mildew smell/gym sock taste

[blackwaterbrewer]

i am having nightmare problems. i can't seem to track down this random funk that is attacking my brews. i have dumped 3 of the last 5 brews and i can't seem to narrow down the problem. anyone ever heard of a musty, sour aftertaste??? if i have to trash my whole system, i will. but my wife might qhysically hurt me when the new $2,000 brew tree system shows up FEDEX!

 

[cjmurphy87]

Have you brewed anything with brett?

 

[jbrookeiv]

Have you brewed anything with brett?

+1. Have you replaced all of the plastic in your system? Tubing, buckets, etc.

 

[mrk305]

The last time I had problems it was mold or mildew in my siphon hose. I now soak all my hoses and siphoning equipment in a cooler filled with bleach solution all the time. If a fermenting bucket is ever empty (pretty rare) it, too is filled with bleach solution until it is used.

 

[blackwaterbrewer]

what is "brett"? is that plastic? my system is stainless with vinyl braided hose coming from the HLT to the Mash tun, then the mash tun drains via a vinyl braided hose to the kettle. please tell me that this is my problem. that would be the easiest fix int the world

 

[blackwaterbrewer]

is my vinyl braided line the problem? i am brewing right now and could use the input of someone knows

 

[jbrookeiv]

Brett is Brettanomyces, a "bug" that some people in the brewing industry (including myself) use to produce a funky flavor in their beer.

How do you transfer wort to your fermenter? It could very well be the vinyl hose. Brett notoriously buries itself in plastic and is impossible to clean.

 

[mixedbrewer]

If it is an infection of some kind, it is happening post boil. So you can rule out anything that gets super hot.

 

[corax]

How do you get your wort from the kettle to the fermenter? How do you chill it? How do you sanitize your chiller?

What type of fermenter do you have? How do you sanitize it?

How do you get your beer from the fermenter to the final vessel (bottle or keg)? How do you sanitize that final vessel?

 

[blackwaterbrewer]

kettle is chilled with copper coil chiller. the chilled wort goes from kettle to glass carboy via strainer/funnel. chiller and fermenter are sanitized with starsan. beer goes from carboy to corny keg via autosiphon (also soaked in starsan) corny keg is usuall sanitized with boiling water and starsan.

 

[cjmurphy87]

by braided hose do you mean it is covered in a steel braid? I use clear hose so I can see the insides to make sure they are clean, also after each time i use my racking cane, syphon and hoses I back flush them with sanitizer as in the past I have had equipment mold from not being properly cleaned.

 

[blackwaterbrewer]

no, the hose is clear vinyl with the criss-cross braiding going along the tube. it looks perfectly clean.

 

[corax]

kettle is chilled with copper coil chiller. the chilled wort goes from kettle to glass carboy via strainer/funnel. chiller and fermenter are sanitized with starsan. beer goes from carboy to corny keg via autosiphon (also soaked in starsan) corny keg is usuall sanitized with boiling water and starsan.

No real smoking guns in your process.

Replacing all your tubing is relatively cheap and can't hurt.

Any chance water could be leaking out of the chiller into the cooling wort?

The strainer/funnel method is a possible point of contamination. Consider siphoning from the pot to the fermenter.

The only other thing I can think of is to make sure you're pitching enough yeast to out-compete opportunistic contaminants. What type of yeast do you use, and how do you prepare it?

 

[BeernuT100]

How does it taste post boil?

 

[blackwaterbrewer]

tastes fine post boil. my wort chiller is old. i was thinking of replacing the chiller and switching out the vinyl tube for copper. only thing i can think of other than that is my pump. i guess i could take it apart and boil all the parts, but i always run hot star san water through it before and after brewing.

 

[SwampassJ]

How does it taste before going into the keg? Are you cleaning your keg lines? Are you using co2 from a place that fills soda fountain dispensers and not filling up at some paintball store?

 

[blackwaterbrewer]

get rid of all your plastic and vinyl. had the same thing happen to me. use star san and boil everything. replace anything plastic. if you use a cooler get a new one.

 

[Dr. Francois]

Agreed. Get rid of all plastic and vinyl. Take apart all weldless fittings and boil them. Stainless should be all good.

Consider silicone hose. You can boil it to clean in.

 

[tasq]

get rid of all your plastic and vinyl. had the same thing happen to me. use star san and boil everything. replace anything plastic. if you use a cooler get a new one.

Why get a new cooler? It's something on the cold side. Sounds like a waste of money to me.

 

[WHYB]

blackwater, ...did you know you were responding to your own o.p?

 

[tasq]

blackwater, ...did you know you were responding to your own o.p?

I thought the same thing. How stoned are you bro? Tell us the truth.

 

[mrk305]

He did say that he had the same thing happen to him.

 

[eastoak]

i am having nightmare problems. i can't seem to track down this random funk that is attacking my brews. i have dumped 3 of the last 5 brews and i can't seem to narrow down the problem. anyone ever heard of a musty, sour aftertaste??? if i have to trash my whole system, i will. but my wife might qhysically hurt me when the new $2,000 brew tree system shows up FEDEX!

i was loking at the brewtree site wondering if their stands were priced right.
what do you get for $2000?