Acetobacter Questions

[Goodyear]

I brewed a supposed Surly Darkness clone a few weeks back. Unfortunately the brew that had been in the bucket before developed an acetobacter infection. (Yes it is without a doubt acetobacter. Nose burning, eye watering vinegar stink if you take a deep breath at the airlock hole) I didn't realize what was wrong with it until after I had put my Darkness clone in the bucket and now it too is infected. I just tasted it and other than being a little hot, it tastes decent. I'm wondering if I bottle it now and use the oxygen absorbing caps will it stop or at least slow down the conversion of tasty alcohol into less tasty vinegar?

 

[Yooper]

I brewed a supposed Surly Darkness clone a few weeks back. Unfortunately the brew that had been in the bucket before developed an acetobacter infection. (Yes it is without a doubt acetobacter. Nose burning, eye watering vinegar stink if you take a deep breath at the airlock hole) I didn't realize what was wrong with it until after I had put my Darkness clone in the bucket and now it too is infected. I just tasted it and other than being a little hot, it tastes decent. I'm wondering if I bottle it now and use the oxygen absorbing caps will it stop or at least slow down the conversion of tasty alcohol into less tasty vinegar?

I don't think so. Aceterobacter "eats" alcohol, and doesn't need oxygen to do that as far as I know.

 

[moti_mo]

Acetobacter does need oxygen to convert ethanol (C2H5OH) to acetic acid (C2H3OOH), since that extra oxygen comes from molecular oxygen that gets absorbed into the wort.

If you know you have an acetobacter infection, you definitely want to limit additional contact of oxygen with the beer, so your strategy of bottling now with the oxygen absorbing caps is a good one. Also, get rid of those buckets if they're infected!

 

[Goodyear]

Everything I had read said it required oxygen to do its thing which is why I thought bottling and using those caps might help. I had also thought about using campden tablets in hopes of killing everything off, let it sit for a few days then re-pitch some yeast before bottling. I'm having a hard time finding a single source of good info on acetobacter and brewing. The bucket is definitely going in the garbage. I'm guessing I should also toss my wine thief and auto-siphon just to be safe.

 

[moti_mo]

Yeah, definitely needs oxygen. And yeah, I would toss everything plastic. You could consider going to glass carboys or better bottles. They make better seals, and I worry less about aging things for a long time in those, b/c you can purge the headspace very easily, ensuring that if you happen to get some acetobacter in there, you can purge the oxygen and not worry about your beer getting ruined.

Wild Brews has some good information on it if I remember correctly. There are also plenty of good research articles out there on acetobacter.

 

[Goodyear]

Thanks. Remember folks, don't get lazy when it comes to sanitation.