Bellybuster
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how old is your starsan? It does have a shelf life
I actually mill my grain in the kitchen, which is where I brew and then transfer wort to the bucket 'cause that's where I chill too. QUOTE]
Bingo.
Grain has naturally occurring lactobacillus on it. By milling in the same area you are brewing, you can be introducing lacto to your wort. The dust particles can linger in the air for a while.
Also, you didn't mention how you are handling your yeast. Many infection problems can be traced back to yeast procedures.
I'm skeptical that bleaching everything is going to help. You are already using star san. Bacteria has a hard time surviving star san.
I'd also investigate the "purified" water you are using. How is it "purified"?
No problem, we're all here to help! As far as the grain causing an infection, like I said I don't think that's super likely but if you're crushing the grain in the same room that you then transfer the wort to the bucket, there could be grain dust in the air still. Thing is, there's all sorts of stuff floating around in the air anyways even if it's not from the grain, but it'd at least be worth trying to eliminate that cause.
As far as the bleach bomb, don't be afraid of bleaching everything and then using it, as long as you give it a good rinse afterwards. It'll be fine to use (as in it won't hurt you). No guarantee it'll fix the problem, but bleach will be far cheaper than buying all new buckets, hoses, etc, so I'd sure give it a try first.
how old is your starsan? It does have a shelf life
I'd also bleach bomb. But also you might want to consider adjusting for Ph. It made a huge difference in the taste of my beer.
Will be switching places when I mill now to discard one more reason. I just bought some bleach, I'll try with it and just brew a small batch. I don't wanna dump more precious beer!
Any suggestions with the bleach bomb? leave everything submerged for a certain time and then rinse the hell out of it?
Exactly - dump a cup or so of bleach into a bucket (7 gallons or so) and fill the rest with water (doesn't need to be hot water, lukewarm is fine) and leave it sit for an hour or so. You should smell bleach pretty strong but if the water is "slippery" like straight bleach you've got more than you really need. Take everything apart as much as you can - take the spigots out of buckets, submerge everything you can fit in there, hoses, airlocks, lids (soak lids in a sink full of the bleach water after you've emptied it out of buckets to make it easier). When you're done with soaking, siphon the bleach water through your hoses/racking cane or whatever all you've got. It may sound crazy but try to think your way through every piece of equipment and how you can get every bit of everything in contact with that bleach water for a while.
FYI, it's usually said that you shouldn't ever bleach stainless steel because it'll pit it or what not. I regularly hit my kegs with a mild bleach solution (a couple ounces for 5 gallons of water) for a brief time and then dump it and rinse them well. Just don't leave stainless in contact with bleach (especially full strength) for a long time, and you should be fine.
When I rinse, I try to rinse with as hot of water as I can get from the tap. After rinsing for a couple minutes it's usually almost hot enough to burn me and yet I keep going as much as I can. When you're done rinsing you shouldn't smell any bleach residue any more - you should smell "clean" equipment.
(FYI this is honestly about how I sanitize every time I brew. Never had an infection. It may be overkill but to be honest, the last thing I want is for some bug to take hold in my couple hundred dollars of brewing equipment and end up needing to replace it all.)
One thing that really stands out to me is pitching yeast at 76 degrees. It's just too warm, in my opinion. Since you have temperature control, I'd recommend getting the wort into your sanitized fermenter, sealing it up, and bringing the temp down to mid 60s before pitching.
I am no fan of US-05 in any conditions, but it can sure junk up a beer when pitched warm (FWIW, I get orange/musty flavored from US-05). I'd try a batch with WLP090 if that's available in your area.
Yeast is a simple dry package so not much handling there, just cut the pack open and pitch them straight to the bucket.
Are you rinsing both the yeast package and the scissors in sanitizer before cutting it open?
Only the scissors, I haven't rinsed the package :O
Well I would start doing that, but I doubt that is the cause of recurring infections unless you bought all the yeast at the same time and all packages had the same bacteria.... and somehow some of the bacteria made it into the wort every single time....