5 batches brewed 4 infected!

[gotbags-10]

Agh! Very frustrating! So I've brewed 5 all grain batches to start my short brewing career. The first one was awesome and the next 4 not so much. I brewed two zombie dust clones, Ed wort pale ale and lastly a wheat ipa. All have a FG of 1.01-1.02. Way to low! They all have had a similar taste as well. Even though theyre different recipes. You can just tell something's not right. Very dry and a weird harsh bitterness. I checked all batches with two different hydrometers to confirm gravity. The first batches were fermented in a bucket so my most recent batch I fermented in a glass carboy to see if the bucket was maybe bad. My last batch I even built my water using RO and additions per bru'n water. I currently use a keggle and 10g cooler. I keep a 5g bucket filled with starsan that my bk drain hose sits in durring the boil along with my funnel, airlock, and bung. I spray my ball valve down with starsan after the boil, which when I do it steams like crazy so I know it's good and hot already. I keep my beers in a temp st-1000 controlled fridge for fermenting. I kegged my most recent batch last night and could tell right out of the carboy that it's the same as
the others. I've made probably a dozen batches of wine and never had an infection. It's frustrating as hell. I spend all this time and take the proper precautions or so I think to avoid this. What the heck could I be doing wrong?

 

[MaxStout]

Are you sure that dry/harsh bitterness is an infection? It could be tannin extraction from too high mash pH.

 

[MagicMatt]

I'm not so sure you have an infection necessarily. You would generally see some nastiness involved (mold, clumps, etc). There would be zero doubt in your mind that it was infected. It sounds like you're not so sure (you kegged it after all), which generally means it's OK. Maybe something else is off. If they all had the same off taste, it could be a flaw in your method somewhere. Perhaps the mash temps, fermentation temps or length, etc.

Can you give some info on the current beer? Grain bill, mash schedule, hops (and schedule), boil length, yeast, type of airlock/blow off, ferm temps, etc.

 

[huckbof]

shot in the dark, but check your hydrometer with pure water @60F shoud be 1.000
if it reads low then your FG readings are actually higher by the amount that the water was low
so if water at 60F reads 0.997 then add 0.003 to your FGs

 

[KartRacer54]

Wow, can't imagine. How did you decide you have a bug?
The experts, when they chime in will ask for step by step. You could save some time by providing ahead of time.
My procedure, with 20 batches and no infections is as follows.
Anything that will touch the wort after boil is sanitized in StarSan. Anything before is just cleaned with oxyclean free.
I have had water issues, so I use pre softened water and Camden tablet for each five gallon container.
I use a chiller to cool the wort quickly and stir plate to activate and or step up the yeast. The last two batches were done with yeast from the first batch of trub pulled after moving to secondary or bottling. ( tried not using secondary and prefer to transfer)
Hope you figure out your issues!

 

[andrewmaixner]

1.010 to 1.020 is pretty common for a medium-full bodied beer. Did you mean 1.001-1.002?

 

[gotbags-10]

I checked both hydrometers in distilled water. The first batch that I brewed which turned out awesome I did the exact same procedure. Or so I think. I Mash at 152 checked with a thermapen and boil for the usual 60 min. I used s04 yeast on the ZD clones, notty for Ed worts, which was a drain pour. Last batch was us-05. It's force carbing right now but it just doesn't taste right. I will say the ZD clones did get a little better after 6 weeks but still funky. I was reading taste descriptions of infected beers and mine don't really fit the bill. But why are my gravity readings so low? Could it be DMS or diacetyl?

 

[gotbags-10]

Sorry yes 1.001 and 1.002View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1427331046.368770.jpg

 

[fun4stuff]

Sorry yes 1.001 and 1.002View attachment 266428

Sure doesn't look infected. Maybe oxidized? How did it taste early on in the process?

 

[cobrem]

Was the first one hoppy? I've had some harshness with highly hopped beers due to water chemistry (another path of tannin extraction), but not really with more mildly hopped beers. If you have cloudy starsan (like right when you mix it), this may be one possibility. High bicarbonates or some such nonsense. The tannins precipitate over time, which explains why the beer gets a bit better with chilling in the fridge.

 

[gotbags-10]

I actually never tasted it early on so couldn't tell you. I've had oxidized beer before and these don't have that cardboard taste. When I drain my boil kettle I usually splash the wort in to the bucket or carboy from the top to get some O2 in it.

 

[cobrem]

Yeah - that fg is pretty low... maybe you do have some "extra helpers" munching on some of the sugars that the Brewers yeast can't ferment. Wild yeast?

 

[gotbags-10]

My first beer was a founders all day iPa clone and it tasted perfect. The ZD obviously have more hops but Ed worts and my last iPa were pretty mild ibu's. All used the same water , cambden tab treated tap. My last used built RO water

 

[gotbags-10]

Now that I think about it my first batch I didn't have my fermentation fridge set up yet I used a tub with water and frozen water bottles to control temp. I also didn't cold crash it. All my other batches were in the fridge and cold crashed.

 

[MagicMatt]

Make sure you clean the inside of your fridge well. I used to get condensation in there, which would lead to mold if not opened daily. Now I use DampRid, which works beautifully. But the mold could be a problem.

That beer looks fine though. How would you describe the taste if you had to relate it to something? Take a look at the BJCP Off Flavor document (http://www.bjcp.org/docs/OffFlavorFlash.pdf) and see if it compares. It can help diagnose the problem.

 

[Transamguy77]

Do you have a LHBS or home brew club that you could have someone else taste it and maybe someone else could confirm that it is an infection? It could be just an off flavor that needs identifying.

Do you live in an old house? I had an infection issue when I lived in a hundred year old house, I had to start fermenting in my bedroom and not in the basement.

 

[gotbags-10]

Yeah great fermentations meets every Friday night. I will take some. My fridge smells pretty musty though. I think I will start with that

 

[HB_in_Subic]

I put a couple of these in my chest freezer fermentation chamber http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H0XFD2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 they work great and last about 2 months before I have to cook the moisture out of them. They are supposed to last for 10 years.

 

[ol-hazza]

So this is a bit out of left field but what was the temp you pitched yeast at?

 

[estricklin]

Let's just say that you do have an infection, obviously we don't know for sure, but for arguments sake.....

Make sure that your BK is covered during cooling, lots of wild yeast floating around outside. Make sure your pitching a good healthy amount of yeast, and your wort has been oxygenated well so that it is harder for the nasty buggers to set up shop. Go over your process with a fine tooth comb, take a step back and look at everything. Be sure to use a good soap like oxyclean or PBW before you sanitize.

I understand how frustrating something like this can be, I've had a number of infected batches myself, and at one time I almost gave up brewing completely. Any brewer who hasn't had an infection, hasn't brewed enough yet or has already had one and didn't realize it.

Good luck and don't give up!

 

[C-Rider]

I put a couple of these in my chest freezer fermentation chamber http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H0XFD2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 they work great and last about 2 months before I have to cook the moisture out of them. They are supposed to last for 10 years.

How big is your freezer that you put a "couple" in?

One is supposed to be good for 500 Cu Ft. My freezer is only 7.2 cu ft.

 

[HB_in_Subic]

Mine is a 7.2 cuft but I have high humidity here (70% in dry season and 85% in rainy season). I get condensation on the sides of the freezer when I open it from the hot moist air hitting the cool metal. During the rainy season I have to clean the rubber gasket on the door every week for black mildew.

 

[Weezy]

Did you hit your OGs?
how long was fermentation before you hit those FGs?

what did the krausen look like?

Bugs and wild yeast don't typically dry out a beer that much, that fast. I'm wondering if your efficiency was super low and your OG was low.

It could be the tannins idea as well.

You could brew an extract batch with steeping grains, using store bought water, to test if its your all grain process.

 

[gotbags-10]

I've hit all my OG's and I usually let my beers go for a week to 10 days before I take a gravity sample. They were all down that low by then. You know I had barely any krausen on all of the batches too

 

[Hello]

Although you used RO water and built it up, I would brew a batch with store bought water and see what happens. I'd control fermentation temp and then work from there.

 

[RM-MN]

You have a wild yeast infection. It's about the only thing that can take the FG that low without making the beer sour. The question is when did you pick it up and how will you get rid of it? Is the FG reading you show the first hydrometer reading you took or did you have a higher reading and then it got much lower as time went on? When did you take the first reading?

Oops, I type too slow and part of the question has been answered already. It appears to me that you picked up the infection when you opened the lid of the boiling kettle and transferred the wort to the fermenter. My suggestion is to brew another batch but instead of cooling it, pour the boiling wort into the fermenter bucket and put the lid on. Put a little starsan solution in the airlock, just enough that the air will have to be bubbled through it without the starsan being sucked into the bucket. Sanitize the lid before you put it on and then let the condensing steam from the wort pasteurize it again. Leave it in the bucket until it cools, then take the bucket outside to open it and add the yeast. Do not open the bucket inside where you live since that air is probably the source of the yeast. Take the bucket outside again after 2 weeks of fermenting to take the hydrometer sample. Make sure that you sanitize everything that may touch your beer after taking it outside. If the gravity is normal, you know the source of the infection. You may have to open all the windows and let your house get a complete change of air to get rid of it. It worked for me.

 

[gotbags-10]

So this is a bit out of left field but what was the temp you pitched yeast at?

Normally I just chill wort and get it as low as I can, pitch yeast and let the fridge cool it down the last little bit. Probably 70-80 degree range

 

[gotbags-10]

All readings had that low of gravity after my first test which was usually 7-10 days later

 

[madscientist451]

The OP mentioned that he had made a dozen batches of wine. I'm thinking there's wine yeast getting in somehow that's bringing the FG down so low.

 

[gotbags-10]

The OP mentioned that he had made a dozen batches of wine. I'm thinking there's wine yeast getting in somehow that's bringing the FG down so low.

Never really thought about that. I do use a separate wine bucket and beer bucket.