Recent content by livo

I was always of the belief that the hop oils in beer were a problem.

The FV I used to test is clean and clear. No infection after 6 days. Bottle tomorrow. They did not need to be binned.

Thanks Paddy. At this point, the Cerveza is beginning to clear, with the yeast flocculating and so far, all is looking good. Still too early to call. I haven't touched it at all to do a gravity, and I won't until day 5 or 6 unless I can see the flower. If that happens I'll be taking it out...

A big advantage of using a 60 litre FV and 54 litre brew is the larger thermal mass holds a more consistent temperature in my uncontrolled environment. I hadn't considered that, but it's pretty obvious now. This morning instead of 22'C, which is where my 23 litre brews usually hover at this...

Fortunately for me, I've not had to tip too many out over the years, but then I've probably consumed some that others would have put down the drain. With this current infection, the beer taken out early is still OK. I can't really say it's off, but I have no idea how it will stand over time in...

Well, I'm about to find out Shmick, and I've already replaced them anyway. I bought a 60 litre FV, which I'd always baulked at because they are just too damn heavy when full. At my age I can still carry 25 kg FVs around, but 50 kg is out of the question.

I apologise for coming over so gruffly. I guess the frustration got the better of me (not to mention a few infected brews).

So, you would resort to scorched earth or more plastic waste and extra expense as your first choice! Well, how often do you frequently use shoulder high, chemical resistant gloves, full body protective body suites and face shields, with hot water caustic soda every time you make HOME BREW...

1) Everything over the last few weeks. Alkaline Salts (Detergent) to clean. Acidified bleach, (not normally used), Steller San (generic Starsan), diluted 85% Phosphoric Acid, and now just yesterday and today, Sodium Metabisulphite and Iodophor. Not all together obviously. Oh, and UV from the...

I'll be pleased if this assists anybody else, but it is also a great knowledge base for my own records. I've just realised when this all started as I'd created a different thread about these 2 FVs last May. At the time I didn't know it was the FVs and thought it was the kits.

Ding, ding, ding, ding. This is a light bulb moment. I now believe that the problem I had reported here, nearly 10 months ago, was the beginning of my current infection problem with the 2 Coopers FVs. The second and third batch discussed here, which were OK, I must have managed to get out and...

Well now I'm really confused. The new taps were sterilised / sanitised in Stellarsan before use. The 2 FVs in question were sanitised to the extreme and now, at day 5, I have 50% success / failure. 1 FV has developed the same dry pellicle while the other remains clear. I have absolutely no...

My 2 new snap taps have just arrived and my FVs have been in sterilising soak solutions for 4 - 5 days. By all accounts this is massive overkill since both acidified bleach and phosphoric acid treatment solutions are meant to be contact sanitisers that do their job in 30 seconds. Anyway, 4-5...

I think that was a wise decision. I'm not sure what lager you're making, but if you're just making kit lager, like Cooper's Lager or similar, it isn't lager. The yeast supplied with the kit is not cold temperature lager yeast. To turn these into lager, you need to go and buy a proper lager...

But not repeatedly on only 2 out of 6 FVs. If all other aspects of my preparations, equipment and procedures are common to 6 FVs, and the problem of infection repeatedly occurs only with the 2 in question, it is clear that the problem is those FVs. If I have an infection on a spoon, or a...