Actual risk of contamination

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yoboseyo

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Open ended question here, but I'm a few brews in, and I know the importance of sanitation from the research I've done, but I have not experienced a contaminated brew just yet - AFAIK anyway. My question is that from my understanding, yeast tends to take over, and the amount of yeast you pitch greatly surpasses the number of cells of anything else, so between yeast pitching and bottling time, the risk of contamination should be pretty low, right? If an infection takes place, it would be have to be at least visible to be actively competing with the yeast, right?
 
Sorry nearly all wrong - most home brews are contaminated and you can rarely see the contaminants.
Fortunately very few microorganisms can like yeast handle both Aerobic and Anaerobic conditions, yeast makes Alcohol to supress other lifeforms and hops help the yeast to dominate.
To put it all in perspective have a read of this experiment (it is real science not myth busters) first half talks about IBU's second about contaminants.
Pretty startling and just one of the many reasons I an very cautious about yeast farming.
Mark
http://www.morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue7.1/bonham.html
 

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