My first Infection...

[lapoltba]

I'm sure it happens to the best of us at one point or another. I went to bottle a chocolate stout today and as usual, I sample, test FG and taste. SG was good, but it was awful. Sour beyond words and smelled terrible.

I'm so disappointed that I had to dump the whole batch. I knew I should have waited until I got a new brew bucket, but my sanitation and cleanliness is generally pretty good. This particular bucket had several brews through it and didn't look scratched up, but it must have had nasties in it still.

I just ordered a stainless conical from SS brew tech and i'm done with plastic buckets. I know it's expensive, but now i'm set and don't have to worry about plastic buckets anymore. I got the 7G fermenter and i'm sure it will be perfect. I don't anticipate ever graduating to anything larger and next on my list is a keggle and keg mash tun.

and I wouldn't wish an infected batch on my worst enemies.

 

[Freddyj123]

I'm sure it happens to the best of us at one point or another. I went to bottle a chocolate stout today and as usual, I sample, test FG and taste. SG was good, but it was awful. Sour beyond words and smelled terrible.

I'm so disappointed that I had to dump the whole batch. I knew I should have waited until I got a new brew bucket, but my sanitation and cleanliness is generally pretty good. This particular bucket had several brews through it and didn't look scratched up, but it must have had nasties in it still.

I just ordered a stainless conical from SS brew tech and i'm done with plastic buckets. I know it's expensive, but now i'm set and don't have to worry about plastic buckets anymore. I got the 7G fermenter and i'm sure it will be perfect. I don't anticipate ever graduating to anything larger and next on my list is a keggle and keg mash tun.

and I wouldn't wish an infected batch on my worst enemies.

Sucks to dump, but you're going to love the ss chronical

 

[Bosh]

Did OK backsweetening a sour infected beer. Wasn`t great but far better than dumping. Also you can just age it a long time and if you have decent bacteria you can get an OK lambic.

 

[lapoltba]

Did OK backsweetening a sour infected beer. Wasn`t great but far better than dumping. Also you can just age it a long time and if you have decent bacteria you can get an OK lambic.

Unfortunately I don't keg (yet) so that wasn't an option. I may have tried to save it if it was, but I was just so disappointed in myself for wasting ~$50 in ingredients doing what I knew I shouldn't have....

 

[Bosh]

What I did (might not have been the best option in retrospect but worked out OK) was to wait until things go completely dry then added in a good bit of oligosaccharide syrup (should be available in Asian grocery stores as a cooking syrup). Beer yeast can't eat it and bacteria can but only slooooooowly. Then I bottled it in plastic bottles.

Then I watched those like a hawk and bottled them after they had carbed up but before they had gone boom. Then I stuck them in the fridge to prevent bottle bombs.

Not fancy but fast and easy (was able to dodge the bottle bombs, remember PLASTIC BOTTLES). Tasted OK. Maybe having people who are used to makgeolli (Korean lacto-bacteria rice beer) helped it go down without too many problems.

 

[Michigan_Wolfman]

Yeah, we've all been there. I tried to brew a clone of Foster's Lager once, everything looked great right up until bottling time. I open the secondary fermenter to siphon it over to my bottling bucket and was greeted by a vile smell and white, stringy, slimy mold floating in strands from top to bottom in the beer. Had to dump the batch and buy a new fermenting bucket after I discovered a hairline scratch that was more than likely harboring whatever spoiled the beer.

 

[ol-hazza]

Happened to me to, harvesting yeast and had a probable massive underpitch, infection got it.

4-5 months down the line and its souring nicely, I figure i'm only going to brew sours in this bucket from now on so why dump it.

 

[flars]

Check out the other equipment that was used post boil. Just in case the infection did not come from the bucket. It would be bad to have a new fermentor and then get another infection.

 

[lapoltba]

Check out the other equipment that was used post boil. Just in case the infection did not come from the bucket. It would be bad to have a new fermentor and then get another infection.

Everything post boil was stainless except for the bucket and tubing. The tubing is silicone and was submerged in iodophor for 20 minutes prior to use. The BK is stainless with a weldless bulkhead and ball fitting that get disassembled and cleaned after each brew (they have only been used twice now). I can't imagine any places where nasties would be hiding. I had a new counterflow chiller, but that was cleaned by pumping hot PBW through it for a while and then sanitizing with iodophor.

I am in the process of doing a serious upgrade to my equipment and technique. I have the SS chronical on order, and I have a keggle prepped and ready to be drilled and soldered with all TC fittings. I have a chugger pump comming and all the necessary valves and fittings to do a proper whirlpool chill. It will be an all electric system, BIAB for now, centered around the keggle with a 15G blichman boil coil installed.

I have a 2nd keg for a mash tun when I decide to go full mash and a pony keg I was hoping to use for sparge water. I plan to do a RIMS tube on the mash tun. What are people's typical sparge volumes for a 5g batch?