Constant contamination

[Marton Harai]

I am asking for some help around here as I am starting to lose hope.

I brewed 4 beer at my apartment, and only one of them turned out as not contaminated.
The exact type I am not sure, I am guessing it is lactobacillus, but it can be something else. It smells and tastes sour, a bit like vinegar - I dumped almost the whole batch, just kept like a dozen bottles for sampling it later.

First, I tried an imperial stout, which I ruined by adding way too much spice, but it had a hint of this strange sour aroma too, did not think too much of it.

Than I made an amazing double IPA, which had 0 contamination, and was just amazing.

I continoud with an English barley wine, which had the same exact strange aroma, and due to my frustration, I dumped almost the whole thing again - the smell of it was rather difficult to wash away, it took a couple of thourough washes with dish soap and sanitizer.

My latest beer is a Punk IPA clone, which I had very high hopes for.
I always smell the airlock, and it started out with a really nice hoppy smell, but today, after 10 days in the primary I opened it to dry hop it, and the smell of vinegar hit me again - I attached a picture too, but IMO it looks normal.

The exact question I am looking for an answer to are:

- Can be the reason for contamination that I store the primary in the kitchen of my rather small apartment, in a busy area? The lock on the fermentor is air sealed, as the airlock is functioning perfectly

- Can dry hopping get rid of the vinegar aroma? The only real difference in the way I made the Double IPA and the infected ones is that it was dry hopped

- Do I need to sanitize the place where I cool down my wort, and the one I keep my fermentor as well as every equipment?

- Even though I exchanged the fermentor for my new batch, can it be that I need to buy whole new stuff for everything that touches the wort after boil? Is it okay if I give them a hard wash with bleach or something?

My sanitation rutine is the following:
I add 10L of water to the primary fermentor along with 25ml of Active San sanitizer, I drop all the stuff in there for 20 minutes or so, and get a spray can with the solution, so I can spray the lid too and the head of the immersion cooler. I let some of the solution running out of the tap too.
Once it is empty, I run the boiling hot worth into the empty fermentor, and let the immersion cooler do its thing.

I am very much looking forward for someones help who had similar issues, and got them resolved. I am reading about this stuff in the past 4 days, and when I read about after batches turning out great even after quite some mistakes, I cannot help myself but feel envy

I hope you guys can assist me on this, I do not want to give up on homebrewing

 

[Jag75]

It appears your using plastic buckets . You may have scratched the inside , your problem could be in the spigot . Are you cleaning your equipment first ? Sanitizing isnt cleaning. One other thing I dont know if I'm not understanding, but are you dumping your boiling wort right into your fermenter ? If so you should be setting your chiller into your kettle during the last 10 min or so of the boil . This will kill anything on it . Then hook up your water and chill your wort in the kettle then transfer to fermenter when cool enough. Heres another option. Just get new plastic buckets and hoses . Those are cheap to replace . Welcome to the forum !

 

[ike8228]

+1 on the bucket. If you get new stuff get a glass carboy. But since you said you swaped the fermenter, you may have something in the syphon. Lots of little corners and nooks for stuff to hide. Always wash real good after using, store, then sanitize before use. Since you have an infection, you could get new stuff and cut your losses but if you are not practicing good cleaning and sanitation you’ll just repeat the same thing. I use a little bleach when sanitizing my non metal equipment. You just need to rinse good (with pre boiled water, not tap). Syphon water thru it too, hook your hoses, bottle wand, everything to make sure and let it soak for a bit.

Sanitation is #1 2 and 3 with brewing.

I would give your stuff a good bleach water bath and then Wash real good. Another recommendation, use a clean sponge EVERY time.

Good luck.

 

[jswillbrewforbeer]

^^agree.^^ A few things:
1. Don't give up!
2. Don't use dish soap to wash your equipment unless it's completely scent free. Either way you're far better off with PBW or equivalent.
3. Dry hops will not get rid of the vinegar, only mask it at best
4. You don't need that high a concentration of star san. You can use a proportion of 1.6 ml star san/ liter water
5. Like Jag75 said, just replace cold side plastic equipment.

Good luck!

 

[rhys333]

I am asking for some help around here as I am starting to lose hope.

I brewed 4 beer at my apartment, and only one of them turned out as not contaminated.
The exact type I am not sure, I am guessing it is lactobacillus, but it can be something else. It smells and tastes sour, a bit like vinegar - I dumped almost the whole batch, just kept like a dozen bottles for sampling it later.

First, I tried an imperial stout, which I ruined by adding way too much spice, but it had a hint of this strange sour aroma too, did not think too much of it.

Than I made an amazing double IPA, which had 0 contamination, and was just amazing.

I continoud with an English barley wine, which had the same exact strange aroma, and due to my frustration, I dumped almost the whole thing again - the smell of it was rather difficult to wash away, it took a couple of thourough washes with dish soap and sanitizer.

My latest beer is a Punk IPA clone, which I had very high hopes for.
I always smell the airlock, and it started out with a really nice hoppy smell, but today, after 10 days in the primary I opened it to dry hop it, and the smell of vinegar hit me again - I attached a picture too, but IMO it looks normal.

The exact question I am looking for an answer to are:

- Can be the reason for contamination that I store the primary in the kitchen of my rather small apartment, in a busy area? The lock on the fermentor is air sealed, as the airlock is functioning perfectly

- Can dry hopping get rid of the vinegar aroma? The only real difference in the way I made the Double IPA and the infected ones is that it was dry hopped

- Do I need to sanitize the place where I cool down my wort, and the one I keep my fermentor as well as every equipment?

- Even though I exchanged the fermentor for my new batch, can it be that I need to buy whole new stuff for everything that touches the wort after boil? Is it okay if I give them a hard wash with bleach or something?

My sanitation rutine is the following:
I add 10L of water to the primary fermentor along with 25ml of Active San sanitizer, I drop all the stuff in there for 20 minutes or so, and get a spray can with the solution, so I can spray the lid too and the head of the immersion cooler. I let some of the solution running out of the tap too.
Once it is empty, I run the boiling hot worth into the empty fermentor, and let the immersion cooler do its thing.

I am very much looking forward for someones help who had similar issues, and got them resolved. I am reading about this stuff in the past 4 days, and when I read about after batches turning out great even after quite some mistakes, I cannot help myself but feel envy

I hope you guys can assist me on this, I do not want to give up on homebrewing

If I'm reading you correctly, you're pouring hot wort into the fermentor and then putting your room temp wort chiller (which has been sanitized) directly into it.

I wouldn't do this, because there's a lot of surface area plus little nooks and crannies where bacteria can survive. Star san is good, but it's meant to be used on easily cleanable surfaces, and that doesn't include your average coil wort chiller.

Going forward, I would sterilize your wort chiller by adding it directly to your boil at the 15 minute mark. This will kill absolutely everything and will probably solve your infection problem.

 

[brewdude88]

Vinegar can be acetobacter bacteria. The bacteria converts ethanol to acetic acid (aka vinegar). This bacteria is tough to kill, but I would try a good soak with PBW or oxiclean free, followed by a soak with iodophor on all cold-side equipment. If your fermenter has a spigot, either disassemble and clean or get a new one. Also sanitize those dry-hop bags!

 

[AJinJacksonville]

All of the posters provide good advice. I still use plastic buckets (for the most part) for fermentation, and occasionally a glass carboy. The benefits of glass also have dangers associated with them. I used to make a 5G batch of sanitizer to let things soak, but now use just a spray bottle and have had no issues with contamination. There is a threat on this forum somewhere about that process, and I highly recommend it. I use OxiClean Free to clean all the plastic stuff (as previously advised in a prior post). Keep chugging away. Once you get it right, you can stick with that procedure and always have drinkable/sharable brews. Cheers!

 

[Transamguy77]

I have been through an infection issue about 6 years ago and I dumped well over 5+ 10 gallon batches and it was so frustrating for several months and it turned out that my issue was where I was fermenting and it was in my basement, I know you said that you ferment in your kitchen so maybe ferment at someone else’s place? I know that is really outside the box but I had to start fermenting in different parts of my house to get the infection figured out.

I have since moved from that house and haven’t had an issue since and I did wash all of my stuff with a strong bleach solution and I did not replace anything, I know that might contradict what others have said but my issue was not the equipment it was what was in the air where I was fermenting and that is something that is not always thought about.

hope this helps and good luck.

 

[Day-Day]

For you last beer the IPA that you posted a pic of, did you taste a sample. The only reason I ask is because when ever I open my fermenters during or after fermenation (which is not often, only to dry hop and transfer), there is a pungent smell that knocks me back, not sure what it is, but it's always been like that since I started brewing, it goes away after a few seconds. Just curious if you tasted it, since you said it smelled good, right until you opened it, and it looks normal from the pic.