Sour beer

[Cposten]

Hey,
I recently made an Irish red and when I racked to secondary it tasted great, absolutely nothing wrong. About a week later it was time to bottle and I went to taste it and it was nasty and sour. Was wondering what could have went wrong, was fermented with safale American ale yeast at between 68-70 degrees. When I racked it it was into a vessel with some extra head space so I blasted with c02. Any other info you need let me know. Just wanna find out why this happened, I'm heart broken his brew went bad.

 

[daksin]

Sour typically means some type of bacterial infection, like lactobacillus. What is your sanitizing procedure, and what products do you use to sanitize your equipment?

 

[Cposten]

I scrub with a dish soap and sponge, rinse hot water, then soak with a so2 (potassium meta bisulfide) solution like the one we use at the winery I work at. I then rinse with water as hot as my tap will make it.

 

[daksin]

Ah, you're going to want to use a more stringent sanitizer than kmeta. Kmeta is bacteriostatic- it prevents things from growing, but it doesn't kill them, so they're free to replicate in your beer. Switch to an acid sanitizer like starsan or iodine based one like iodophor and I think you'll see better results. Also, scrubbing can scratch your plastics and leave places for bacteria to hide from sanitizer. Go to a no-scrub like PBW or unscented oxyclean and things should improve.

All your infected equipment (anything plastic you own, now) should be bleached overnight just to be sure.

 

[hector]

I scrub with a dish soap and sponge, rinse hot water, then soak with a so2 (potassium meta bisulfide) solution like the one we use at the winery I work at. I then rinse with water as hot as my tap will make it.

Sanitizing with K-Meta is O.K. , but if you use the correct concentration , there is no need to

rinse afterwards .

1% solution of K-Meta is a good sanitizer which does not need rinsing .

Tap water introduces bacteria again , although it's hot .

Hector

 

[hector]

Ah, you're going to want to use a more stringent sanitizer than kmeta. Kmeta is bacteriostatic- it prevents things from growing, but it doesn't kill them, so they're free to replicate in your beer.

WHAT ?!!!

Which Sanitizer is more stringent than K-Meta ?!!!!

K-Meta sanitizes everything by producing SO2 which is a very strong Bacteria killer .

This Gas is 500 TIMES ! stronger than the solution itself .

That's why it's been used for thousands of years in Wine and Food culture .

Although , in Beer making not as much as in Wine making because Beer yeast does not

tolerate SO2 as well as Wine yeast .

Hector

 

[Cposten]

Ah, you're going to want to use a more stringent sanitizer than kmeta. Kmeta is bacteriostatic- it prevents things from growing, but it doesn't kill them, so they're free to replicate in your beer. Switch to an acid sanitizer like starsan or iodine based one like iodophor and I think you'll see better results. Also, scrubbing can scratch your plastics and leave places for bacteria to hide from sanitizer. Go to a no-scrub like PBW or unscented oxyclean and things should improve.

All your infected equipment (anything plastic you own, now) should be bleached overnight just to be sure.

Thanks. It's not really so much a scrub as wiping with the soft side. Anybody willing to share how they sanitize? I'd like to get as much input as possible.

 

[hector]

I use 1% solution of K-Meta as sanitizer in Wine making .

By Beer making I've always used Iodophore and have had no issue .

I buy "Povidone Iodine 10%" from Drugstore and dilute it by dissolving

1.25 ml of it per liter of water and use this solution as sanitizer .

Hector

 

[william_shakes_beer]

After emptying a plastic brew bucket, I rinse with warm tap water and rub the krausen off with my hand. Then I put a little no-rinse cleanser in the bottom with some water and clean with my hand. Dry thoroughly and store in a dust free area (in the box the fermenter came in, for instance) When its time to brew again I pull it out and swish a little star san around, wetting the entire inside of the vessel, spray the lid inside with starsan, and put it loosely over the continer to keep out dust and dirt. All the tools that will touch the wort after is cools go into 2.5 gallons of starsan mixed up in the "other" fermenter. I usually bottle on friday anbd brew the next batch Satyurday or Sunday, so the starsan batch is used for both efforts. If the brown hops stains are severe, I will leave the starsan in the bucket overnight to soak.