brewhan
Active Member
Somehow or other, my beer always ends up getting infected. Can anyone spot where I'm going wrong?
I mash and boil in a large aluminium pot which does have quite a lot of scratches and black-looking indentations in it, as is typical of old aluminium pots, although I figured this would be ok since it's getting boiled for an hour?
After boiling, I leave the pot to cool (sometimes I put it in a bath of cold water). I put clingwrap around the edges of the lid to stop excessive airflow.
After the wort has cooled, I transfer it to my glass carboy, which is quite old and does have some very slight scratches on the inside. I first soak the carboy, filling it right up, in a cleaning solution made of "chlorine and cleaning soda" (sometimes for around 24 hours), then sanitise with star-san - I don't fill the carboy right up with that, just swish it around a lot so all the surfaces get a lot of it on them. I use the same cleaning and sanitization products on my syphoning hose, rubber bung and airlock.
I then pour in my yeast, straight out of the packet, seal up with the airlock and bung, and it's ready to ferment.
Already by this stage, I believe, my beer is infected. I think this because it's always all my bottles which go bad - never just some, suggesting the infection takes place before bottling - and I've come to notice the "infected" taste at bottling time.
One last thing - my house and kitchen are generally quite dirty - I live in a student flat - but I'm careful to clean and sanitize everything that will come into contact with the beer.
If anyone has any advice or feedback, it would be much appreciated!
I mash and boil in a large aluminium pot which does have quite a lot of scratches and black-looking indentations in it, as is typical of old aluminium pots, although I figured this would be ok since it's getting boiled for an hour?
After boiling, I leave the pot to cool (sometimes I put it in a bath of cold water). I put clingwrap around the edges of the lid to stop excessive airflow.
After the wort has cooled, I transfer it to my glass carboy, which is quite old and does have some very slight scratches on the inside. I first soak the carboy, filling it right up, in a cleaning solution made of "chlorine and cleaning soda" (sometimes for around 24 hours), then sanitise with star-san - I don't fill the carboy right up with that, just swish it around a lot so all the surfaces get a lot of it on them. I use the same cleaning and sanitization products on my syphoning hose, rubber bung and airlock.
I then pour in my yeast, straight out of the packet, seal up with the airlock and bung, and it's ready to ferment.
Already by this stage, I believe, my beer is infected. I think this because it's always all my bottles which go bad - never just some, suggesting the infection takes place before bottling - and I've come to notice the "infected" taste at bottling time.
One last thing - my house and kitchen are generally quite dirty - I live in a student flat - but I'm careful to clean and sanitize everything that will come into contact with the beer.
If anyone has any advice or feedback, it would be much appreciated!