Bad batch

Well my IPA turned out to be what my wife called, "Dangerous". I must have contaminated it somehow and I have no idea where in the process I did it. I'm very obsessed with sanitation to the point I'll spray everything even after a soak and then spray my hands several times during the process.

In an effort to understand where I went wrong, can you help with the common places this happens?

I used Star-san in a sink, which was a first as I usually use a bowl. I didn't clean the sink first so perhaps that was an issue?

I re-used a blow-off tube but reversed the ends. Maybe that wasn't as clean as I thought? I don't know how to scrub 3 feet of tube so I soaked it in soap, rinsed, and then a long soak in star-san prior to use.

I soaked the bottles in star-san and didn't do any "pre-cleaning" to them. They were new ones from the LHBS. I did do this for the first batch so I'm guessing I either got lucky or this was an issue.

At the bottom of a bottle after pour, there appeared to be a white liquid substance, I'm guessing it was left over sugar pills since I didn't see this when using the honey method per the kit instructions.

Thanks for any help. I'm hoping to get this figured out before trying my last two batches and then deciding to continue or quit. As you can imagine, I'm a little gun shy now and thankful I didn't drop a ton of money into this yet. I'm 0/3 and feeling a tiny bit discouraged. I'm hoping a helping hand can turn things around.

 

If all the bottles are infected I'd start by looking at the equipment that touches everything like your fermentation bucket/carboy. If its plastic and has any scratches it can be near impossible to sanitize. If you use a bottling bucket with a spigot thats another higher risk area. See if you can take the spigot apart to sanitize it. You'd be surprised at what can grow in there.

The sink could have passed along something since they are a great source of ecoli, staph and strep but it seems a lower risk since it'd be almost impossible for the bacteria to contaminate everything in the sink.

 

What exactly is wrong with it?

 

White at the bottom of the bottles is likely yeast.

 

I make beers that I describe as dangerous because there is no sensation that tells you that they are high alcohol until it hits you. Now tell us what makes your beer dangerous.

 

I'm using 1 gallon glass carboy.
Yeast - thanks!
By dangerous, my take on it was a flat orange juice with a strong chemical taste. I'll try another one tonight and provide better information.

Thanks!!

 

High fermentation temperature?

 

As far as I know, chemical taste could come from your water as well. Look up pH and chlorine!

 

Star San is a sanitizer, whose effectiveness is near zero on surfaces that are not clean to begin with.

Clean all surfaces with PBW or some other cleaning product before sanitizing with Star San in order to avoid infected beer.

If your beer is infected, it likely became infected from either the sink or the bottles, or from any other piece of equipment that was not cleaned prior to use.

 

"Chemical" could be a lot of things. Astringency or a harsh bitterness can be mash/boil issue (hop selection, mash tannin extract); fusel alcohols (think rubbing alcohol) is a fermentation issue. @JesseM mentioned chlorine - if you aren't taking steps to remove chlorine/chloramine from your water, that would be a significant (and somewhat common) initial stumbling block.

Is this issue the same one from your previous two batches? A "flat orange juice" and "harsh chemical taste" could be IPA-level citrus hops and heavy bitterness - I personally wouldn't call it that, but I can see how those descriptors could be used.

Infection issues are going to be different altogether - most common household bacteria and fungi are going to have a tough time out-competing yeast in a one-gallon batch. How much and what kind of yeast are you pitching for a batch that size?

 

Next batch you do try to keep the wort at the mid 60s during fermentation. The temperature inside the carboy can be 5 degrees or more warmer than your ambient temp. When the yeast work in to warm of an environment they produce an alcohol that most describe as being hot tasting.

As far as messing with your water you can get the water through your fridge if it has a charcoal filter, letting it sit out over night or using a camden tablet to get rid of the chlorine in it. Chlorine or chloramine can produce a band-aid or medicine type taste. Easiest way is to use camden tablets since they get rid of both. For a one gallon batch you wont need much at all cause I think 1 tab can treat 10 or 20 gallons.

It also sounds like the beer is pretty young. For it to carb it should be kept around 70 degrees for 2 weeks and away from light.