JohnnyBrewGood
Well-Known Member
Well it happened to me. My first, second and maybe my third infection. The first was a Mr Beer can of pre-hopped extract a coworker gave me to brew for him. He heard I brewed and seemed interested. His wife got word of his interest and bought him a Mr Beer kit with 2 beers. He "brewed" one and said it was garbage. Of course I was like, give it to me and I will show you what proper brewing can do. I "brewed" it which really just dumping a can into water and pitching yeast. On that note, the yeast he gave me looked funny. Almost, bad? never used a Mr Beer kit but no fermentation after a day so I dumped a US-05 on it and it kicked right up. But I though maybe proper fermentation temps would yield a drinkable beer. I secretly liked being able to cool the wort in the sink again. Admittedly I was not all that worried about covering the cooling wort but I do not think that is what did me in. I fermented for 2 weeks and bottled. I was supposed to give him most of the bottles so I kept 3 to try and boxed the rest until I would see him again outside of work. I tried the un-carbed beer and thought wow this Mr Beer IS crapy. I put two in a cabinet where I keep a few bottles, I mostly keg. A few days after I bottled I thought to label the bottle before I lost track of what's what. That's when I noticed the mountain growing on the surface of the beer inside the bottle. I though OH NOOOOO!!!!!!. I popped the top an sniffed EEEWWWWW!!!!! nasty almost vinagar'y smell. Hard to describe. But defiantly CRAPOLA taste? gross. so I start to think...how did this happen? Was it the yeast?...
Now I had to tell him I f'ed it up and he laughed of course. So.....A few days later I brewed the infamous cream of three crops. I also racked an American amber from primary to secondary. Then pitched the CO3X onto about a cup of the Amber's yeast slurry. .... all is good. 10 days later I am planning to bottle the amber.... go to move the carboy to the counter to settle so that I can rack into bucket. . . . . . then I see it, a film on top with bubbles that don't look so good.........pull a sample and yuck....same crappy taste. Down the drain it goes.
So I start to think what did I use on both beers? the only thing was the auto-siphon. I go look at it and low and behold the was some gunk around the internal part. LAZYNESS killed 7+ gallons, time and effort. The CO3X should be good because I did not use the auot-siphon on it. . . . then it hits me.. THE SLURRY!!!! I rush to the CO3X and don't see anything out of the ordinary , give it a taste and not tasting great. But I am hoping the amber was still in my taste buds. I decided to let it sit.
Now I bleaching the crap out of everything. The auto-siphon is in the garbage.
I instantly remembered the Almost made me cry thread and remember thinking while reading it how lucky I have been, all the while the stuff was growing the beer right next to me.
I had become lazy and did not clean as well as I should. Now I am second guessing everything. Do I get another auto-siphon? I was ok for 2 years. Was it me? or the device? will the better bottles be ok?
ugggg........ clean your chit people.
Now I had to tell him I f'ed it up and he laughed of course. So.....A few days later I brewed the infamous cream of three crops. I also racked an American amber from primary to secondary. Then pitched the CO3X onto about a cup of the Amber's yeast slurry. .... all is good. 10 days later I am planning to bottle the amber.... go to move the carboy to the counter to settle so that I can rack into bucket. . . . . . then I see it, a film on top with bubbles that don't look so good.........pull a sample and yuck....same crappy taste. Down the drain it goes.
So I start to think what did I use on both beers? the only thing was the auto-siphon. I go look at it and low and behold the was some gunk around the internal part. LAZYNESS killed 7+ gallons, time and effort. The CO3X should be good because I did not use the auot-siphon on it. . . . then it hits me.. THE SLURRY!!!! I rush to the CO3X and don't see anything out of the ordinary , give it a taste and not tasting great. But I am hoping the amber was still in my taste buds. I decided to let it sit.
Now I bleaching the crap out of everything. The auto-siphon is in the garbage.
I instantly remembered the Almost made me cry thread and remember thinking while reading it how lucky I have been, all the while the stuff was growing the beer right next to me.
I had become lazy and did not clean as well as I should. Now I am second guessing everything. Do I get another auto-siphon? I was ok for 2 years. Was it me? or the device? will the better bottles be ok?
ugggg........ clean your chit people.
