Bad Story

[Gameface]

So, I've been out of the game for a while. Last batch I brewed was in September and it was for someone else mostly. I host the occasional home poker game and had a person I sort of know want a batch of beer in honor of his favorite college basketball team. I obliged and this gentleman showed up at one of my poker games, enjoyed some of my brew on tap and a few days later took the portion of beer I had set aside for him. Turns out he's close enough to this college basketball team to get some of this "#9" to the head coach, who thoroughly enjoyed it.

Giving up so much of my precious home brew felt wrong. I went into a sort of home brew funk.

But I broke free! I was ready, finally, this February, to make more home brew. This one was in honor (but all for me) of another of my fellow poker players but even more so of a basketball legend who recently revealed he had Alzheimer's. Hot Rod Hundly, player for the L.A. Lakers and long time announcer for the Utah Jazz. Truly one of the best announcers in BBall history. One of his most famous sayings was "You've got to love it, baby!" A fellow poster on a Jazz fans related website, Jazzfanz.com has the name "UGLI Baby" and I thought that was the perfect name for a big IPA. The UGLI Baby was born.

Now for the UGLI part.

I'm making my first yeast starter in about 6 months. I'm working 12 hour night shifts. On my days off I'm drinking a little more than I should. But, the starter needs to get made.

Long story short, last thing I remember is dumping the DME into the kettle. Wife tells me she found me asleep on my living room floor. I woke up the next day and the first thing I thought was "damn, I didn't finish that starter. All those ingredients are wasted." I get out of bed and to my surprise see a flask on the stir plate... Unfortunately i find a stir bar sitting on the foil I laid down on my counter. I check the starter and sure enough there is no stir bar in it. I rinse and star san spray down the stir bar and add put it in. I ask my wife if I had made a commotion coming to bed the night before, to which she has a good laugh as she fills me in.

When the starter is done I take a whiff...vinegar. I'm pretty upset, but not surprised. But, I'm in denial. I decide I'm going to make a two-stage starter (even thought the first one was 3.5L). I Cold crash the starter. When finished and I'm about ready to decant the first one and add the wort for the second I take a taste. Mellow...not "good" but not vinegar tasting. I hope I'm okay. I want to be okay.

I make a second stage starter at 4L.

My beer is an Imperial IPA that should clock in at about 9%abv but be pretty light bodied and have an SRM around 7. (O.G. 1.084, estimated F.G.1.014) Yeah, I know.

The fermenter smells good 36 hours in and is fully active. I hope UGLI Baby is just a name. Please hope with me!

 

[kh54s10]

If you decanted the "vinegar" starter wort and now have good fermentation I would not worry too much.

 

[aiptasia]

With any luck, it might turn out ok. Stories like this is why I no longer drink and brew.

 

[Gameface]

With any luck, it might turn out ok. Stories like this is why I no longer drink and brew.

Tell me about it. I went from no drinking until the boil is clam to no drinking until I start cooling to no drinking until the yeast is pitched to no drinking util my brew day is over. Now I need rules for starters.

 

[Gameface]

Update.

I took a gravity sample 12 days into fermentation. Was 0.001 higher than target F.G. so I felt pretty good. The sample smelled really good! (bittered with 2012 amarillo and magnum, finished with cascade and amarillo...1lb hops total in a 10G batch). The sample was so awesome smelling I chilled it and drank it and enjoyed my first taste of homebrew in a long long time.

So I felt like I needed to let it go a little longer, just cause I guess. My plan had been to leave at fermentation temp for 3 weeks. It went in the fermenter at 58F (I just love early spring brewing) and was held at 63F for the first 3 days of fermentation and then 65F for about 36hrs then 68. It continued to ferment (as per the unreliable bubble-O-meter) for 10 days then the temp fell to 66 (cold room). Now, at 17 days since pitch I notice what looks like a bacterial infection in wort spilled on the lid during transfer (60L Speidel) and a vinegar smell.

Man I was so excited drinking that sample. I make mostly British Isle types of beer, ESB chief amongst them, and my luck with big IPAs has been a bit of a disappointment although not disasters they just lack, imo.

So, I'm reading up on acetobacter. I hop that the lid infection is because of O2 exposure and the contents are in better shape. The stuff on the lid popped up pretty quickly when I started the cold crash...after having capped the fermenter. I set my chest freezer temp to 50F, went away for several hours and when I saw the temp had reached 50F I opened the freezer lid and saw the fuzzy stuff in the gutter on the lid. I'm thinking that while CO2 was being pumped out the growth was inhibited. I wiped down, star san sprayed and wiped down again the lid. So, I'm going to do an exceptional CO2 purge on my kegs and get into the kegerator on more CO2 pronto and get this stuff consumed until or unless it turns.

My biggest concern at this point is preventing this in the future. I ferment in Speidels and I don't want to end up tossing them. I figure I should start replacing my silicone tubing. But what can I do to nip this in the bud without mass destruction to my brew equipment?

 

[Gameface]

Well, it's in the keg and it's not vinegar. I feel like I dodged a bullet. Gonna keep it cold and drink it up. Well, as fast as I can drink a 9.3% IIPA without getting into more of the same kind of trouble.

 

[05m50dan]

You should be able to boil the silicon ring. I'd fill the fermentor with star San and let it soak a couple days. Spray down all the other surfaces with starsan too!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Gameface]

Think I was chasing a boogeyman. Beer is fine (not my best creation, but not infected). After kegging I left the fermenter open with a layer of beer over the yeast...no growth of anything and no vinegar smell at all.

I pulled a newb on this one imagining infection where none existed.

Still, everything is getting super max deep clean before I move forward. Been brewing with this gear for about 3 years, I'd say it's due for some TLC.