lactobacillus equipment contact

[Apoxbrew]

i'm working on a sour and fermented a portion of my wort with lactobacillus. it was a small portion in a glass gallon jug.

i know the glass is fine... some pbw and starstan and i'll have no worries about it.

i'm wondering though if i should keep the stopper and bubbler segregated now from the rest of my equipment and only use these two items again when lactos is involved?

i don't want to accidentally contaminate a regular brew and since these items were plastic (even though they didn't really come in direct contact with the lactos) i wasn't sure if it was safe to use anymore.

thanks for the info!

 

[erikpete18]

If it was me I wouldn't worry too much about it, but haven't had a chance to try lacto yet so don't take my word as gospel. I've got a berliner weiss in line for next month though, and I'm just planning on sanitizing everything as soon as I finish with it. I don't think lacto is as tough to get rid of as a wild yeast like brett. Figure you've got tons of lacto on your skin anyways, so a little is gonna wind up near your beer in any case. Maybe give your stopper/airlock an overnight soak in some starsan, otherwise I wouldn't do anything different.

 

[MDRex]

What about Brett? If I'm brewing with Brett should I keep that equipment seperated from everything else?

 

[erikpete18]

On the Brett I've heard several different ways of doing it. Some people can get by with sanitizing right after using and not having a separate set of Brett-gear. I think a lot of people that use Brett know that they're going to do more Brett/wild beers, so they don't mind buying a second set of plasticware (hoses, autosiphon, etc., don't need to worry about glass) and using the new stuff for regular sacc. beers and the old stuff for brett/wild beers.

From what I've heard Brett can get into nooks and crannies pretty easily, and then it can be tough to get out. Lacto is also inhibited by alcohol and hops pretty well, where the Brett doesn't mind either of those and can hang out slowly munching on sugars the sacc leaves behind. I just started using brett, so for the time being I'm just gonna try sanitizing right after use and see where it gets me. However, I'm also planning on the possibility of Brett contaminations and realize that I may have to buy new plastics at some point. (But I also really like brett beers, so even unplanned contaminations don't sound all bad )

It might also make a difference depending on whether you bottle or keg. I keg, so if I get a brett contamination worst I get is some brett character in a beer I wasn't planning with any. If you bottle, the brett can lead to bottle bombs which are a whole other story. So I guess that doesn't help much, since it really just comes down to your preference/risk-taking personality .

 

[SickTransitMundus]

I throw out everything plastic that touches brett. Since I usually add brett to kegs after fermenting with normal yeast, this just involves replacing the keg o-rings and lines. I also soak the keg overnight in oxyclean and then in sanitizer just to be sure. It's pretty hard to kill. I reused a brett keg without rebuilding on an American pale ale. The results were... interesting, but not desired.

If you're going to use racking/bottling equipment I suggest dedicating it to wild yeast.

 

[vinyl_key]

I'm interested in this as well. I'd love to start making beer with lacto, but I don't have money for a second set of everything plastic if it's really needed.

 

[MDRex]

Well, since I happen to have a lot of extra gear I'll probably just keep everything seperate. I do plan on doing more Brett/wild beers so it's not a big deal to me having to buy a few extra things. Thanks for the info.

 

[erikpete18]

I throw out everything plastic that touches brett. Since I usually add brett to kegs after fermenting with normal yeast, this just involves replacing the keg o-rings and lines. I also soak the keg overnight in oxyclean and then in sanitizer just to be sure. It's pretty hard to kill. I reused a brett keg without rebuilding on an American pale ale. The results were... interesting, but not desired.

If you're going to use racking/bottling equipment I suggest dedicating it to wild yeast.

That's good to know! I may have to save a little money and plan on picking up a few things when I order my next batch. Thanks!