Just Sayin.......

[Snafu]

I'm sure I'll be bashed for this, but I just want to share this with those of you that are so worried about spoiled beer. Now just let me say I started brewing in the mid 90's and other than two times, I've never had to toss out beer and never because of an infection. The two times I tossed out the beer, one was due to ants getting into my keggle and were running all over the place once I applied heat for the boil. (they got down into the little holes around the rim) and the second time was a low flying bird with excellent bombing skills (nasty!). Over the years I've had to stick my entire arm down into wort, dropped spoons and just wiped them off, had kids sneeze wayyyy to close, and all have turned out fine. Recently I was cleaning up after a brew session and after soaking my hoses and rinsing, I noticed what I would describe as 2 tiny red spots on the inside of the hose. Now nothing in my brew or cleaning process should leave a red residue. I placed a small piece of cloth around my cleaning brush and was able to remove this red stuff although it was a little pasty. I'm assuming its a full blown bug and I had just ran my cooled wort through it. Well I decided to just let it go and see what happened, the beer was porter with an abv of around 7.5 so maybe that was able to kill any beasties that were growing but the beer turned out just fine. No sign what-so-ever of being infected.

Don't get me wrong, sanitation is huge and usually I'm a freak running around with his bottle of starsan spraying everything! But sometimes stuff just happens. Wort really isn't all that fragile when you really get down to it. Its pretty robust and tolerates our little slip ups quite well. As they say,.... Relax Don't worry, have a home brew!

 

[Bensiff]

No its not. Yeast do a good job of out competing everything else. The real issues get into long term aging though, the small inoculation may do nothing in the few months between brewing and drinking, but give it six months and all of a sudden you might end up with some weird flavors, a year and you might be going lambic, which could be a good thing sure.

 

[Homercidal]

Except for certain bacteria, more than likely you are going to drink the beer before the infection gets noticeable. Of course, it's not wise to push your luck either.

 

[Snafu]

Except for certain bacteria, more than likely you are going to drink the beer before the infection gets noticeable. Of course, it's not wise to push your luck either.

Amen brother, but somehow I always end up in an interesting situation. Hinse the name Snafu

 

[Baldy_Beer_Brewery]

The boil would have taken care of the ants and if it was early enough into the boil, I would have taken my chances with the bird droppings.

 

[RCCOLA]

, I would have taken my chances with the bird droppings.

I agree wholeheartedly. A little poo and ammonia? Ever smelled yeast nutrient?

 

[Homercidal]

I agree wholeheartedly. A little poo and ammonia? Ever smelled yeast nutrient?

Actually, I have some and have not smelled it yet... I guess I know what I must do when I get home tonight! :rockin:

 

[nilo]

I think the point of the OP is, for the time most of the beers need to age in a bottle or keg before you drinking it (less than 6 mo for sure. In my case, few weeks and my whole batch is gone), the infections we were very worried about when we started brewing doesn't happen that often.
If you start a pool here asking what is the percentagle of batches that turn out infected, it would probably be a very low rate. In my case, 0% after 60 batches of homebrew.
So I agree with Snafu.

 

[humann_brewing]

I am curious didn't you run boiling wort through your lines to sanitize before running the cooled wort through? Or sanitized in some other fashion.

My process is to basically rinse the hoses out after the chilled wort goes through, then on the next brewday with about 5 minutes left in the boil, I run boiling wort through the lines that the chilled wort will be going through. Gives me piece of mind.

 

[Owlbar]

 

[jwplessner]

Sounds like you may have some clover mites in your brew. Little devils get everywhere. I'm putting my money on your yeast. If it turns out delicious maybe chigger paste will become the next truffle or saffron.

 

[Snafu]

I PBW all my lines and rinse well, I too was suprised that anything was growing. Maybe it picked it up while it was hanging to dry, I dunno. But like someone said a few posts back was the real point is don't worry so much. New brewers really get worked up about it, I know I did back in the day.

I remember one time when the tube came off of my false bottom plate in my MT and I just dumped out the mash into another bucket, replaced the tube, poured the mash back in and kept going like nothing ever happened. If that would have happened back in my learning day I would have had a melt down. lol

 

[RCCOLA]

I remember one time when the tube came off of my false bottom plate in my MT and I just dumped out the mash into another bucket, replaced the tube, poured the mash back in and kept going like nothing ever happened. If that would have happened back in my learning day I would have had a melt down. lol

That happened on my first all-grain. I stirred the braid off-vorlauf wouldn't clear. My 1st reaction was to dump it and give up.
But, I stopped and thought it thru, drained the tun, scraped the grain to one side, ziptied the braid back on, put my wort back in, and finished.