the-adjunct-hippie
aspiring brewgenius
Hey, it's me, back with another infection. It's all I post about it seems (just view my history). I can't believe it happened again. I can't figure it out.
Beer was supposed to be a Peppermint Mocha Stout. I did the coffee and peppermint and chocolate a certain way because I am so wary of infections. So for those that say, "don't boil the coffee, etc" I had no choice as far as I was concerned.
Target ABV was 6.5%. I was well on my way towards that.
Oddball things I did for this batch besides the typical water, malt, hops, and yeast :
Like hell if I was going to risk an infection by cold brewing coffee and putting it in afterwards (I know everyone in the world but me has success with adding cold brewed coffee in secondary)
Meticulous sanitization practices were taken as I'm sick of infected beers
I've read that 170 is enough to sanitize the bugs in any adjunct so I figured it was safe to add those extra things late in the boil but maybe that's what got me. However the two taste tests using sanitized basters into glasses throughout the fermentation was yielding fantastic flavor and aroma. It wasn't until tonight after I had cold crashed for 24 hours that I tasted it and it was tangy and much like strawberries. It did stall out at 1.028 when the O.G. was 1.064.
I can't begin to tell you how frustrating this is.
I'm not doing ANYTHING with fruit anymore, because...**** fruit. But it seems no matter what I do, fruit or not, unless I'm brewing an IPA, I still end up with infected beer.
Do I just burn all my equipment and start new? Is that what it's coming down to? I'm practically wearing white gloves when brewing now to prevent infections. This is horse crap.
Beer was supposed to be a Peppermint Mocha Stout. I did the coffee and peppermint and chocolate a certain way because I am so wary of infections. So for those that say, "don't boil the coffee, etc" I had no choice as far as I was concerned.
Target ABV was 6.5%. I was well on my way towards that.
Oddball things I did for this batch besides the typical water, malt, hops, and yeast :
- 1/3 cup of coffee grounds and 2 peppermint tea bags in the last 30 minutes of the mash, then removed with the grain
- 1/3 cup of coffee grounds, 3 oz cocoa and 7 oz chocolate muffin mix (no milk or egg products in ingredients) blended together with water then poured in, 4 peppermint tea bags all for the last 20 minutes of the boil
- 170*F whirlpool, 4 oz of coffee, 11 oz marshmallows, 7 oz lactose, and 4 new peppermint bags, left to cool down to 65 degrees using ice and time
- removed everything but the tea bags when placed in the fermenter, so 4 peppermint tea bags that were in the 170* whirlpool went into the fermenter
Like hell if I was going to risk an infection by cold brewing coffee and putting it in afterwards (I know everyone in the world but me has success with adding cold brewed coffee in secondary)
Meticulous sanitization practices were taken as I'm sick of infected beers
I've read that 170 is enough to sanitize the bugs in any adjunct so I figured it was safe to add those extra things late in the boil but maybe that's what got me. However the two taste tests using sanitized basters into glasses throughout the fermentation was yielding fantastic flavor and aroma. It wasn't until tonight after I had cold crashed for 24 hours that I tasted it and it was tangy and much like strawberries. It did stall out at 1.028 when the O.G. was 1.064.
I can't begin to tell you how frustrating this is.
I'm not doing ANYTHING with fruit anymore, because...**** fruit. But it seems no matter what I do, fruit or not, unless I'm brewing an IPA, I still end up with infected beer.
Do I just burn all my equipment and start new? Is that what it's coming down to? I'm practically wearing white gloves when brewing now to prevent infections. This is horse crap.