5 batches brewed 4 infected!

[bu_gee]

Do you put you wort/beer through any nozzles/valves/spigots after it has started to cool?

 

[gotbags-10]

Do you put you wort/beer through any nozzles/valves/spigots after it has started to cool?

No other than draining through the ball valve into the fermenter

 

[PhillyMike]

One thing to clarify, are your FGs at 1.010 to 1.020 OR 1.001 to 1.002?

That will make a huge difference in figuring out your issue.

 

[gotbags-10]

1.001 to 1.002

 

[PhillyMike]

I suspect you do have an infection. Your best bet is to disassemble all of your equipment best you can and use PBW and Star San to clean. Replace any tubing.

 

[falkaveli]

How many oz. of what hop and for how long do you dry hop? That dry and harsh flavor combination that eases a bit with time you describe could possibly be from the dry hopping. I find that it shows up in many beers that dry hop in excess. Some folks like it...some don't. I definitely do not. I call it grassy...but it can often be perceived as tannic. Of course, this does nothing to explain your 99.999% attenuation.

 

[bu_gee]

No other than draining through the ball valve into the fermenter

I'd take that apart and look for gunk in there. It is highly unlikely that nasties would survive a boil, but not impossible. There may be some nasty flavor lurking in there too.

 

[Bk2X]

I definitely think he is pitching yeast at too high a temp. I spent 2 years and 20 batches of extract trying to figure out the same situation he is describing. I even bought a fridge and digital temp controller to monitor actual ferm temps and it turned out my prob was pitching yeast at around the 75 to 80 F range (because I was instructed to use wort chiller until got under 80f). Now that I pitch yeast at 65F, the off taste is gone and it has been brew crazy at my house the last few months. Get that wort colder and give it a shot. I am sure that is your source of the harshness.

 

[Weezy]

1.001-1.002 FG in 7-10 days with very little krausen and different yeasts? Were missing some key info. That's impossible for an infection to do that. Even if you overpitched Brett, you wouldn't get there that fast, and you'd have a nice big krausen to boot. Nothing is going to chew through the unfermentables that fast.

 

[RM-MN]

I definitely think he is pitching yeast at too high a temp. I spent 2 years and 20 batches of extract trying to figure out the same situation he is describing. I even bought a fridge and digital temp controller to monitor actual ferm temps and it turned out my prob was pitching yeast at around the 75 to 80 F range (because I was instructed to use wort chiller until got under 80f). Now that I pitch yeast at 65F, the off taste is gone and it has been brew crazy at my house the last few months. Get that wort colder and give it a shot. I am sure that is your source of the harshness.

He may very well be pitching the yeast at too high of a temperature but that still doesn't account for his FG of 1.001. The only yeast I have used that would get that low was a Danstar Belle Saison.

 

[gotbags-10]

1.001-1.002 FG in 7-10 days with very little krausen? Were missing some key info.

Not sure what you mean. For instance my last batch was 5.5g into a 6g carboy pitched with us-05. I had a blow off tube at the ready because I was sure I would need it. I barely had an inch of krausen.

 

[falkaveli]

Judging by your photo of the hydrometer...it looks like you're actually at about 1.003-1.004. What temp was the sample? If it was at 80-ish...you could be up in the 1.008 after temperature correction. That's about normal for S-05 if you're fermenting at high temps. I've had S-05 ferment with an inch of krausen before.

Shot in the dark.

 

[gotbags-10]

Hydrometer sample was right after cold crashing so temp was actually 35 degrees

 

[falkaveli]

Hydrometer sample was right after cold crashing so temp was actually 35 degrees

Damn. I tried.

What's your fermentation temp?
Do you get the harshness when you don't dry hop?
Do you bottle/keg? How do you get it from the fermenter to the bottle/keg?

 

[gotbags-10]

Damn. I tried.



What's your fermentation temp?

Do you get the harshness when you don't dry hop?

Do you bottle/keg? How do you get it from the fermenter to the bottle/keg?

Never tried a sample before dryhopping so I couldn't tell you if that's where the taste is coming from. Believe it or not I think the amount of hops in the ZD clone actually helped mask whatever flavor I have. My most recent wheat and the Ed worts pale ale batch all have small amounts of hops and that weird taste I'm getting was really strong in those

 

[falkaveli]

Ferm temp?

 

[gotbags-10]

All kept at 62 air temp for a week then raised to 70 over 3 days

 

[ol-hazza]

I definitely think he is pitching yeast at too high a temp. I spent 2 years and 20 batches of extract trying to figure out the same situation he is describing. I even bought a fridge and digital temp controller to monitor actual ferm temps and it turned out my prob was pitching yeast at around the 75 to 80 F range (because I was instructed to use wort chiller until got under 80f). Now that I pitch yeast at 65F, the off taste is gone and it has been brew crazy at my house the last few months. Get that wort colder and give it a shot. I am sure that is your source of the harshness.

I'm pretty sure that this resulted in an off flavour in my beer, it started as an intense plastic like flavour, and faded to a yeast like plastic flavour.

Im so bad at describing flavours... someone come and try this beer!!

He may very well be pitching the yeast at too high of a temperature but that still doesn't account for his FG of 1.001. The only yeast I have used that would get that low was a Danstar Belle Saison.

Very true, this is why it was a left field idea.

Pitching yeast at 65 rather than 80 isn't going to hurt the beer though.

 

[gotbags-10]

Ok so got home tonight and completely broke down my entire keggle. Ball valve parts and thermometer with sight glass. I have to admit I'm a little embarrassed but it was nasty!! I bought my converted keg off Craigslist before my first batch. The owner had 5 of them and he said this one everything was brand new and hadn't even ben used to brew with yet. I took him at his word because everything really did look new. I did however run a pbw bath with it before I brewed but obviously that wasn't enough. All my parts have been soaking in pbw for an hour and the water is completely brown. So I think that along with pitching yeast at to high a temp deff has me covered with my problems. I can't wait to brew this weekend to try again. Thanks for everyone for helping. This forum really is awesome!!

 

[jekeane]

if it is your kettle that was causing a wild yeast issue then you need to think about replacing all the plastic downstream of the kettle. I would also give your ferm chamber a good wipe down with a diluted bleach cleaner or a lysol with bleach type thing. From what i have seen wild yeast can be almost impossible to get rid of in plastics.

 

[gotbags-10]

Yes I will deff scrub down my entire fridge as well. Hopefully that will do it as I don't want to scrap my fermentation fridge. It's a perfect size

 

[Weezy]

Its not wild yeast. No infection is going to take a dextrinous wort to 1.001-1.002 in 7-10 days.

Its not hot fermentation either for the same reason.

I'd like to help but there's something missing in the story.

The only way to get this beer so dry in 7-10 days with sacc yeast is super low mash temp and low OG.

 

[RM-MN]

Its not wild yeast. No infection is going to take a dextrinous wort to 1.001-1.002 in 7-10 days.

Its not hot fermentation either for the same reason.

I'd like to help but there's something missing in the story.

The only way to get this beer so dry in 7-10 days with sacc yeast is super low mash temp and low OG.

Would you care to place bets on that? I've had the wild yeast and I've seen what it can do.

 

[gotbags-10]

The two ZD clones had an OG of 1.065 mashed in at 152 but at the end of the hour was down to 149. I promise there is nothing missing from my story

 

[Weezy]

Would you care to place bets on that? I've had the wild yeast and I've seen what it can do.

Really???? You've had a handful of wild yeast cells knock off 10 gravity points from 5 gallons of wort in a week? Wow. And people around here complain about underpitching with just a 1L starter. But. If you say so, so be it. I said my peace.

Good luck gotbags. Keep plugging, you'll get it right.