Hope it helps understanding this stuff a little. We all learn as we go...
Post your infection
- Thread starter jcarson83
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eboogey. Definitely. What happened?
Brand new to this sight, and not seeing where I can start a new thread.. Just bottled a batch of summer ale 2 weeks ago. 1st and secondary used. Sampled today, and am noticing off flavors, and almost no carb. Was very careful w/ sanitation, and used carb drops. So it's a 2 part question... Any ideas?
Try tasting it again 2 weeks from now.
![Craft A Brew - Safale BE-256 Yeast - Fermentis - Belgian Ale Dry Yeast - For Belgian & Strong Ales - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [3 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bcKEwQmWL._SL500_.jpg)
Pfgonzo. I brewed a berliner where I soured in the kettle to a pH of 3.4. I then boiled for 60 minutes and split the batch to add fruit to half and dry hop the other half. The picture is what I saw when I went to dry hop. Still not sure how it got infected like that.
The fruit batch doesn't look like that? Berliner weisse yeasts, if you got a blend, often include lacto.
BGBC
Well-Known Member
Yes but the boil should have killed all the souring bugs from the kettle souring.
Must have picked something up post boil.
Kettle souring yes, but I was referring to the pitched yeast, which by necessity comes after the boil.
Yeah, fruit floating on the top can get that way pretty easy. Even if you keep the lid closed.
looked fine when I bottled my Kolsch last Monday, now I have this in all of the bottles
I think I figured out what happened. On brew day I could only get down to about 80 degrees with my plate chiller and it took me about 3 hrs to get from 80 to 70 in my conical and I pretty much preselected perfectly for a lacto contamination. Next time I am rigging up a prechiller. I also transferred some of my base batch onto the batch with fruit to even them out a little. Either way, I think both batches will be tasty and I am going to the mother of all cleaning sessions once I am done with these batches and dedicate all the valves, gaskets, and hoses to sours just in case!
IJesusChrist
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If you were to swirl your fruit, you may had not had this problem. Its likely that whatever is growing on top cannot grow on the bottom, it can't compete with yeast. So if you had then submerged once or twice a day by gentle swirling I bet you could have totally avoided that.
Just a thought
Just a thought
Cracked my stored Wyeast 3068 Whippensnappen today and discovered the yeast foam on the underside of the lid has turned dark. It wasn't in contact with the liquid, so unsure if this is mold or oxidation of some sort. Yeast is 35 days old, was top cropped and still looks/smells fresh. What do you guys think?
i've seen that before and it was not a problem for me.
Thanks for responding on this. I decided to go ahead as an experiment. Worst case scenario, I just invested $30 towards my homebrew education
Was that as far as the bottles were filled? They should be filled to within an inch or inch & a half of the top. Too much head space could contribute to that?...
Pictures are a little deceiving, The bottles are all filled to about an inch or so of the top. This is my 8th extract and haven't seen anything like it before.
Never saw one that bad either. Maybe capper not sealing them tight enough? Did you smell malt while they were carbing & conditioning?
the capper is sealing good. I tilted some bottles and there are no leaks. When I bottled I tasted it and it didn't taste bad. Tonight I was going to do a Citra IPA and when I got the fermentation bucket out I noticed it had a smell of vinegar. I cleaned it last week with a good dose of Star San after bottling these. I wonder if I had an infection that I didn't detect. Beer looked good going into the bottles though so I'm stumped.
BigPerm
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Hey, if you're going to pick up a lacto contamination, you couldn't have picked a better style to have it happen! Roll with it!
That looks very aggressive. Have you ever cleaned that bottling bucket spigot, I mean the two 3/4" inch barrels of the main body that rotate within each other, not just the one with the handle. Those 2 barrels come apart after soaking in hot water. Then there are threads, the rubber seal, the nut. A real bug trap. I'd leave an inch or 2 of Starsan in that bucket when stored away, with a lid on it (not snapped).
Starsan is not a cleaner. PBW is.
You can't really "clean it" with Starsan. It's a sanitizer. Soak it in PBW or the like to clean it. Spigots too. I also use aquarium lift tube cleaning brushes to clean spigots & parts. Rinse well, then sanitize.
I have been cleaning everything with PBW but after that I wipe down with Star San. But I haven't taken the spigot totally apart like you suggest. I'll bet that's where the little critters were hiding.
Looks like I'll be opening and dumping 5 gallons of bottled beer. Might just buy a new bucket, spigot, bottle filler, and hose to be on the safe side.
paulster2626
Well-Known Member
Don't buy anything new. Just clean what you've already got and you'll be fine. Bleach it if you're really paranoid, but a good cleaning will suffice.
If the bucket isn't scratched just a good cleaning with or without bleach and a proper rinse and Starsan should suffice. It is very important to remove the spigot each time and disassemble it to clean it properly. Leave it in a little container (e.g., cottage cheese tub) with Starsan. Just don't forget to put it back in the bucket before you fill it up!
I would buy another spigot and toy with the old one to learn how it comes apart (hot water soak!) and clean it. It can be boiled in PBW.
The bottle filler tippy also comes apart. Don't lose that little spring, which has a true bottom side, where the end of the spring wire goes across to push the plunger. Palmer has a good chapter on sanitation and cleaning regiments. Everything should be taken apart and cleaned thoroughly, then sanitized and reassembled wet.
Depending on how you wipe the bucket with a rag soaked in Starsan, make sure the sides stay wet for at least 30 seconds. Don't store, weight, or mill grains where you brew or store fermentors. The grain is covered in lacto, and the dust spreads it.
Get new racking tubing for all security, and clean that racking cane or siphon well while at it.
How does the beer taste? A slight sourness may not be bad at all. Some of us crave that
I just caught this.
Make sure you rinse the PBW off with clean water before you "wipe down" with Starsan. Starsan only works while it's acidic.
PBW's strong alkalinity kills Starsan's joy.
Starsan in a spray bottle works like a charm, but some things are better dunked and soaked (hoses etc.).
Thanks for all of your input. I think I need to do a better job of cleaning, especially the spigot! I didn't know it came apart. I bought a spray bottle for my Star San over the weekend and will pick up a new spigot and hose. I have been taking the bottle filler apart. I almost lost the spring on a few occasions.
I haven't tasted the beer in the bottle yet, it's only been carbing for 8 days now. I'll open one tonight and see how it tastes. If it's not too bad maybe I'll just have to drink it fast. Plus, I've never tried a sour so maybe I'll like it .
