Help me eradicate a bug!

[Jonnio]

After years of successful brewing, I guess it had to happen eventually. Something has started getting into my beer and I am looking for some help on getting it back out. Basically, my beer seems wonderful out of the brew pot, looks pretty good when I keg it (last one seemed to have a hint of buttery flavor, but it was a really young Pliny clone), and then is crap 2 weeks later. I have tried cleaning beer lines etc... and that hasn't helped so now I ordered all new lines, new autosiphon and hose, and am getting a new ale-pail, even though I have swapped it once already in the last few batches. I also have new keg seals and I ordered a keg pickup tube brush to give my kegs a scrub down.

So here are my questions:
1) Is it possible to introduce infections right at the mash? I wouldn't think so, but I did let some grain sit for a couple days after brewing one time (yeah, I know, but life got in the way) and it was pretty sour. The mash tun and all the pieces have been thoroughly cleaned since then.

2) If I hook up any of my kegs of questionable beer to my new beer lines is there a good chance I will just reinfect the kegerator?

3) Is there anything else I should be looking at? I have not changed my sanitation process at all, but I am using the same bottle of StarSan concentrate from when I re-started brewing about 4 years ago. Could that be part of the problem?

Thanks!

 

[arturo7]

Did the onset of off flavors coincide with a new tank of CO2? I'm going through the same thing right now.

 

[devilishprune]

My first suggestion to you would be to pick up a bottle of Iodophor and start using that for a while. Nothing wrong with star san, but after a while some bugs can pick up a resistance to the sanitizer that you use all the time. Switching every now and again can trip them up a bit.

I'm not sure about #2, but for #1, no. You are boiling for at least an hour which is sterilizing everything in your boil. Grain is rife with lacto and other things, so if this were true then you would have an infection every batch.

 

[Jonnio]

Did the onset of off flavors coincide with a new tank of CO2? I'm going through the same thing right now.

You know, it's been a while that I have been battling this (since I am not brewing much) but you might be on to something... I have just gotten another refill, but something may have gotten into the system already.

My first suggestion to you would be to pick up a bottle of Iodophor and start using that for a while. Nothing wrong with star san, but after a while some bugs can pick up a resistance to the sanitizer that you use all the time. Switching every now and again can trip them up a bit.

I'm not sure about #2, but for #1, no. You are boiling for at least an hour which is sterilizing everything in your boil. Grain is rife with lacto and other things, so if this were true then you would have an infection every batch.

Thanks for the suggestion on the iodophor - I will give that a try for a couple batches.

 

[passedpawn]

Watch for little bugs, literally. They like the light... might see them hovering around your computer screen. These guys can be the source of a lot of problems.