified water from the store and see if that makes a difference.

Just wanted to +1 the grain dust issue. That was my problem (Well, I can't say 100%).

I like to grind far away from any equipment that post boil wort will touch, and even the night before if possible. I also condition the malt, which cuts down on dust quite a bit

Marsdude said:

What about your water supply? Are you using tap water? You might try a batch using purified water from the store and see if that makes a difference.

Click to expand...

The water can definitely cause off flavors. Try your tap water out of the tap than through a filter. The results can be surprising.

All of the above suggestions are pretty good. A scratched and infected plastic piece or a bit of crud in a corner are your most likely culprit. Are you using a auto-siphon? While I would never do without one, they have loads of places that a bit of crud could be hiding, even with a good scrubbing. Tubing is cheap and readily available, replace that also.

Clonefarmer said:

The water can definitely cause off flavors. Try your tap water out of the tap than through a filter. The results can be surprising.

Click to expand...

That is true but what I was suggesting is that the water supply may be contaminated with coliform bacteria. This is more likely if you are on a well, but even city water can be contaminated.

hoppymonkey said:

Just one question different from everyone else's. Did you use a lambic blend in your fermenter at some point? I have not personally made a lambic, but have read( from the yeast manufacturers) not use the that fermenter for anything else as the blend is much more potent than other yeasts and virtually impossible to kill.

Click to expand...

Lambic blends aren't difficult to kill at all.



This is why I no-chill, and ferment in cornies. There's pretty much no chance of any sort of infection.

That's why I qualified that I hadn't yet made one. It just made me a little nervous to make my own when I read that. I no chill as well. It works wonderfully for me."knock on wood". I haven't had an infection yet.

Bleach is the cure....it will kill anything.
Just be sure to wash, wash, wash after the bleach attack.

laketraviswatts said:

Bleach is the cure....it will kill anything.
Just be sure to wash, wash, wash after the bleach attack.

Click to expand...

Otherwise you'll get that bleach taste in your beer and it will get worse over time.

Marsdude said:

That is true but what I was suggesting is that the water supply may be contaminated with coliform bacteria. This is more likely if you are on a well, but even city water can be contaminated.

Click to expand...

Ah I see. That would be much worse.