Dextrose - Source of infection?

[Snotpoodle]

Hi,

3 batches in a row have become gushers. First 2 weeks they taste great, great carbonation, all the right flavours etc etc.

As it his around 14 - 18 days, all three batches started turning a little sour, almost dry, flavour disappears and the carbonation / gushing goes through the roof.

I guess I picked up a wild yeast / gusher bug, but my question is:

I have a 2.5lb bag of dextrose that I was using for priming. It's the only common denominator in all three batches besides the bottling wand, which i bleached, washed and sanitised before bottling all three batches. Could the wild yeast bug be living in the dextrose bag (its not 100% sealed, so my guess is that this could be the problem), since I primed all three batched with this sugar, could this be the bugs home, or should i go all the way back to fermentation, and get rid of all my buckets etc.

Losing 3 batches in a row is just too much now, and it all happens around 14 - 18 days.

Thoughts?

 

[thisone]

I've heard that pure sugar isn't too dangerous. I haven't had any problems adding it to cider without boiling it with water, but I haven't done it much. And I haven't done it once with beer (nor do I plan to)

Do you boil your priming sugar with water before adding it to the bottling bucket (along with the beer)? This should kill anything harmful in the sugar (if there is anything), but it should also remove oxygen and make it easier to mix with the beer

 

[Snotpoodle]

Nope, I was popping it straight in with a measuring tool, one bottle at a time, then capping.

 

[statseeker]

Bingo, boil first. Then add it in bulk to the batch. No chance of infection if you boil it first.

 

[mdgagne]

I would boil the sugar in 1-2 cups pf water for 15 minutes and add to your bottling buckwt, rack your beer onto the syrup. This will ensure your sugar is sanitized and give you more consistent carbonation results.

How much sugar are you using? Google around to find a carbonation calculator to hit your desired carb level based on style.

 

[Snotpoodle]

The amount was fine, i used the mrmalty carb calculator.

The question really is: Can a gusher bug live on pure dextrose, since it wasn't sealed properly, and is about 2/3 months old.

 

[waldoar15]

I guess it's possible. Boiling will tell you. I'm leaning towards your racking cane or tubing being the culprit.

 

[statseeker]

It wont live on eating the dextrose but it will attach itself to it. Just like anything else. I would rather be safe than sorry in any case. Good reccommendation by waldoar though, replace your racking tube and cane, then check that off the list of possible culprits.

 

[passedpawn]

Your bug was probably there from fermentation. Just intuition here. Let your next beer sit in the fermenter for an additional 3 weeks and see what happens (hard to wait, I know).

Although I agree with the others, you should be boiling your priming sugars.

How are you sanitizing your bottles?

 

[Snotpoodle]

I have a Belgian Golden Strong that has been in the fermenter for almost 2 months, tasted it today, and its fine.

This leads me to believe the bug is being introduced at bottling, either the dextrose, or the caps (which I didn't boil again apparently).

I am going to Oxy everything again, bleach, and caustic everything, chuck the dextrose, and perhaps get a new bottling wand and a new packet of caps.

Hopefully this will sort out the problem.

 

[waldoar15]

I never boil caps, they go in starsan before use, but that's it. I'd rule out bottles and caps since the chance of every single bottle having a gusher infection because of a bug in either of those is pretty slim. It's got to be somewhere that has a more common contact to all of your beer. Even your bottling bucket if by chance you run off unboiled wort into it and then use it for bottling. Anything that crosses between unboiled wort and finished beer, even your thermometer can be a culprit.

Try switching to Iodophor if you have a hard to kill bug. Sometimes switching helps.