400 Liters Lost To Infection

[Tony]

I still get infections from time to time.

Usually after i rack and the beer... fermented or not has been exposed to air.

Anything in the garage left sitting gets this white film on the top. Un infected beer, after poured and the bottle left with the lid off, goes white inside very fast. In my drip tray, anything.

Was in the garage and was looking at he white on the wall......... thats always been there and thought of the white film on my beers.

Took a closer look and it looks like some kind of mould or fungus to me.

Im interested to know what others think?

I have sprayed one patch with a strong starsan mix to see what happens to it.

It doesnt smell of anything, taste of anything (yes i wanted to see if it tasted of nail pollish)......... but.......... is it mould and sending out spores?

 

[InCider]

If it tastes like shaving cream (and I can clearly see 'Tony' written on the wall) ,
then you haven't cleaned up after you ate all those chillies with your brother! h34r:

 

[flattop]

Looks like mould or salt....

 

[beersatan]

Tony,

Not my trade, but it looks like calcium or something coming out of the bricks or the mortar.
If you've got steam or humid heat hitting them it might be all it is.
I don't reckon it would affect your beer but could be good for your teeth and bones.

BS

 

[raven19]

Looks like mould or salt....

+1 for looking like salt coming thru to the surface.

Any ground water issues at your place Tony?

What is the humidity like? Air movement to aid in drying things out?

Sorry the engineer in me coming thru...!

 

[raven19]

but.......... is it mould and sending out spores?

Can you put a sample onto a slant or similar to see if it does indeed grow into (more) mould?

 

[Gavo]

Looks like salt leaching out of the concrete Tony. If it's salt then you have a problem with damp. If a problem with damp then very well a problem with some type of mold. Is the white stuff soft or hard and crusty? Painting it with bondcrete may help if it is caused by damp.

Cheers
Gavo.

 

[chappo1970]

Tony,

Not my trade, but it looks like calcium or something coming out of the bricks or the mortar.
If you've got steam or humid heat hitting them it might be all it is.
I don't reckon it would affect your beer but could be good for your teeth and bones.

BS

Tony that is mineral salts leaching from the mortar and bricks. It's normal-ish but usually points, sorry to say mate, towards rising damp issues. A bi-product of that is mould, mildew and bacteria infestations which maybe the source of your infections. I suggest that you look at the way water in flowing around your house maybe even get a local builder have a gander and see if you can channel that water and dampness away from those walls. The leaching in normal but usually brought on by exposure to moisture.
I wish I was closer to ya so I could give better advice as to the cause.

Cheers

Chappo

P.S it doesn't effect the structural integrity of your house in anyway so no need to panic.

 

[Carboy]

I still get infections from time to time.

Usually after i rack and the beer... fermented or not has been exposed to air.

Anything in the garage left sitting gets this white film on the top. Un infected beer, after poured and the bottle left with the lid off, goes white inside very fast. In my drip tray, anything.

Was in the garage and was looking at he white on the wall......... thats always been there and thought of the white film on my beers.

Took a closer look and it looks like some kind of mould or fungus to me.

Im interested to know what others think?

I have sprayed one patch with a strong starsan mix to see what happens to it.

It doesnt smell of anything, taste of anything (yes i wanted to see if it tasted of nail pollish)......... but.......... is it mould and sending out spores?

Hi Tony,

We had exactly the same issue at our coast house and my wife got me to scrub the area with hot soapy water, then let it dry, and then I sprayed the affected area with "Exit Mould". It worked a treat, but it did eventually come back.

You can get infection this because the spores get into the air. If you can't fix the cause, then regular treatment will control the problem (as outlined above).

Best of luck

Cheers
Carboy

 

[Hargie]

....G'Day Tony....as a now ex-concretor, that looks a lot like concrete efflourecence to me...or "lime bloom'.....

...due to cappilliary action calcium in the concrete/mortar/bricks leaches to the surface where it reacts with Co2 in the air to cause the bloom....at the end of the day (or maybe year or two), it is the Co2 which also breaks down the bloom it causes...for decorative driveways and the like the cure is time...eventually the supply of calcium salts in the substrate is exhausted and no more is transported to surface to cause the bloom...

...this may not help but do any of the neighbours have out of control fruit trees and rotting fruit lying around...???

...good luck...

Scott

 

[Verbyla]

Looks like someone is having a little to much fun brewing...... Nothing Sus

 

[Tony]

Ahhhhhhhh some awsome info here.

I do have a drainage problem. Water comes through the fence from next door when it rains heavily and floods my pool area. Most of this water runs gown cracks around the pool area and can be found seeping from my driveway over the next few days, after soaking through under the house.

When the fresh water goes into the pool it washes a lot of the salt water out.

Mmmmmmmmmmm food for thought.

Anyone else got any thoughts?

 

[caleb]

That white stuff on the walls does look like some sort of lime deposit to me... (i.e. calcium carbonate).

Sorry to hear you are still getting infected batches... makes my 2 x 22L "down the sink" batches look like nothing.

Some things to consider:

1 - When exactly does the infection show up? In the fermenter, or after, in bottle or keg? Are you regularly sampling the product as it ferments, until the point of bottling/kegging? If so, you should get some idea of exactly when they go "bad".

2 - Have you considered just doing a few "dump and stir" kits or like to see if they are OK. This would narrow down problems to your fermenter vs that complicated, straight out of Star Wars brewing rig you posted pictures of. (yeah I'm jealous... I boil in a big pot and manually pour it straight into my fermenter... BUT there's little in the way of tubes and valves to clean!)

3 - If you've really cleaned EVERY possible thing your wort EVER comes in contact with, ask youself "what stupid non-sanitary things am I doing", like, I don't know, opening your yeast packet with the uncleaned fish gutting knife, stirring it in with whatever spatula you grab from the drawer, leaving the fermenter in a dirty mouldy garage under a bird's nest, then allowing the airlock water to draw back in when you move it, using "pure" rainwater from a tank into which a dead possum was flushed last year, etc, etc. I know these sound facetious, but there's got to be at least one dumb thing you've done where you've said "nah... that won't matter..." and promptly forgotten about it. Maybe it does matter?

I remember I brewed for nearly a year in the standard plastic fermenter, without ever disassembling the tap. I could SEE a ring of something inside, but couldn't open it, and assumed as long as I emptied the sterilizer through the tap that would be OK. WRONG. Eventually I lost a batch. I learnt to break the tap open and there was a layer of stinky sour vinegar smelling crud inside. Now I remove the tap, disassemble and sterilize every batch.