Ok, I'm not just being paranoid about infections...

[Duster72]

I'm no infection expert, but based on reading lots of threads and listening to lots of podcasts, your infection problem almost has to be airborne.

I wouldn't throw away any of your equipment. I would bring it along and leave it in the garage. Make a batch in your garage and see what happens. If you get the same infection, throw out the plastic stuff.

I don't think there's any kind of strain that's so bad that you would need to throw away glass carboys or kettles.

Hell, I would buy "infected" carboys if I saw them on Craigslist. It's glass, it should be cleanable.

Also, you might want to think about switching from airlocks to a carboy cap or just aluminum foil - less chance of airborne contaminants that way.

 

[lebshiff21]

I'd do a batch w/ no secondary fermentation (maybe a Hefe). Do it in the ale pail, take the carboys out of the equation (hopefully you haven't tried this).

 

[cheeseshark]

I'd do a batch w/ no secondary fermentation (maybe a Hefe). Do it in the ale pail, take the carboys out of the equation (hopefully you haven't tried this).

Yeah, I've tried skipping the secondary.

 

[Catt22]

Stef,

Do you happen to mill your own grain? I'm wondering if you may have lactobacillus floating around in your brewery that may have originated with incoming malt. I think all malted grain has some lacto along for the ride. Avoid milling grain near bottles or bottling equipment for the same reason. I mill my grain outdoors for this very reason. Don't know what to tell you to try next, except don't give up. It's a surmountable problem.

 

[cheeseshark]

Stef,

Do you happen to mill your own grain? I'm wondering if you may have lactobacillus floating around in your brewery that may have originated with incoming malt. I think all malted grain has some lacto along for the ride. Avoid milling grain near bottles or bottling equipment for the same reason. I mill my grain outdoors for this very reason. Don't know what to tell you to try next, except don't give up. It's a surmountable problem.

Thanks for the reply. No, I don't mill my own grain. I know it's a long thread, but I have kind of ruled out most of the typical things one would think of when battling infections. At this point, I am really just wondering what people think about reference the equipment issue (what to keep, see page 9).

 

[TerapinChef]

Do you know anyone that works in a hospital/medical office? Anybody that might have access to a larger autoclave? Or you could try building a UV box with a shoplight or something to sanitize your carboys so you can still use them. (Think a big mirrored box with a huge blacklight on top of it). Also as it seems to affect you as well as your beer, you should look into gettting yourself a Living Air. I inherited one and it's wonderful.

 

[cheeseshark]

Ok, so, I've decided to pitch / sell every last piece of equipment. I'm pretty confident it's a house yeast, but I just don't want to risk it. Just in case people were curious. Plus, the move is coming very soon.

$200 for everything now:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f16/deal-century-tons-stuff-400-westland-mi-133129/

 

[JVD_X]

You could take some of your infected beer and send it to your state college outreach program. Here in Virgina services like this are provided by Virginia Tech. They will have their grad students and profs take a look at it (for a small cost) and let you know what the infection is. It is up to you to find out where it comes from.

Personally, it sounds to me like the house had a mold problem. Mold can exist and you won't see it, or it can be really bad and the inside of your walls look like a marsh.

 

[cheeseshark]

I think I'm just set on starting anew - I just can't bear the thought of another ruined batch. I might have to light something on fire if it happens again.

 

[JoMarky]

Before you take the hit on selling off your equipment and building it up all over again, why not make the investment in a kegging set up. It doesn't make sense to me that there's a problem with something in your process or equipment before the bottling phase, if each time it takes 4 weeks of being in the bottle for the infection to surface. The one time I purposefully infected my beer with lacto, the sourness was noticeable very quickly, within a few days.

Anyways, I keg my own brews, but help my friends bottle theirs, I prefer my method

 

[jamie3]

im no home brew expert and have only brewed maybe 25 kits in the last 8 months but try this.

#1 brew at someone else's house with your equipment
#2 purchase your ingredients from another store

I once have had the extensive amount foam shoot out of the bottles before. it was from a festa brew cream ale kit which tasted bad.

i brew solely in my kitchen and ferment in a small dark closed room in my basement. i also don't have an airlock primary fermenter, i simply leave the lid loose on top of the bucket.

i noticed some people talk about their AC being contaminated. i dont have AC, and use electric heating in my house so no furnace. i also dont have carpet in my house either. perhaps something is learing its ugly head from the carpet?

hope things work out. dont give up!

 

[McHandbag]

that's just CO2.

 

[HOW]

I'm so paranoid that I have house-borne nasties floating around that I'm having my forced air furnace and ducts cleaned and sanitized.
I hope that solves my persistent infection problems.
(or, maybe it's just that I'm dirty)

 

[Stef1966]

I've been told that the reason i never had an infected batch of beer is because i'm way up North in Canada... i'm beginning to think it's making sense... cause i'm probably not even half as anal about sterilization as most of you guys are.

Just using bleach based soap on my kit and thats about it... go figure... ?

 

[kaastel]

This was a great thread for me. I've been having almost exactly the same infection problems. All the advice has been quite interesting (though of dubious benefit, since the consensus seems to be if there is an icky airborne bug I am SOL). Any update on if the move fixed things?

 

[cheeseshark]

This was a great thread for me. I've been having almost exactly the same infection problems. All the advice has been quite interesting (though of dubious benefit, since the consensus seems to be if there is an icky airborne bug I am SOL). Any update on if the move fixed things?

Well, I would be happy to provide an update, as home brewing has really been on my mind lately.

I basically had enough, and sold all of my equipment (with full disclosure on the infection problems, in fact I linked to this thread in my CL ad, the buyers did not care). In fact, did anyone here buy the equipment? If so, did you have any problems?

Anyway, right after I sold all the stuff, I moved. My plan was to buy all new stuff after we got settled in. Well, here is where the story gets weird. There are several rows of grape vines in our yard that were well tended. The previous owner of the home, an elderly woman, passed away a few years before we moved in.

A few months after we moved in, I was chatting with the neighbor and I asked him about the grape vines. He said, "Oh, Riva made wine with those grapes for years and years. But, she had to stop because the wine kept going bad the last few years. She said it was an infection or something."

No, I am not making this up. So, it's like, wtf. I am debating on the risk of buying new equipment and then having problems. I would say the chances are high that she was just getting on in her years, and wasn't cleaning things the way she should, thus leading to the infections, but still. It's like someone doesn't want me to make beer.

Sorry for the long winded update. That is all.