Intermittent Infection Question

[aidanpryde18]

I am having a weird issue with infections.

I have made 4 batches of beer. The first batch was a Brewer's Best kit in my Ale Pail Primary. It was extract and I fermented it in a swamp cooler. Next to it was a batch of Apfelwein that was brewed with WB-06. It was swamp cooled as well right next to the brewer's best kit. I bottled the BB kit and the apfelwein a couple of weeks after each other. After I bottled the BB kit I started a Centennial Blonde in the same primary as the kit.

I have another batch of Apfelwein in my 3 gal better bottle, and I did my first all-grain batch of a wheat beer and primaried it in a 5 gallon lowes bucket. These two batches were swamp cooled as well.

So far I have gotten infections in the first Apfelwein and the AG wheat. Both have a vinegary sour flavor and they both fermented like crazy. The Apfelwein fermented from 1.070 down to .990 and the Wheat went from 1.052 to 1.000.

I have no idea what the commonality would be to cause these infections. Different primaries, neither secondaried, both of them were in different swamp coolers, because I got a bigger container to hold more primaries.

Same bottling bucket. The Centennial was stored in the same swamp cooler and is fine. I am very careful and diligent with cleaning and sanitization.

Does anyone have any idea what I should do about this, I am baffled and it is making me nervous about brewing any more until I can get it figured out.

Thought of something and I would like to see if this is a possible cause.

For the two batches that are infected, They were 3 gallon batches and I used WB-06 on the Apfelwein and Wyeast 3068 for the wheat. Since they were only 3 gallon batches I didn't thnk a starter would be too important. Is it reasonable to think that there was too much lag time without a starter and the yeast lost out to some wild yeast in the air?

Thanks a bunch for your help.

 

[viking999]

At what point in the process did the infections occur? In the fermenter? In the bottle only?

If they occurred only once the drinks were in the bottle, then the infection probably came from equipment used post-fermentation. Some examples are the bottling bucket, racking canes/tubes, and the bottles themselves (though it would be quite a coincidence if an entire batch were ruined from the bottle). If they occurred while still in the fermenter, then the source must be equipment used from cooling through fermentation. Some possible examples are wort chillers, racking canes/hoses, and of course the fermenter itself.

Inspect anything that could have cracks or scratches in it carefully. Such equipment is more likely to carry an infection. Tubing or anything plastic is very susceptible.

 

[Dougan]

Inspect anything that could have cracks or scratches in it carefully. Such equipment is more likely to carry an infection. Tubing or anything plastic is very susceptible.

Scratched equipment and tubing are two things I always see brought up on infection-related threads.

Before using my ale pail fermentors or my racking equipment, i try to soak it in bleach solution overnight. Then right before I actually use it I'll rinse it well to get rid of any bleach flavor that may have "soaked in" a bit, and the quickly re-sanitize. That kills the concern of infections living in scratches or in my tubing. No reason to think that's what's causing your issues, but that is what I do and I haven't had any infections since I started that policy.

 

[aidanpryde18]

The Apfelwein seems to have been infected between fermenting and bottling. It tasted fine when I pulled my last gravity reading.

The Wheat, however, tasted bad when I pulled an SG reading from the primary yesterday.

All of my equipment is new and I have never done anything that should scratch it, there is also no piece of equipment that is common to the two infected batches that is not common to the rest of the clean batches.

Ahhh, this sucks.

 

[viking999]

You aren't by any chance returning any of the liquid to the fermenter after taking a gravity reading, are you?

 

[aidanpryde18]

No, I drink my samples.

 

[scinerd3000]

No, I drink my samples.

good man!

What type of sanitizer are you using? What temperature are you fermenting at...are you using an airlock, or tinfoil or what? Glass/platic carboy or bucket ferment? what are you putting in the airlock if your using one? - You should use vodka or sanitizer to stave infection if theres suckback. When your boiling, are you doing a full boil, are these all grain batches or extract? If your using a boil kettle with a ballvalve, sometimes gunk can deposit inside the valve at which point you need to take it apart and clean it. Also alot of times i have to clean and reclean the tubing before i syphon due to a "film" which deposits there....

 

[aidanpryde18]

What can I say, I learn fast.

As I have been thinking about it, I am not quite sure that my Apfelwein is actually infected. It has a very strong alocohol taste, but does not taste like mildewy ass nearly as much as the wheat does.

I believe I found out where the infection came from when I dumped the wheat today (I know, I know, but if you tasted this stuff, there was no coming back).

I had used a Lowes bucket as primary. It was HDPE and I thought it was good to go, but after I dumped, I was cleaning the bucket and noticed some sort of seam that runs across the surface of the bucket, as well as a general texture that is not mearly as smooth as an Ale Pail.

I feel pretty confident that there was some nook or cranny that held onto some wild yeast or bacteria that ruined the batch.

thanks for all of your help.

Put my whole arm in one batch, it turns out dandy. Sanitize the hell out of another batch, and it turns out like crap. I love this hobby. : )