I also remove the airstone from the wort with O2 still running so it blows stuff out...can't really fill with wort that way. sorta pre-emptive cleaning.
When I finish oxygenating, I remove the wand from the fermenter and plunge the stone into some Starsan for a few seconds while the O2 is still running. Afterwards, I remove the stone from the wand and store it in a small jar full of Starsan until next use.
Just curious. How did you decide the stone was to blame? Until recently, I've done little more than rinse it off in the sink and I've had no trouble at all. Of course, I've been lucky in lots of ways, considering my sanitation habits.The only major infection I've had so far (knock on wood) I traced back to my oxygen stone.
Before I was rinsing the stone in hot water after use, storing it in Starsan till my next brew day and then running 02 through it for a minute or so while in the Starsan bucket before putting it in the fermenter to aerate.
After the infected batch (a Band-Aid nightmare of a double IPA) I now boil the stone for about 10 min while I chill my wort on brew day and then keep it in my Starsan bucket until I am ready to aerate...no problems since (again knock on wood).
After use i blast out the wort with some o2 then i boil it 2- 4 minutes then put it in a small tube with star san until ready to use
Just curious. How did you decide the stone was to blame? Until recently, I've done little more than rinse it off in the sink and I've had no trouble at all. Of course, I've been lucky in lots of ways, considering my sanitation habits.
Process of elimination and common sense really...
I had only used the stone a handful of time before that bad batch so it was the newest variable to my brewing process (that I had successfully brewed 100+ prior batches with).
After the infected batch, I looked at all the steps that could have introduced a nasty into my wort and those thousands of micro holes in my stone, that had been immersed in sugar water and then simply rinsed off with hot water, seemed an obvious culprit.
Maybe it was a random event and I am overkilling it these days with boiling the stone, but I haven't had a problem since.
Maybe it is do to phenolics and not necessarily an infection? https://beerandbrewing.com/off-flavor-phenolic/
There was a youtube video I just saw about a carbonation stone for a professional system.
He pushed a caustic cleaner though the stone using CO2 [...snip]
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