Toxxyc
New and loving it
OK so I'm posting here as I guess it fits here. I make no-chill cubes that I sell to customers who then ferment it into beer at home. It's been going really well for over a year now, and I've never had issues in the ~7,500 liters I've sold to date.
That changed recently. I don't know what or how, but a few weeks ago a cube I made was just puffed up. I opened it and it's gone off. I don't know how or where the infection came from, but there's definitely an infection. My process has been pretty similar as always, mash and boil in the same big urn and then I connect a silicone hose to the tap (the default tap) and pour the wort into 2 x 20l HDPE2 containers, sealing them immediately. The containers are then shaken up to ensure the entire inside is coated with the boiling wort before being set aside to cool down. Once cooled I ship it to clients with a packet of yeast and a pressure release cap that acts as an airlock, so you can ferment the beer in the cube it comes in. Convenient and effective.
So a few weeks ago I made a blonde and only sold one from the two I make per batch. The other one I set aside and figured if I want to I can make a blonde I want for myself. However, that cube puffed up and I ended up dumping it down the drain. I then made a cheap beer for a party (bunch of commercial drinkers) and fermented it with Voss. It had that same off flavour and I had to toss it. I then made a Pale Ale and sent one to a client. Here though I decided to sanitizer the cube, as I thought the cubes had something in them from the factory perhaps. I made the Pale Ale, 2 cubes again, and shipped one off. 2 weeks passed and it was all well. Today though he sends me a message - his cube is swollen and looks like it's about to pop, he didn't pitch the yeast. I check mine and same story - also swollen.
Somewhere I'm getting infections, and it CANNOT be from inside the cube or the cap. It has to come from the equipment that I use. I'm fairly certain nothing survives the 30-minute boils I do, so it must be something else. I have pinpointed the problem to one of two things - either the tap on the urn or the silicone hose I use to tap the wort from the urn into the cubes. I was 100% sure that the boiling wort would kill anything, but it turns out something must be hardy enough to survive. The smell from the infection smells very off, rotten, like burnt rubber mixed with fermented cabbage and dirty feet. Disgusting.
So I've removed the tap and soaked it in a hot SPC solution. Essentially disassembled the tap, threw it into a jar, poured a lot of SPC powder over it and added hot (but not boiling) water. It fizzed like mad for 30 minutes and then died down, so the tap must now be pretty clean. I'll give the whole thing a proper boil as well.
The silicone hose I'll boil as well. It's pretty clean as I always clean it after use, but no point in not tossing it in the boil as well.
I want to know - what else should I be looking at here as a possible source of infection?
That changed recently. I don't know what or how, but a few weeks ago a cube I made was just puffed up. I opened it and it's gone off. I don't know how or where the infection came from, but there's definitely an infection. My process has been pretty similar as always, mash and boil in the same big urn and then I connect a silicone hose to the tap (the default tap) and pour the wort into 2 x 20l HDPE2 containers, sealing them immediately. The containers are then shaken up to ensure the entire inside is coated with the boiling wort before being set aside to cool down. Once cooled I ship it to clients with a packet of yeast and a pressure release cap that acts as an airlock, so you can ferment the beer in the cube it comes in. Convenient and effective.
So a few weeks ago I made a blonde and only sold one from the two I make per batch. The other one I set aside and figured if I want to I can make a blonde I want for myself. However, that cube puffed up and I ended up dumping it down the drain. I then made a cheap beer for a party (bunch of commercial drinkers) and fermented it with Voss. It had that same off flavour and I had to toss it. I then made a Pale Ale and sent one to a client. Here though I decided to sanitizer the cube, as I thought the cubes had something in them from the factory perhaps. I made the Pale Ale, 2 cubes again, and shipped one off. 2 weeks passed and it was all well. Today though he sends me a message - his cube is swollen and looks like it's about to pop, he didn't pitch the yeast. I check mine and same story - also swollen.
Somewhere I'm getting infections, and it CANNOT be from inside the cube or the cap. It has to come from the equipment that I use. I'm fairly certain nothing survives the 30-minute boils I do, so it must be something else. I have pinpointed the problem to one of two things - either the tap on the urn or the silicone hose I use to tap the wort from the urn into the cubes. I was 100% sure that the boiling wort would kill anything, but it turns out something must be hardy enough to survive. The smell from the infection smells very off, rotten, like burnt rubber mixed with fermented cabbage and dirty feet. Disgusting.
So I've removed the tap and soaked it in a hot SPC solution. Essentially disassembled the tap, threw it into a jar, poured a lot of SPC powder over it and added hot (but not boiling) water. It fizzed like mad for 30 minutes and then died down, so the tap must now be pretty clean. I'll give the whole thing a proper boil as well.
The silicone hose I'll boil as well. It's pretty clean as I always clean it after use, but no point in not tossing it in the boil as well.
I want to know - what else should I be looking at here as a possible source of infection?
