Beer went sour, Is my fermenter bucket ruined?

[Bassman]

I had a batch that went sour, infected probably, and because of other things in my life it stayed in my plastic fermenting bucket for 2 months.

Will cleaning the bucket in PBW get rid of any sourness or is my bucket ruined? My plan was to rinse it tonight and fill it with a PBW solution overnight.

Thanks!

 

[Yooper]

I'd probably throw out ANY plastic that touched that beer, from racking tubing to fermenters. I had one lacto infection, and that's what I did. Glass can be sanitized well, but plastic may have tiny scratches that would be impossible to completely sanitize again. I'd bleach bomb anything I was keeping, and toss all of the plastic. Sorry to say.

 

[troutab81]

Do you have any indication of where the point of infection may have come from? What style of beer did you make... could be some other items or strong off flavors from your process that we just don't know.

I am with Yooper, I have switched to pretty much glass for as much as I can...very easy to clean and havent had any infection/off flavors attributed to it since.

 

[hammacks]

If you want to keep your stuff - Bleach is your friend.

I had a few lacto infections (from dust when crushing grain I think) and I used a 10%+ bleach solution on everything. Worked for me.

 

[Bassman]

Basically I messed up on a batch. I had racked into the bottling bucket but had a leak, so I quickly racked back into my fermenter. I covered it with aluminum foil because the bucket cover was no longer sanitary. My plan was to bottle after it settled but got overwhelmed with stuff and the fermenter sat. I smelled it the beer and it was definitely sour. So I am guessing exposure to the air was the cause of infection.

he bucket has only been used twice and I was gentle with cleaning it so I'm guessing it is not overly scratched.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Prolly not ruined.

But is it worth risking another batch over a $10 bucket to find out if you sanitized enough?

 

[Bassman]

Prolly not ruined.

But is it worth risking another batch over a $10 bucket to find out if you sanitized enough?

That is good logic!

 

[danlad]

Good logic, but I've been using two ancient buckets, one 'borrowed' from a mate that used to belong to his sadly deceased dad and one from my father in law. Both must date to the '80s at least, the FIL's was in a garage for years and reeked. No problems so far with probably 7-8 batches each after a damn good soaking in VWP, so depends on how worried you are I suppose.

 

[Bassman]

What is VWP? I did a search but could not find it.

 

[alcibiades]

ive reused a bucket after a sour batch with no problems. i only used star san

 

[danlad]

What is VWP? I did a search but could not find it.

It's a cleaner and steriliser powder marketed at homebrewers over here. There's probably a US equivalent. Can't remember, but I think it is chlorine based with cleaning agents. You know the sort of thing, 'soak coffee or tea pots overnight for best results' and so forth.

 

[Bassman]

It's a cleaner and steriliser powder marketed at homebrewers over here. There's probably a US equivalent. Can't remember, but I think it is chlorine based with cleaning agents. You know the sort of thing, 'soak coffee or tea pots overnight for best results' and so forth.

Thanks for the explanation. Maybe it's like oxi-clean (sp?) or PBW. Although they are cleaners and not sterilizers.