Infected beer?

[monkeydan]

Hello all,

My friend had to dump our first effort at brewing due to an infection early on in primary fermentation - it never really seemed to get going and ended up with some weird horrible stuff floating on top (looked like the photo in this article: http://www.thebrewsite.com/2006/10/01/tragedy.php)

I brewed another batch yesterday and I think the same thing might be happening. It's hard to say as the primary and all the equipment is over at a friend's house but he called me this morning and said there was 'clumpy' stuff underneath the krausen and it was starting to smell a bit weird (like a milder version of what happened last time.

Do you think that my friend might be a bit premature in saying that this batch is infected? If it is infected, why could this have happened to me twice? Could you give me some ideas of where I might be going wrong?

After the first batch got infected we were very careful with our sanitation yesterday. Everything was cleaned prior to use and everything touching the wort post-boil was sanitized - the primary was sanitized, the wort chiller was sanitized, the yeast packet was dunked in sanitizer and opened with sanitized scissors, I washed my hands and rinsed them in sanitizer to hold the filter bag (which had also been dunked in sanitizer and rinsed) as the wort was poured into the primary. The thermometer was kept in sanitizing solution inbetween temp tests.

Thanks for any advice, assistance, etc. you could provide!

 

[llazy_llama]

Yes, I think your friend is very premature in claiming an infected batch.

If this happened to you twice, your sanitation practices would have to be terrible or nonexistant. However, if you made an honest mistake once, got an infection, and then used the same equipment (especially plastic equipment), I could see another infection as possible.

Walk us through your sanitation practices please, from the boil onwards, but especially your fermenter. We'll nitpick from there. Don't skip on a single detail, please. The more we know, the more we can help.

 

[monkeydan]

OK, just before the boil was turned off (it's a 5 gallon SS pot we're using on a stove top - just doing 3 gal batches) the immersion chiller was removed from the sanitizing solution and rinsed with boiling water from a kettle. The chiller was put in the wort and a sparging bag placed over the top to prevent anything from landing in the wort during chilling (this sparging bag had not been placed in any sanitizer although it was clean and did not make contact with the wort). A few times the sparge bag was lifted up to get the digital thermometer in there, the thermometer was placed into a flask filled with sanitizer between temp tests.

Once the wort reached the desired temp (around 22C) the wort was poured through the same sparge bag (which was dunked into sanitizer and rinsed with hot tap water beforehand) into the fermenter. I was holding the sparge bag and squeezed it to get all the wort through the hops and 'gunk' (which I think is the proteins from the cold break?). I had washed my hands thoroughly and rinsed them in sanitizer before this.

We used a whisk (which had been dunked in the sanitizer and rinsed with boiling water) attached to a cordless drill in order to aerate the wort prior to pitching the yeast.

The packet of wyeast had been floating about on top of the sanitizer solution so this was dunked a couple of times and the corner cut off with a pair of scissors which had been in the flask of sanitizer with the digital thermometer. The yeast was then pitched into the wort.

The lid was placed on the fermeter and that was that!

We had used the fermenting bucket (which is plastic but only used a couple of times before) to collect the runoff from the sparge as we were using the boil kettle to heat and contain the sparge water. Now that I think about it, the fermenter was not re-sanitized after this although it was cleaned with dish detergent and thoroughly rinsed with hot tap water.

My friend's first batch (extract) had no problems - the additional variables in our all grain batches are use of the immersion chiller (which he didn't have for the first brew), use of the fermenter for collecting the runoff from the mash tun, and use of the sparge bag to strain the wort before it went into the fermenter.

The sanitizer we used is VWP (not sure what type this is, but it does need rinsing after use). I don't know whether fresh sanitizer had been used on the day of the brew as I seem to remember that my friend had put everything in the sanitizing solution a few days earlier.

Sorry if this is a bit of an epic post but you did say that the more you know, the more you can help!

 

[llazy_llama]

It's weird how some brewers can seemingly stir their beer with ungloved hands and never get an infection; meanwhile some brewers take most sensible precautions and still end up with issues anyway.

1: You never mentioned how/if you sanitized your fermenter or racking gear.
2: You never mentioned which sanitizing soloution you used, nor how your used it.
3: I'm still not 100% convinced there is even an infection involved. Many times the yearst clump up along the surface and form weird "rafts," wherein you end up with big clumps of strange looking floaties. If at all possible, send pics of your brew, not brews that look similar.

Anyway, I hope we can help you figure it all out. I'm sure you'll be back to healthy brewing soon here!

 

[monkeydan]

The fermenter was sanitized using VWP Cleaner & Sterilizer, dulited per package instructions - the fermenter was filled about a third full, then sloshed around and wiped with a new cloth, then rinsed in tap water. We didn't use any racking gear, just poured the wort into the fermenter. However I think that the sanitizer may have been in the fermenter for a few days prior to brew day (which as I have just read elsewhere is probably a bad idea as some sanitizers don't actually stay 'fresh'' this long anyway!)

I'll see if I can get my friend to take a few snaps and I'll post them up here.

Hopefully it's not an infection, if it is we will rethink and double check our procedures.

Would you say it's necessary to use some kind of filtering (i.e. the sparge bag) for the wort before it goes into primary? Or will the cold break gunk, hops, etc. all settle out anyway? I have a feeling that this might be where the infection came from.

Anyway, thanks for your help!