Extreme Frustration; What am I doing wrong?!!

[naga77777]

I never make more than a gallon of starsan and that lasts me forever. it is a contact sanitizer meaning you can put a couple of cups in your better bottle and swirl it around then dump it back into the gallon jug.

I'm kinda in the middle on starsan usage. I buy a gallon of distilled water, put 6mL of starsan in it, and shake for a bit. I fill up a large spray bottle from dollar store with that solution, and will fill s small tub with it that I can drop airlocks and bungs into. I rack into/out ta that tub to sanitize auto siphon and tubing on the inside. Buckets I will just spray the inside down and swirl and discard. Starsan never goes back into the gallon jug, because I Dont want the trouble of testing pH. One gallon jug will last me well over a month, even if I brew every weekend.

 

[DoctorMemory]

One thing no one has mentioned yet is the bungs/airlocks that are used on the better bottle. Are your bungs really tight? Are they old? Sanitized well? Maybe they aren't properly closing off the air and you are getting oxidization after the fermentation finishes before you open it to see what happened. It's a bit of a stretch but maybe??? All that also for air locks

That seems like kind of a stretch. The reason airlocks bubble is because the CO2 is pushing the air out, even when active fermentation stops you will still have a neutral pressure differential, and since CO2 is heavier than air any air that managed to get in shouldn't be able to get to the wort. I'm with you on wanting to cover all the bases, but I don't think this is anything to worry about.

 

[Hoppity]

Haven't talked about the chiller yet. You said your tap water sucks. Could it be leaking into the wort? How long is it taking to get to pitching temp? Is the whole chiller sanitized before 10 minute boil?

 

[DanH]

Haven't talked about the chiller yet. You said your tap water sucks. Could it be leaking into the wort? How long is it taking to get to pitching temp? Is the whole chiller sanitized before 10 minute boil?

No. I give it a quick clean cuz I'm gonna boil it anyway. It doesn't leak tap water though. I'll be OCD cleaning everything for/during my next brew.

It takes probably a half hour to 40 minutes to get below 70.

 

[Hoppity]

How long before you pitch the yeast?

 

[DanH]

From end of boil to pitch would be probably close to an hour. I should time it. My last couple of fermentation a got started after about 18 hours or so. Again, no starter.

 

[Hoppity]

I would buy a new fermentation bucket and split your nextt batch between it and your BB. Compare results to begin problem isolation. Worst case you have another fermenter to help build pipeline.

 

[DanH]

I would buy a new fermentation bucket and split your nextt batch between it and your BB. Compare results to begin problem isolation. Worst case you have another fermenter to help build pipeline.

Awesome idea thank you

 

[iamperplexed]

Sorry if I missed this already but are you using bulk liquid extract by chance?

 

[DanH]

Sorry if I missed this already but are you using bulk liquid extract by chance?

I get it from morebeer.com in their kits.

 

[iamperplexed]

I get it from morebeer.com in their kits.

I doubt it's your problem but I switched to dme (from lme) because of a few batches with off flavors. I've been pleased with the outcome.

 

[eksf26]

Brettanomyces is the wild yeast responsible for producing the " band aid" or "astringent" flavors. Even with proper sanitation, some Brett strains will become immune to just one sanitizer. This is why big breweries will use more than one sanitizer. Having said that, I recommend giving everything a good soak in PBW, then doing a paracetic acid sanitizer AND a star san rinse. Throw all the cheap plastic stuff away, this includes air locks, racking cane, bungs etc. Throw out that old bucket as well. Additionally, start using a yeast nutrient and oxygenate well with O2 if possible to get a good start to fermentation. 60 degrees F is a little cool for WLP 001, but if you really want to ferment at this temp, start fermentation at 70 F them bump it down several degrees a day when high krausen is reached. This should help, if not, get more anal than you have ever been and clean EVERYTHING Including the room you brew in. If its outside, cool rapidly with a lid on the pot and don't let any fans blow atmosphere into the wort. Finally, you may want to reconsider who you but your extract/ yeast from.

P. S.

If you are serious about brewing, invest in glass carboys or better.

 

[chumpsteak]

I usually use tap water.

Bingo. Chlorophenols probably. My tap water is so full of chlorine if I don't let my water sit out overnight before a brew day I get plastic burps. If the chlorine content of your water is high enough even using it to mix up starsan can be bad.

 

[DanH]

Bingo. Chlorophenols probably. My tap water is so full of chlorine if I don't let my water sit out overnight before a brew day I get plastic burps. If the chlorine content of your water is high enough even using it to mix up starsan can be bad.

Yeah I'll probably brew tomorrow. I've been OCD cleaning everything with Oxiclean. Then I'll brew with RO water and mix starsan with distilled water. I'll read back through the thread and use some of the other tips as well.

 

[ncbrewer]

Brettanomyces is the wild yeast responsible for producing the " band aid" or "astringent" flavors. Even with proper sanitation, some Brett strains will become immune to just one sanitizer. This is why big breweries will use more than one sanitizer.

This is the first I've heard of "resistant strains". Is it something the average home brewer should be concerned about, or more like something to address if there's a problem?

 

[schmitt777]

I had a nasty "sour" issue. I switched from plastic to glass and replaced my auto siphon and tubes.

I did a lot of research and once an infection gets in any of the little crevices on the plastic it is virtually impossible to get them out.

 

[Randy_Bugger]

If you use filtered tap, distilled, spring or RO water AND use the right amount of Camden, the problem is not the water.

 

[OnceinDC]

Bingo. Chlorophenols probably. My tap water is so full of chlorine if I don't let my water sit out overnight before a brew day I get plastic burps. If the chlorine content of your water is high enough even using it to mix up starsan can be bad.

I don't mean to hijack this and beat a dead horse, but I just had a friend from Canada move to DC who got me into homebrewing and when he suggested we use tap water to brew I poured a glass and handed it to him. He told me it basically tasted like an indoor pool. Some areas chlorinate the hell out of the water (more heavily during spring-summer it seems).

I use spring water for everything. Better to drop a couple extra bucks than end up with something that you can't drink.

 

[DanH]

Yeah mine taste bad enough that my wife refuses to drink it but I only used it for the starsan solution. Not anymore though, but I haven't had a chance to brew lately.

 

[Nargan]

This is the first I've heard of "resistant strains". Is it something the average home brewer should be concerned about, or more like something to address if there's a problem?

Brettanomyces is infamous for this. I was talking to a brewer at Cascade Brewing one day and he said they only made one beer with it, once. Because of how difficult it was to kill off, they decided to never use it again. He said what they had to go through to clean all their lines and tanks and hoses and everything after making it was insane. They even had to age the barrels with that beer in a different area because it'll breathe out of them and hop to other barrels, 'infecting' those beers as well. Russian River also has different issues with it. In their words: "Because we use 100% Brettanomyces yeast to ferment Sanctification, most winemakers will only smell the glass, and only a very few will venture to taste the beer. They think the Brettanomyces will attach to their clothing and end up in their winery." Basically, if it gets into their winery and into their equipment or barrels, literally tons and tons of wine will be completely ruined, dumped and it'll be very difficult and expensive for them to get rid of it.