What's With All the Infection Worries?

[MrManifesto]

seems like 99% of the time a person is freaked out about infection, it's not the case. why are people so paranoid about it? sanitation is pretty basic and nothing you're doing is particularly complicated. i just don't get why every day we get 10 new "is this infected?" threads. maybe it's just people not using the search function. i dunno.

 

[david_42]

If you've never fermented anything before, the ugly mess can be scary.

 

[Berock]

I feel ya. I've never had a major inflection and I'm not the best about sanitation. I use starsan but my fermentors are old buckets that most people would have tossed a long time ago.

 

[Berock]

I think the major issue is that the newbies worry about wasting the $$$'s it costs to make a batch a beer when they could have just bought some Sam Adams.

 

[MrManifesto]

confession time: i never oxy my bottles. i have a water blaster thingy i hook up to my sink, that and star san, but that's it.

i think yeast are a lot tougher than most people think.

 

[Taypo]

I think the major issue is that the newbies worry about wasting the $$$'s it costs to make a batch a beer when they could have just bought some Sam Adams.

You're being sarcastic, right?

 

[MrManifesto]

i think newbies are rightfully paranoid about everything in the beginning but after a couple batches, it's time to start refining, not worrying about things that (from what i've seen) barely anyone has a problem with.

 

[runningweird]

confession time: i never oxy my bottles. i have a water blaster thingy i hook up to my sink, that and star san, but that's it.

i think yeast are a lot tougher than most people think.

no sanitizer? That's just asking for trouble. Why risk all that hard work by doing that?

 

[HerbieHowells]

I compare it to going to Mexico or some other place where you aren’t supposed to drink the water. You do need to be careful. But how many people ruin a good portion of their vacation by worrying about every last thing they put in their body sending them to the can for the rest of the day? It is easy to worry too much when nasty results are possible. Likewise, you need to be careful about sanitation when brewing. But when you have this possibility of a ruined batch of beer floating around in your head, it is easy to start second guessing your procedure and imagining that you are doing all sorts of things wrong.

 

[MrManifesto]

no sanitizer? That's just asking for trouble. Why risk all that hard work by doing that?

i said i used star san.

 

[gunner65]

no sanitizer? That's just asking for trouble. Why risk all that hard work by doing that?

When I used to bottle (still do on rare occasion) I just ran my bottles through a soapless cycle in the dishwasher. They come out steam clean and never an infection on 30+ bottled batches. Now I keg and just run starsan through with CO2.

I believe that noobs worry way to much but I was a noob once to and worried just like everyone else.

Plus you start out using something like a brewers best kit $35-$65 a new pot and turkey fryer your starter kit of buckets and hoses. Those first batches are precious so I see the need to worry at first.

 

[MrManifesto]

i can see it at first. my first few batches were like my children. now if a batch doesn't come out quite how i wanted, i've already mentally moved on to the next.

 

[milldoggy]

Infection is one of those you should be paranoid about until you get your system down in my opinion. Like working with anything dangerous, take every precaution till you understand all the variables, once you learn the thing, respect it, you can adjust your over cautious steps.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Home Brew Talk

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Infection is one of those you should be paranoid about until you get your system down in my opinion. Like working with anything dangerous, take every precaution till you understand all the variables, once you learn the thing, respect it, you can adjust your over cautious steps.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Home Brew Talk

I agree. When I first started I went to extremes when it came to sanitation. If the dog came over and started wagging his tail while I was bottling or something I about had a heart attack. Over time my sanitation practices have become prgressively less stringent (mostly due to laziness) and the beer has not suffered. You're going to be paranoid your first couple batches though, comes with the territory.

 

[daksin]

I don't know what it is, but I've never had an infection. I thought I was above all the paranoia, but a few weeks ago I found myself totally panicking about some perceived infection in my belgian IPA. It seriously ruined my night. I had to restrain myself from posting about it (how glad am I that I didn't). I let it go for a few more weeks and of course it was totally fine. Just saying, even the most detached of us sometimes have a little freakout. I can see why noobs would be worried.

I think a lot of it has to do with how much we emphasize sanitation when starting out. "If it was hard to get an infection," the reasoning goes, "then why would everyone be so insane about sanitation? It must be really EASY to get an infection."

 

[Revvy]

You've only been here since April....this is a constant thing and has been for years. New brewers think their beer is like a weak mewling baby. They hover over it, and since they only know enough to be dangerous, they think EVERYTHING that looks out of the ordinary means it's an infection, but they fail to realize that fermentation is ugly and stinky.

Add to the fact that most of them don't realize that NOTHING pathogenic can grow in beer they are ALSO afraid that they're going to make something that will make them and their friends go blind, or get sick.

What the heck do you think I and other's do all day? We talk folks down off the roof.

That's why I have all those threads and blogs like- What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great?

And Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer!

And Revvy's advice for the new brewer in terms of worry.

Why the hell do you think my post count is so high?

All you can do is educate and calm.....

 

[Butter]

Humans have been making beer and wine for a LONG time. I'm pretty sure they didn't sanitize their barrels with star san or bleach or the dishwasher in the heat cycle. My method is the same as MrManifesto. Bottle rinsed and star san and that's it. Relax people.

 

[Lunchtime]

My first batches were care free. My mom bought me a kit for my birthday and I just did it...No research or anything. This site has instilled some fear into me. I tend to be bit more cautious with my sanitizing procedure now lol

 

[MrManifesto]

You've only been here since April....this is a constant thing and has been for years. New brewers think their beer is like a weak mewling baby. They hover over it, and since they only know enough to be dangerous, they think EVERYTHING that looks out of the ordinary means it's an infection, but they fail to realize that fermentation is ugly and stinky.

Add to the fact that most of them don't realize that NOTHING pathogenic can grow in beer they are ALSO afraid that they're going to make something that will make them and their friends go blind, or get sick.

What the heck do you think I and other's do all day? We talk folks down off the roof.

That's why I have all those threads and blogs like- What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great?

And Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer!

And Revvy's advice for the new brewer in terms of worry.

Why the hell do you think my post count is so high?

All you can do is educate and calm.....

i made an account in april.

oh thank you wise one for...educating and calming...us.

 

[Snowhere]

I started brewing in 1992. In almost 20 years of brewing I have only had 1 enfected batch! I descovered it from a medicine taste after bottling. I still had hope and aged the beer for 1.5 years before giving up and pouring out all the bottles. Moral, it can happen but not to likely. One batch out of 200+ is a dam good batting average!

 

[jiggs_casey]

Is sanitation important? Absolutely. Should you lose sleep over it? No. Clean your equipment. That's it! I have never had an infected batch either. Sanitation is more common sense than anything.

All equipment through boiling - Dawn and hot water.
All equipment post boil through bottling - Dawn and hot water, then a soak in a solution of hot water and One Step.

The only 'exception' to this would be an overnight soak for 'new' bottles to remove the labels.

 

[Newton]

I wouldn't bust people's chops for worrying about infections (thats what she said, heheheh). I'm a biomedical scientist by education and have professional medical clean room laboratory experience. So I guarantee you I have sanitation practices that exceed those of 95% of home brewers (alpha level 0.05). Yet for some reason 2 summers ago, I had 4 ruined batches in a row due to some sort of acetic acid producing bacteria. I never was able to locate the source of the contamination, but it went away in the fall. Infections happen, and they suck.

 

[Brulosopher]

You've only been here since April....this is a constant thing and has been for years. New brewers think their beer is like a weak mewling baby. They hover over it, and since they only know enough to be dangerous, they think EVERYTHING that looks out of the ordinary means it's an infection, but they fail to realize that fermentation is ugly and stinky.

Add to the fact that most of them don't realize that NOTHING pathogenic can grow in beer they are ALSO afraid that they're going to make something that will make them and their friends go blind, or get sick.

What the heck do you think I and other's do all day? We talk folks down off the roof.

That's why I have all those threads and blogs like- What are some of the mistakes you made...where your beer still turned out great?

And Never dump your beer!!! Patience IS a virtue!!! Time heals all things, even beer!

And Revvy's advice for the new brewer in terms of worry.

Why the hell do you think my post count is so high?

All you can do is educate and calm.....

I love you.

 

[sillyburt]

I don't know what it is, but I've never had an infection. I thought I was above all the paranoia, but a few weeks ago I found myself totally panicking about some perceived infection in my belgian IPA. It seriously ruined my night. I had to restrain myself from posting about it (how glad am I that I didn't). I let it go for a few more weeks and of course it was totally fine. Just saying, even the most detached of us sometimes have a little freakout. I can see why noobs would be worried.

I think a lot of it has to do with how much we emphasize sanitation when starting out. "If it was hard to get an infection," the reasoning goes, "then why would everyone be so insane about sanitation? It must be really EASY to get an infection."

this is exactly why newbs worry and post about infections. there's alot of focus and emphasis on sanitation so you DONT get an infection but after newbs do thier first batch and start to worry everyone tells them to RDWHAHB.

 

[Revvy]

there's alot of focus and emphasis on sanitation so you DONT get an infection.

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!! It doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

 

[kingwood-kid]

The key to worrying is timing. Unfermented wort--especially while you are going from boiliong temps to 70ish degrees--is a big bucket of food that all kinds of nasty stuff could live in. At that stage, you have to be near-paranoid.
Post-fermentation, say while bottling, you can relax a bit. Beer, unlike wort, has enough alcohol and little enough food to ward off most infections. In the interest of full disclosure, I feel compelled to admit that I say most infections because my dry-hopping ale is currently home to an unexpected pellicle.

 

[Clementine]

Why worry about infections... because no one likes drinking dead rhino but juice or risk serving up such beer to a friend.

Clem

 

[MikeG]

Wait until you get one. Then another, and another.

I just found my 3rd batch a few minutes ago, a split batch of 10 gal, the first 5 went into keg last weekend perfectly normal, the 2nd 5 gal has a layer of what I've seen twice before, an infection.

 

[COLObrewer]

I've had a few "infections", however, I know where mine come from and how to avoid them. Most of the "infection" posting I've seen has to do with suspecting contaminated equipment, I've NEVER had an "infection" caused by unclean equipment and I use all the same equipment for sours as I do for conventional beers.(Disclaimer: See paragraph two)

My "infecting" yeast/bacterium comes from an area, not equipment, it is my cellar, I'd suggest that anyone with an "infection" that they can't seem to eradicate take a look at where they are fermenting, or brewing, or chilling and consider changing their location. I'm not saying an infection CAN'T come from contaminated equipment, I do however think that if your equipment is contaminated, it had to get that way from something in the AREA that you are brewing, chilling, fermenting in, correct?

Furthermore, I'd suggest that if one does get an "infection", instead of freaking out and throwing out all that hard work, why not roll with it. Get yourself a sanke of some sort, set it up with an airlock and throw the "infected" brew in there and experiment. If you get another "infected" brew while you're trying to figure out where the "infection" is originating, throw that in the sanke with the other one, and experiment.

Why is "infection" always seen in "quotes" in my little schpeel here, it is because ALL beer had to be "infected" to be turned into beer, some beers happen to be "infected" by saccharomyces of some sort, some from brettanomyces and/or pedioccocus and/or lactobacilus or other yeast/bacterium. They are all beers and some peoples don't like some beers, some peoples are not used to some beers or haven't sampled some beers. All people need to realize that it is VERY unlikely that anything can live in beer that can harm you.

Brew on my friends

 

[hough77]

I would be willing to bet that a lot of batches are in fact "infected" you just would not know the difference either way. Unless you were trained to detect the off flavors and aromas from bad practice which ANY Homebrewer or Pro Brewer could encounter.