About 3 or 4 months back I visited a store and bought 6 Cooper's can kits. 1 Real Ale, 1 Old, 2 Mexican Cerveza and 2 Canadian Blonde. I use 2 of the newer style Cooper's fermenters at a time (the ones with the krausen collar and no air lock) and use the same sterilisation process all the time. As soon as I rack off into the bulk priming vessel, I thoroughly wash and rinse the FVs, dry in the sun when possible. I use Starsan before the next brew. Once I've washed the FV I then proceed with bottling and usually have no problem.
About 6 weeks ago, I made one each of the Cerveza and the Blonde and I was a little suspicious when after 10 days they both appeared to be milky in appearance. I'd been busy and didn't get to check them at 1 week but at 10 days the yeast hadn't dropped, and the beer hadn't cleared. The gravity was down enough to assume they were done so I went ahead and primed and bottled. After 2 weeks of bottle conditioning, which is usually enough, they were dreadful. Sour and with "off" flavours and still milky in appearance. It has been cold, so I put a few bottles of each in my warm fridge for 2 weeks. This doesn't appear to have improved them much at all, but I'd need to do a side by side with the others to really say for sure.
A few other odd things are that the Cerveza appears to be over-primed (very gassy) even though it wasn't over-primed, and both Cerveza and Blonde get a broken "head" of foamy bubbles rise to the surface in the bottle after the first glass is poured off.
After bottling these I immediately did the Real Ale and the Old in exactly the same way. Same FVs, same heat pad, same cover over the top, etc. These brews cleared after a week in the FVs and after 2 weeks in the bottle they are fine. The Real Ale is actually all gone. Very tasty.
I presently have the other Cerveza and Blonde in the FVs where they've been sitting at around 20'C for 8 days and they are both still milky in appearance. I just did a gravity read yesterday and they were down to 1.003 but showed no signs of clearing. They also both have slight "off" flavours (I think) although this time the Cerveza is not too bad (I think). I've made heaps of both Cerveza and Blonde in the past and I usually enjoy them. I've never had this problem before with either of them.
I checked the use by dates on the cans, and they are good till July and October 2024, so they aren't out of date. It's a little early to tell with the second cans of each, but early indications are that they have the same problems as the first ones. Having made perfectly successful batches in the same manner immediately prior to and in between these brews would lead me to believe there was something wrong with the batches. I'm also making batches of the Beermaker's Old for my mate at the same time and these are all working fine. I've done 6 batches of it for him already and they are good, so I don't think I have a contamination problem.
Anyway, yesterday I turned the heat pad off and I'm getting cold nights so I'll go and have a look to see if the yeast has dropped overnight.
Any thoughts on bad batches or is it something I've cocked up?
About 6 weeks ago, I made one each of the Cerveza and the Blonde and I was a little suspicious when after 10 days they both appeared to be milky in appearance. I'd been busy and didn't get to check them at 1 week but at 10 days the yeast hadn't dropped, and the beer hadn't cleared. The gravity was down enough to assume they were done so I went ahead and primed and bottled. After 2 weeks of bottle conditioning, which is usually enough, they were dreadful. Sour and with "off" flavours and still milky in appearance. It has been cold, so I put a few bottles of each in my warm fridge for 2 weeks. This doesn't appear to have improved them much at all, but I'd need to do a side by side with the others to really say for sure.
A few other odd things are that the Cerveza appears to be over-primed (very gassy) even though it wasn't over-primed, and both Cerveza and Blonde get a broken "head" of foamy bubbles rise to the surface in the bottle after the first glass is poured off.
After bottling these I immediately did the Real Ale and the Old in exactly the same way. Same FVs, same heat pad, same cover over the top, etc. These brews cleared after a week in the FVs and after 2 weeks in the bottle they are fine. The Real Ale is actually all gone. Very tasty.
I presently have the other Cerveza and Blonde in the FVs where they've been sitting at around 20'C for 8 days and they are both still milky in appearance. I just did a gravity read yesterday and they were down to 1.003 but showed no signs of clearing. They also both have slight "off" flavours (I think) although this time the Cerveza is not too bad (I think). I've made heaps of both Cerveza and Blonde in the past and I usually enjoy them. I've never had this problem before with either of them.
I checked the use by dates on the cans, and they are good till July and October 2024, so they aren't out of date. It's a little early to tell with the second cans of each, but early indications are that they have the same problems as the first ones. Having made perfectly successful batches in the same manner immediately prior to and in between these brews would lead me to believe there was something wrong with the batches. I'm also making batches of the Beermaker's Old for my mate at the same time and these are all working fine. I've done 6 batches of it for him already and they are good, so I don't think I have a contamination problem.
Anyway, yesterday I turned the heat pad off and I'm getting cold nights so I'll go and have a look to see if the yeast has dropped overnight.
Any thoughts on bad batches or is it something I've cocked up?