Beginner Beer, and my infections

[benbeck1990]

All,

I'm not sure if I can consider myself a "beginner" anymore. I've gotten the standard concept of brewing down.
I've made a hard cider, peach moscato, and an IPA. (All 5 Gallons)

The previous 2 batches (Chocolate brown ale, pumpkin ale) have both ended in complete nast moldy infection.
I've never had an infection before, and man does it suck. Watching the liquid pour out and knowing you've wasted all this time, really sucks.

I have (had, threw them out now) 2 plastic bucket carboys. My sanitation process has proven well in my initial batches, but when it comes to beer- it seems something isn't right.

What, in your experiences, do you believe have led you to your infections?

All of my tools were sanitized, and I'm racking my brain as to what I did wrong!

My best lead would be me sneaking peaks at the fermentation process. I become very paranoid when it comes to how its coming. So I must admit to being a little....impatient. I probably snuck a peak once every two days after the yeast pitching. So some kind of airborne something?

Help?



Thank you all.

 

[menerdari]

I have never had an infected batch and I have made a ton of beers and wines, some of my wines have fermented in a bucket with nothing but a tea towel covering it.
Must be something in the atmosphere where you are brewing? Mold spores are coming from some where?

 

[shortyz]

are you using any kind of raw fruit? i find its a crapshoot when i use fresh/frozen fruit..

 

[Resonator]

My best lead would be me sneaking peaks at the fermentation process. I become very paranoid when it comes to how its coming. So I must admit to being a little....impatient. I probably snuck a peak once every two days after the yeast pitching. So some kind of airborne something?

This risks infection every time you open it. Depending on where you're brewing and storing your beer -- and how clean everything is around you -- you could easily be letting mold spores into your beer.

If you really have to look, take out the airlock and peek in the hole. This limits your chance for airborne bugs getting in. Spray some star San on it too before and after taking out the airlock.

Otherwise, clean everything in your brew area well.

 

[benbeck1990]

I keep it in my office closet where my dogs sleep at night. I had thought this was a super safe place to keep it.
Obviously, peek on it much less.

But when I do, peek in a different room?
Right?

 

[kh54s10]

I can't help from experience since I also have never had an infected batch. It is either you have a flaw in your sanitation process somewhere, or your constant opening of the fermenter is introducing the infection. Leave things alone for the entire time that you ferment the beer.

 

[Resonator]

I keep it in my office closet where my dogs sleep at night. I had thought this was a super safe place to keep it.

Obviously, peek on it much less.



But when I do, peek in a different room?

Right?

Don't peek. Keep it closed around 1-2 weeks until you take a gravity sample.

If you really want to see how it progresses, use your initial OG sample -- put it in a jar or leave it in the graduated cylinder -- add a tiny amount of bread yeast, and top it with aluminum foil.

This will obviously ferment quicker and not taste/smell the same as beer yeast, but it will help you to stop peeking at it.

 

[Bellybuster]

I am probably one of the worst for sloppy sanitation practices. Still don't get infections.
You have to screw up hard somewhere along the line to get infected.

Just for interest, what made you think it was infected?? Seen allot of beers dumped for no reason other than normal fermentation.

 

[benbeck1990]

God I hope I didnt waste so much of precious beer.

I've been told to look for a film on the top of the liquid. I see it, and it seems like a dirty skin on the top. There are generally bubbles, large and small scattered that are cloudy.

It never really smells like beer either; then again, it doesnt have an offensive odor either.

 

[Bellybuster]

Oh my, I can't do it......

It's quite possible that what you were seeing is just yeast, or could be Pellicles of some form of unwanted organism like lacto bacilli us. Can't say without seeing it and even then it's just a guess without looking at it through a microscope.
Allot of time you can simply rack out from under the formed skin and have absolutely fine beer.
Hell.....some folks inoculate with lacto on purpose.
Best bet is to post up a pic here and let folks see it. Even then don't dump it until you know it is no longer beer.

 

[benbeck1990]

This is the dreaded and suspicious filmy stuff I speak of.

yay or nay?

 

[benbeck1990]

The look of the suspected infection

 

[Psylocide]

Yeah... Looks like an infection.

I wonder if your fermenting area has anything to do with it. If you keep it where your dogs sleep, there could be all kinds of dander floating around in the air, repeated opening of the fermenter would give that stuff a great shot at landing in your bucket.

Just a thought.

 

[m00ps]

that is entirely an infection. FWIW, my latest brett saison looked like that when the pellicle first appreared

 

[Bellybuster]

must be just me but that just looks like yeast to me. There's no pellicle, the bubble;es are clean and not powdery looking. I say nay nay

 

[Gavin C]

I keep it in my office closet where my dogs sleep at night. I had thought this was a super safe place to keep it.
Obviously, peek on it much less.

But when I do, peek in a different room?
Right?

Dogs and multiple needless openings of the fermentor in coincident or nearby places are two variables I would eliminate form the brewery right away. Also multiple movings of the fermentor to acomplish the task will slosh everything about.

Remember that episode of Breaking Bad where Walt went crazy due to the fly in his lab, or the one where he berated Jesse for his poor sanitary practices in the camper van lab.

A lot to be learned by brewers from the great late WW. RIP.

It's often not one thing but the sum of lots of little things that can tip the scales from mediocrity to success in brewing.

 

[1977Brewer]

Dogs and multiple needless openings of the fermentor in coincident or nearby places are two variables I would eliminate form the brewery right away. Also multiple movings of the fermentor to acomplish the task will slosh everything about.

Remember that episode of Breaking Bad where Walt went crazy due to the fly in his lab, or the one where he berated Jesse for his poor sanitary practices in the camper van lab.

A lot to be learned by brewers from the great late WW. RIP.

It's often not one thing but the sum of lots of little things that can tip the scales from mediocrity to success in brewing.

He DIES? Sonofabitch I just started season four.

Also, yeah, get it away from your dogs, and stop looking at it so much.

 

[slym2none]

On another beer forum I'm on, we call it "wort perving".

Don't be a wort-perv.

 

[Gavin C]

He DIES? Sonofabitch I just started season four.

Also, yeah, get it away from your dogs, and stop looking at it so much.

Sorry bout that '77

 

[Yooper]

It definitely is infected. It could be related to the huge headspace in a bucket, and opening the bucket often, allowing oxygen-loving yeast or bacteria to take hold. I'm not good at identifying pellicles, but brettanomyces is an oxygen-loving wild yeast that forms a pellice like that. It could also be that the bucket itself is infected.

How long are you leaving this beer in the bucket after fermentation ends? Have you bought a new bucket to use?

 

[actionjackson905]

I'll add my two cents. I have been brewing in some form or another for 20 years +/-. One thing I learned early on... PATIENTS! !!!! Stop opening up the fermenter! Try this, leave it alone for 7-10 days don't open it, move it, tap it, turn it or jiggle it. And do not, brew with dogs around. I have a dog and he stays inside while I brew and the door to my brew room is closed almost always, plus there is a vent in there that is always on.

Try brewing a simple cheap grain bill I.E. beermunchers Cream of 3 Crops, follow my, and everyone else's advice. See what happens. If you don't get infected, you have your answer. If not, start from the beginning of your brew process and check everything that comes in contact with your wort and yeast.

Good luck.

Edit: have you ever noticed the fur and dander that comes off your dog as he passes by a ray of sunshine? That stuff flies off them just by them moving!! They are dust factories. But I love mine anyway.

 

[A2HB]

I know a lot of people talk down on them but if you are a "wort perv" and can't help peeking all the time you might be better off using a glass carboy. Then you can peek all you want and not have to open anything up.

Just need to make sure you're extra careful handling them and you will be good to go.

Been seeing a lot of infections in people's buckets on here recently, they are good for some things like dry hopping and being (potentially) less dangerous, but apparently getting infected with bugs easier seems to be a big downside.

My $.02

 

[Resonator]

I'll add my two cents. I have been brewing in some form or another for 20 years +/-. One thing I learned early on... PATIENTS! !!!! Stop opening up the fermenter!

You mean patience? Or are you just yelling to your patients and accidentally wrote it down?

 

[actionjackson905]

You mean patience? Or are you just yelling to your patients and accidentally wrote it down?

Lol.. stupid auto correct! PATIENCE!

 

[actionjackson905]

I know a lot of people talk down on them but if you are a "wort perv" and can't help peeking all the time you might be better off using a glass carboy. Then you can peek all you want and not have to open anything up.

+1

 

[1977Brewer]

Sorry bout that '77

Thought about coming to Irving to beat you up but then I realized I didn't want to be in Irving.

 

[Gavin C]

Thought about coming to Irving to beat you up but then I realized I didn't want to be in Irving.

I can totally understand.

The trip back to Weatherford would be just too unfathomably demoralizing.