I've been brewing for about a year and with some initial success totally fell in love with the hobby. Lately, however, all my batches have come out terrible and its very discouraging. They taste sour and gush as if they are over carbonated. I know sanitation is the kneejerk reaction and I recognize this is probably the issue, though I am at a loss as to what else I could do--sanitation has become an obsession of mine and still I'm getting terrible results!
For reference, I'm soaking the bottles, carboy, and racking bucket in a bleach-water solution (or non-rinse sanitizer--I've tried both) for several hours, boiling caps for 5 minutes, and have even bought new tubing and carboy plugs (and soaked them in either a bleach or sanitizing solution) and even tried using only bottled water but it seems no matter what I do the result is the same! Can anyone help?
For reference, I'm soaking the bottles, carboy, and racking bucket in a bleach-water solution (or non-rinse sanitizer--I've tried both) for several hours, boiling caps for 5 minutes, and have even bought new tubing and carboy plugs (and soaked them in either a bleach or sanitizing solution) and even tried using only bottled water but it seems no matter what I do the result is the same! Can anyone help?