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Help! Repeated failed brews

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Are you boiling or bringing the kettle to a boil with the lid on your kettle?



I did an IPA brew day where I had like 10 friends over for beers and brewing and as such was totally distracted and left the lid on my kettle, up to the boil and into a boil over.



The finished bottled beer smelled and tasted oh so much of creamed corn, the entire batch was a dumper.



DMS evaporates out during the boil, so having left the lid on it concentrated then it fell back into the kettle and into solution...oops!


Highly unlikely since he's brewing with extracts which have pretty much had all the precursors removed in the process.

OP:

You're using dark extract for a dipa?
I would think that you should be going for a lighter malt if you're really wanting to accentuate the hops. There's no telling what percentage of specialty malts are in the dark one. This could be one of your problems.
I don't remember did you post a recipe that you've used? Combine dark extract with an underwhelming hop schedule, and you could get diminished hops and more of the malt extract flavor coming through while it conditions in the bottle.
Also it could just be that you don't like that extract flavor. Especially if it's not fresh or has been handled poorly.

To the guy who posted about the beer darkening after bottling, this is usually a sure sign of oxidation. Look up the best practices for bottling your beer on here, or just start a thread and ask how people do it (though I'm sure there's 100s of threads on that subject already), and start trying your best to keep oxygen out of the process.
 
I'm just gonna go ahead and echo what a few others have said here and advise you to start sanitizing. I see that you got some PBW and StarSan, so you're already on your way to better beer. Here are a few things that I think will help you get to your goal of your dream IPA.

Since your beers are getting funky within days, I would guess that you have some serious buildup on parts of your equipment. It doesn't take long to get buildup, either. My first infection was on my third batch, and I realized that I needed to fully disassemble all of my bottling equipment to properly clean it. That means disassembling everything that touched beer and soaking them in warm Oxi-Clean Free or PBW. The threads on your bottle bucket spigot and nut are prime locations for nasties to breed. The bottling wand valve is another danger zone and absolutely must be disassembled and cleaned, all the way down to the rubber O-ring on the valve tip. Remember: If it touches beer, clean it.

One item that I find to be excellent at cleaning all these narrow round spaces is a baby bottle nipple brush. That little brush is a serious cleaning multitasker. You can find them paired with full size baby bottle brushes, usually at the grocery store or Wal-Mart in the baby section. I stick mine anywhere it'll fit (har har), and I find the nylon bristles to be tough enough to get the gunk out, but not so stiff that they scratch and gouge plastic. I'm sure you've heard this before, but I feel like I spend more time and energy cleaning than I do brewing, and as far as actual "working time" (not waiting for mash conversion, between hop additions, etc), I'd say that's accurate. I think this is critical for good sanitation though, since a dirty surface is impossible to sanitize, and clean gear looks better and lasts longer.

You said that you briefly soaked your bottles in one step. If they were new, then that's probably fine. If they were reused, then a quick soak might not be enough to fully rid the surface of contaminates. The inside of your bottles should be spotless, especially since that's where your beer is going to be spending the majority of its life. Also, if you reuse bottles, you should definitely rinse and swirl with HOT water immediately after they are emptied. By making sure that all residual beer and yeast in the bottle is gone before drying and storing, you'll spend far less time and effort scrubbing when it's time to clean.

As for cleaning and scrubbing, a bottle brush from your homebrew shop should really be all you need. I have one of those big rope handled tubs from Wal-Mart that I fill partway with some Oxi-Clean Free and hot water. I soak my load of previously rinsed bottles for ten minutes or so, hit them with the brush, rinse, dry, and store. I can also get any remnants of labels or glue off of the outside at the same time if I need to. The bottles come out completely spotless and ready for beer, and it usually takes an hour or so from start to finish.

On bottle day, also remember to sanitize every bottle. I pour some sanitizer into a bottle, swirl it around every surface, then pour into the next one. Splitting the workload between two or more people makes this a five minute or less procedure. Alone, I'm looking at ten to twenty minutes. A vinator and bottle tree will make a solo job a five minute one, but it's also more equipment to clean, so I stick with my procedure.

Bottle caps can be pretty dirty, too, so toss those in some sanitizer for a short period before bottling.

Hoses are cheap and should be replaced every few batches or so, or once they start getting cloudy, discolored, or smelly.

One last thing, you said that you are using muslin bags to dry hop. Cotton is extremely porous and takes a long time to dry, which is what makes it a fantastic breeding ground for bacteria and yeast. I know it's *possible* to sanitize it by boiling and soaking in starsan, but It would probably be better to err on the side of caution and use a nylon hop sack. These can be found at your LHBS and from online shops, and are reusable.

I don't know if any of these steps will clear up your contamination problem, but they helped me, so I figured I'd pass them along. I went from a horribly infected, bottle fermented from 1.012 to 1.004 gusher batch to free and clean beer without replacing any of my equipment, just by cleaning more thoroughly.

Here's to clean beer, and your ideal IPA,
Good luck.
 
I condition them by leaving in a room temp closet for up to a week or 2, depending on how well they carbonate as I impatiently begin popping them a few days after bottling. Once I realize they're about where I need them, I move to the fridge.

Sounds like you may have an issue with your yeast, only time I couldn't get carbonation is when I tried to do a barleywine with basic ale yeast that couldn't take it the distance. Still have those bottled hoping in a few months there might be a little fizz when I open em.

When bottling, I've been partially filling one plastic bottle and capping it, to serve as a "carbonation indicator". Right after I fill it and cap it, the plastic bottle is kind of crinky and squishy. If after a few days it gets hard as a rock, I know that pressure is building up inside and the carbonation is proceeding.
 
Dont boil your hoses, I have read somewhere that this does cause the plastics to start cracking and/or leeching chemicals because the high temperatures start breaking down a few of the chemicals or something to that extent.

Silicone hoses can be boiled wirth no problems, vinyl hoses have temperature ratings well below silicone.
 
I must be blind cause i just read it twice and didn't see any mention regarding temp control.. lol.. sorry, just trying to help :)

:off:
I thought your help was very.., well....helpful. No worries there. And you are absolutely correct. No mention of temperature control in the OP. It only appeared after the thread merge from the other thread OP.

Talk about nit-pickyness of some folks. They seriously need to lighten up. Very easy to miss things in a discussion, verbal or written. It doesn't disqualify the helpful advice.

The reason I'm posting this is because you have 8 posts and I wouldn't want you to get a bad early impression of HBT. Welcome. That is all, back to the thread.
 
To the guy who posted about the beer darkening after bottling, this is usually a sure sign of oxidation. Look up the best practices for bottling your beer on here, or just start a thread and ask how people do it (though I'm sure there's 100s of threads on that subject already), and start trying your best to keep oxygen out of the process.

The first off batch, sure maybe. But I bottled a Saison the same day using the same technique and it came out fantastic.

This last batch I force transferred from primary to secondary using C02 after filling the secondary with C02 to dry hop.

When I went to bottle I purged the bottling bucket then force transferred to the bucket before bottling.

I'd be surprised if the cause was oxidation this time.
 
:off:
I thought your help was very.., well....helpful. No worries there. And you are absolutely correct. No mention of temperature control in the OP. It only appeared after the thread merge from the other thread OP.

Talk about nit-pickyness of some folks. They seriously need to lighten up. Very easy to miss things in a discussion, verbal or written. It doesn't disqualify the helpful advice.

The reason I'm posting this is because you have 8 posts and I wouldn't want you to get a bad early impression of HBT. Welcome. That is all, back to the thread.

I need to lighten up then.
 
Seriously though like I said in a reply, 60 is low for an ale yeast. You should be ramping it up from 60 to say 68-70 during fermentation to ensure the yeast will
finish their duty. This could explain the butter.
 

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