Just A Little Bit Infected?

[blackcows]

I have made about 50 batches of beer over the last 10 years and as far as I know I have never had an infection. I will have to admit that I do a good job of sanitation but not a great job of sanitation. Prior to fermentation I am very careful about cleaning and using starsan on my buckets but after the beer is done I am a bit more lazy. I rarely if ever sanitize my kegs or my transfer equipment...I usually just rinse.

What I would like to know is if you can have a little bit of an infection? Is an infection always a full blown, you know it and dump the beer type of situation? As far as I know my process is working but maybe I could improve?

 

[LyonsViper27]

I would think just alittle bit infected today would be quite a bit more infected a week from now. send me your address and ill help drink all of your beer quickly

 

[Phunhog]

Is being "a little bit infected" like being a "little bit pregnant"? I think if you have an infection it only gets worse over time. You might be able to ignore it if you drink the beer fast....and just saying that it tastes "off".

 

[Yooper]

Infected is infected, but often homebrew IS infected to a degree.

The only time it is even noticed is if the bacteria grows above the taste threshold or if it's noticeable in the finished beer.

I bet if you put some of your trub under a microscope, there would be more than just yeast in there!

 

[MalFet]

There's no doubt that infection can be a by-degrees thing. In fact, as Yooper suggests, unpasturized beer will never be truly sterile. I suspect that a great number of infections simply never get noticed because the beer gets drunk too soon.

I've seen some very slow infections, too, particularly from wild yeasts. I've got an old scotch ale that was great at a year but then slowly went downhill over the next two. I lost another five points of gravity over 18 months or so.

 

[duboman]

As mentioned, infected is infected, my question though is if you are so diligent prior to packaging, why would you slack off after all the hard work making beer. Seems pretty counter productive to me

 

[blackcows]

As mentioned, infected is infected, my question though is if you are so diligent prior to packaging, why would you slack off after all the hard work making beer. Seems pretty counter productive to me

I understand what you are saying but for me it's just another way to save time as that seems like the thing I have the least of. I just read a long thread on this forum about skipping the seconday as a time saver....same idea here, why tear apart kegs and waste star san and time when my personal experience has shown it makes no difference?

 

[grathan]

I've done batches where only a single bottle got infected. Though this probably didn't happen over night.

 

[duboman]

I understand what you are saying but for me it's just another way to save time as that seems like the thing I have the least of. I just read a long thread on this forum about skipping the seconday as a time saver....same idea here, why tear apart kegs and waste star san and time when my personal experience has shown it makes no difference?

I too get what you are saying but your personal experience just took a turn for the worse, hence your reason for posting this thread

In reality sanitizing takes a fraction of the time it takes to brew and condition a batch so why take the chance of having to potentially dump a batch of tasty beer, it's gonna happen at some point as the nasty crud will just keep building up somewhere in the system.

 

[blackcows]

I too get what you are saying but your personal experience just took a turn for the worse, hence your reason for posting this thread

In reality sanitizing takes a fraction of the time it takes to brew and condition a batch so why take the chance of having to potentially dump a batch of tasty beer, it's gonna happen at some point as the nasty crud will just keep building up somewhere in the system.

No turn for the worse, I still have no infected beer or concern, I just happened to read a thread about cleaning kegs where some went as far as taking them apart each time....I have never taken mine apart.

 

[Yooper]

No turn for the worse, I still have no infected beer or concern, I just happened to read a thread about cleaning kegs where some went as far as taking them apart each time....I have never taken mine apart.

I almost always take mine apart, and it takes less than 5 minutes total to do it. I've found big clumps of stuff in the post. It's not so much that I'm worried about infection (as it's going directly back into the kegerator at 40 degrees), but if some hops debris or something is in the poppit, it can plug up the beer line or even just give me foamy pours.

I take off the posts (less than 20 seconds), run water through the keg and the posts, and look at the poppits. Place that stuff in a bowl of star-san. Eyeball the diptubes (and even taking them apart often they get GROSS) and rinse. Rinse the keg. Use the diptube brush if it doesn't get clean right away, and then put the diptubes back in the keg. Pour star-san through the diptubes, then put the posts back on and the keg lid. Shake the keg (to cover the inside with the star-san that is in there), and then pour out the star-san back into the gallon jug.

That's it- less than 5 minutes total.

I suggest just doing it once, (it'll take you longer since I have my system plus your posts are probably "concreted" on there with beer) and eyeball the long diptube. I bet it is really cruddy. That could impact the restriction and the amount of foaming in your system, as well as be a source for a low level infection.