Honestly guys, have you ever infected a batch POST-fermentation?

[Rush]

Hear me out. I sanitize anything and everything that comes in contact with my beer, pre and post fermentation. However, I find it hard to believe that with the lack of present sugars, and presence of alcohol, that anything but the strongest bacterias could spoil a batch once it's been fermented.

Someone fill me in here. Has anyone here personally had a batch turn bad AFTER the wort had fermented? Were there any signs of an infection during your primary?

I'm not looking to stop sanitizing, but I'm curious as to how worried we should be after fermentation is complete.

 

[EdWort]

Nope. What do you use to sanitize?

 

[Rush]

I clean everything with Oxiclean and kill the bugs with Star San.

 

[carnevoodoo]

I personally haven't infected any of my beer, but some fruit flies managed to do the work for me this year. It was definitely post-fermentation.

 

[EdWort]

I am anal-retentive about sanitation till it is racked into the keg and I have never had an infection of any kind. I turn off any HVAC during racking as I do not want any air movement. I also wear the disposable rubber gloves while working with stuff that goes into my Starsan bucket. I think the diligence pays off though SWMBO calls me the mad scientist when working on transferring beer or wort.

 

[Jaybird]

Well I hate to say this but..... Yes. My last brown that I brewed was killer out of the gate first keg was good up untill the last 1/2 gallon or so (6-8 weeks in the keg). I tasted the second keg and it too had turned bad? not sure of the cause or the infection as I have been grewing for 6+ years and I am VERY ANAL RETENTIVE in my sanitation techniques.
Cheers
JJ

 

[niquejim]

Hear me out. I sanitize anything and everything that comes in contact with my beer, pre and post fermentation. However, I find it hard to believe that with the lack of present sugars, and presence of alcohol, that anything but the strongest bacterias could spoil a batch once it's been fermented.

Someone fill me in here. Has anyone here personally had a batch turn bad AFTER the wort had fermented? Were there any signs of an infection during your primary?

I'm not looking to stop sanitizing, but I'm curious as to how worried we should be after fermentation is complete.

Granted I add mango which adds sugar and I add the dregs from some Orval, my https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f72/drunk-owl-mango-55227/ gets sour.

Open your finished brew next to some old fruit (with fruitflies)

I've had a few go off for no known reason, so be careful out there kids


Don't stop sanatizing and be careful and you'll be fine

 

[brett]

My wife was moving around her horse saddle in the basement and managed to knock off the air lock to my barley wine in the secondary.

It sat there for a few hours open to ambient air before she noticed it and told me. I hope the alcohol content in that brew keeps it from being infected, because that sure is going to be some damn fine brew.

 

[farmbrewernw]

I never thought of fruit flies as a way to infect your beer. Damn I wish I would have know that a couple of days ago when I kegged my fresh hop ale, there were fruit flies flying around in my kitchen when I kegged.

 

[Frost]

Yeah, that would definitely be a bummer for some barley wine to go bad. Good luck.

 

[Yooper]

I've had one infection in the bottle. The beer was awesome for the first couple of weeks in the bottle, but then I got a gusher infection apparently. Either that or lacto. It gushed and tasted sour. It was a bummer, because it was an awesome beer up until then.

 

[Dpostman]

Nope. Never lost a batch yet.

Listen..... Listen closely.... can you hear it.... that's me knocking furiously on wood


But I only brew a couple times a year. Mostly Fall and spring. But I do rather large batches. And they last me all year. I just started kegging, and I just kegged 25 Gallons of beer. 2.5 kegs of a Wheat Beer, and 2.5 kegs of "Next Day Bio-Hazard Smoked Ale"

dp

 

[niquejim]

I never thought of fruit flies as a way to infect your beer. Damn I wish I would have know that a couple of days ago when I kegged my fresh hop ale, there were fruit flies flying around in my kitchen when I kegged.

Fruit Flies= acetobactor
Fruit flies in beer= vinegar

 

[BarleyWater]

I have.

I didn't realize it, but the boxes I had my bottles in just prior to being filled, had gotten wet and grew something on them. I had two batches go bad post-bottling before I saw the little spots inside the cardboard boxes.

 

[FireBrewer]

However, I find it hard to believe that with the lack of present sugars, and presence of alcohol, that anything but the strongest bacterias could spoil a batch once it's been fermented.

There's always residual sugars that, despite the fact that yeast can't metabolize them, bacteria and other microbes can.

Page Three

And those are laboratory conditions, not a homebrewer's basement or back room!

The alcohol content in beer (even high gravity beers) may slow 'em, but does not inhibit. Otherwise we'd be using isopropyl alcohol for sanitizing, not no-rinse food-grade acids and iodophors.

Sanitation is important in every stage of the process.

 

[Evan!]

yes, awhile back I had a couple awesome batches get astringent and gushy in the bottle. It happens.

 

[Kilgore_Trout]

I am anal-retentive about sanitation till it is racked into the keg and I have never had an infection of any kind. I turn off any HVAC during racking as I do not want any air movement. I also wear the disposable rubber gloves while working with stuff that goes into my Starsan bucket. I think the diligence pays off though SWMBO calls me the mad scientist when working on transferring beer or wort.

I never thought about this, but they're so cheap... why not? I think I'll pick up some gloves today before I bottle

I'm too new to this to really speak about infections, but so far I've had good luck. Sensitization is going to be important even after fermentation, as stated before... alcohol will inhibit many bacteria but not all of them. To me... the extra few cents and the extra few minutes are worth the peace of mind, I'd hate to lose the time and money spent on a batch over laziness.

 

[TexLaw]

I've never had it happen to me, but I've seen it happen to others. Some of the bottles were fine, some infected. That had to happen after fermentation. Like FireBrewer mentioned, there is plenty of food in there for some bugs, and there are bugs quite tough enough to take on a "fully" fermented beer. The Infection All-Stars are among them.


TL

 

[springer]

not yet . But I'm sure it will happen

 

[carnevoodoo]

Fruit Flies= acetobactor
Fruit flies in beer= vinegar

yup! Thanks to fruit flies and a poor seal on a keg, I had a bunch of vinegar.

The one consolation is that if you keep it totally away from oxygen, the acetobacter cannot do its work. So keep it in a co2 rich environment and you should be fine.

 

[Displaced MassHole]

So I just checked my amber that I crash cooled last night, I left the blow off attached via a 3piece airlock on in the bucket of sanitizer. When I opened the fridge door I saw that the blowoff bucket water was being sucked back into the carboy, about a half inches worth in a 6.5 gal carboy. Do you think I'll be ok? It was fully fermented to 5.4abv

 

[niquejim]

yup! Thanks to fruit flies and a poor seal on a keg, I had a bunch of vinegar.

The one consolation is that if you keep it totally away from oxygen, the acetobacter cannot do its work. So keep it in a co2 rich environment and you should be fine.

True, it sucks when they land in the bottling bucket (so glad I keg now)

 

[TeleTwanger]

I've had a few bad batches but that was when I used plastic primary. I haven't had one recently and I've had a fruit fly fall into wort as I transfered it to the primary, I managed to dig it out with my gloved hand. I'm anal about sanitation from after boiling to dropping to secondary but bottling I'm not too concerned. I've used old caps that were sitting in my drawer for years covered in dust and bottles that were only rinsed with no problems....Who knows though? I had a batch that tasted good in the primary but bad in the bottles but how do you trace when it was infected?

 

[david_42]

I had a stout go ropey my first year and a brown sour two years ago. Both were small beers. I haven't had anything over 6% go bad, although the vinegar beasties can handle even higher ABVs.

 

[Tenchiro]

One time a friend spilled the airlock water into a batch of already fermented Hefeweizen, it developed a coat of mold across the top. I siphoned out from under it and bottled, but there we no further problems with the batch. So not an infection per se, but it is the closest I have come.

 

[Dinbin]

I have only lost a single bottle. But it was a hard core infection. Had a smear of something left over from the last batch.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I think that I have one now. I did 10g of RIS. One carboy looks fine, the other has a kind of 'foam' on it and smells a bit off compared to the other one. I'll still keg it and drink it, but something isn't quite right with this 5g.

I was going to take pics of both of them and put them in a new thread.