After years of brewing I've had 2 infections in a row. Help with sanitation.

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guitarguy6

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So after years of brewing without any infections I've had 2 in a row. Earlier today I went to check on a brown ale I bottled last week and although the sample I had at bottling was delicious there is a white film on top of the beer in every bottle. I've replaced pretty much everything that is plastic and soaked my glass carboys in bleach.

I always bottle or keg in my basement. Is it possible it's something in my basement causing these infections?

How much bleach should I be adding per 6 gallon glass carboy? My plan is to soak them all again with bleach for 24 hours. Rinse super well, soak with pbw, rinse again and then star san them. I'm going to go through all my equipment and make sure all my plastic stuff has been replaced. What's surprising is my brown ale went, into a new bottling bucket with a new auto siphon and bottling wand.

I always keep my star san solution in the same plastic bucket and it gets replaced every 3-4 weeks. Could this be the problem? I'm going to replace that bucket as well just in case.
 
I'd start by making StarSan fresh every time. I'd always trusted the pH method of testing its viability, but allegedly (so I hear) that's not even definitive as to its effectiveness.

Could also be the bottles themselves. How are you cleaning/sanitizing those?
 
This batch could have possibly been the bottles. They were mostly glass with some plastic. I spray them out with a bottle blaster, then if there's any gunk or crap at the bottom after that I put them in recycling and don't use them. The rest get put into a pbw or diversol bath overnight, I then rinse with the bottle blaster and sanitize them with star san right before filling. In all my years I've never had an issue with Star san that was 3-4 weeks old. Maybe I'll just make smaller batches every time instead of 5 gallons at a time.
 
Hmmm...I haven't had an issue with stored Star-San solution either (at least when the container is sealed), and simply mention that as a precaution. Sounds like your bottle cleaning procedure is solid as well.

Next likely culprit- do you use an oxygen/aeration stone? And how are you cleaning/sanitizing that? What about a plate or counterflow chiller, and the same?
 
Don't use an oxygen or aeration stone. I use an immersion chiller that gets cleaned after every use. I also add it with 15min left in the boil. I'm starting to think it's either the star san bucket, my old auto siphon, or the spoon I use when I mix the priming sugar when I bottle carb instead of keg. I'm pretty sure I used the old spoon on the brown ale.
 
guitarguy6 said:
So after years of brewing without any infections I've had 2 in a row. Earlier today I went to check on a brown ale I bottled last week and although the sample I had at bottling was delicious there is a white film on top of the beer in every bottle. I've replaced pretty much everything that is plastic and soaked my glass carboys in bleach.

I always bottle or keg in my basement. Is it possible it's something in my basement causing these infections?

How much bleach should I be adding per 6 gallon glass carboy? My plan is to soak them all again with bleach for 24 hours. Rinse super well, soak with pbw, rinse again and then star san them. I'm going to go through all my equipment and make sure all my plastic stuff has been replaced. What's surprising is my brown ale went, into a new bottling bucket with a new auto siphon and bottling wand.

I always keep my star san solution in the same plastic bucket and it gets replaced every 3-4 weeks. Could this be the problem? I'm going to replace that bucket as well just in case.
Click to expand...

everything plastic that touched beer after it's cold has to go - or passed down to "sour program". Everything else that touched beer after it's cold - glass, stainless steel - should be scrubbed very thoroughly, cleaned with oxyclean or PBW, then starsanned, then maybe cleaned and starsanned again.
 
guitarguy6 said:
Don't use an oxygen or aeration stone. I use an immersion chiller that gets cleaned after every use. I also add it with 15min left in the boil. I'm starting to think it's either the star san bucket, my old auto siphon, or the spoon I use when I mix the priming sugar when I bottle carb instead of keg. I'm pretty sure I used the old spoon on the brown ale.
Click to expand...


its not immersion chiller. It's on the hot side, and 15 min is sufficient to sanitize it. You don't even need to clean it that much to avoid infections.

It's something on the cold side. I would replace the bucket(s), siphons, and any plastic, vynil and all tubing.
 
Yep, sounds like something cold side is most likely. Could also be a yeast prop issue. Do you make starters, or do you repitch? If so, what are your processes for either, as detailed as possible?
 
My method for adding yeast through the years hasn't changed. All of these latest batches were dry yeast that was rehydrated. I rehydrate in a clean glass that has been dunked in star san, I put a piece of paper towel dunked in star san over the top of the glass to prevent anything from falling in. At this point I'm sure it's a piece of equipment that is the issue or my star san bucket. Tomorrow is my day off so everything I own that's made of plastic is being rounded up. If I'm not %100 it's been replaced in the past 2 weeks I'm throwing it out. If it's been replaced and I think it may have been in contact with something infected I'm throwing it out.

If for some reason it's not equipment related could it be something in my basement? I do have 2 cats and 2 dogs but they've been around ever since I started brewing 5 years ago. Dogs never go in the basement and the cats aren't around when I bottle/keg/transfer beer out of primary.
 
Possible but highly unlikely it's something environmental if it's just now popping up. It's gotta be something procedurally that broke down somewhere that's now taken residence. If you haven't had a problem before, it's possible that you neglected to sanitize something once and it's cross contaminated the next batch as well. Scrapping all your plastic and bleach bombing the rest should eradicate it.
 
Just realized I haven't replaced any bungs or airlocks..... They're all gonna burn in hell tomorrow!!!
 
It does but I never use it. Since I don't have a pump I never felt safe using the ball valve on my kettle. I chill to pitching temps and use an auto siphon. I tossed all my airlocks and bungs, replaced all plastic equipment and tubing, and soaked all my glass fermenters in bleach and then star san. To make up for the beer I tossed I borrowed my buddies Grainfather and brewed 3 batches. We'll see what happens.
 
I have read about so many people having trouble with valves that get nasty. Check your valve. Take it apart and clean it. Lots of nasties can hide in there even if you don't use it.
 
AZCoolerBrewer said:
Reading through this and everybody says "yep, something cold side", no duh, infections happen cold side. Gaaaah.
Click to expand...

We were referring to contaminated equipment, as opposed to an environmental contaminant from simply being exposed to the air while bottling, as the OP thought might be a cause (while possible, it's not likely. If the beer is bottled outside in the middle of an orchard then perhaps...)

Obviously any contaminant organisms are going to be environmental anyway. But that wasn't the point.
 

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