Bad Cubing Experience

[1974Alby]

Hi all,

just wanted to relay a bad experience to some sympathetic ears (my wife just wouldnt feel my pain when it comes to this stuff)...I brewed and cubed an ale last Sunday, but as the fermenting fridge is currently full I have left the cube sitting in the garage and was planning on transferring to a fermentor this weekend...just five minutes ago I went to the garage and found the cube swollen and rock hard!!! I let the pressure off and reckon Ill have to chuck the batch. I will give it a taste before I do but dont like my chances of salvaging it.

Pissed off about the waste of time and ingredients and cant understand how it happened. I followed my normal procedure and had soaked the cube in napisan for a few days prior, then rinsed repeatedly and soaked in iodophor prior to transferring hot wort...which in itself should have pasteurised the cube!...It was clearly airtight as it was swollen and released pressure when I backed off the lid just now.

Aww crap :angry: !...back to the drawing board!

 

[raven19]

Shame to lose a batch. Taste first for sure though. If you catch it early, you can reboil it then recube... but if something bad has taken hold best to chuck it and start again.

Did you place the cube on its side after filling with hot wort and capping?

 

[1974Alby]

yeah placed it upside down overnight and turned it over in the morning!...dunno about reboiling...it had started developing a krausen..maybe 0.5cm?

 

[losp]

should we be placing it on the side?

 

[raven19]

should we be placing it on the side?

Yes straight after sealing the cube so it pasteurses the lid area. Leave on side for 15 mins.

 

[raven19]

yeah placed it upside down overnight and turned it over in the morning!...dunno about reboiling...it had started developing a krausen..maybe 0.5cm?

I would not risk it personally. Life is too short to risk bad beer!

 

[bradsbrew]

yeah placed it upside down overnight and turned it over in the morning!...dunno about reboiling...it had started developing a krausen..maybe 0.5cm?

Ok so you was the bung section covered with hot wort whilst it was upside down? I make sure when i put it on its side that the bung side is on the ground, I beleive the bung section is more likely to cause infection than the handle part, but thats my opinion.

Cheers

 

[1974Alby]

good point about the bung..there was bugger all ait in there so I think it was covered...was certainly covered while the cube filled and I reckon it must have been covered when upside down too as I squeezed out the air really well- maybe my best effort yet at that!

 

[Thefatdoghead]

Just crack the lid let it ferment for a while and see if you can harvest your own yeast strain or bacteria strain. Well if you could be bothered.

 

[losp]

Yes straight after sealing the cube so it pasteurses the lid area. Leave on side for 15 mins.

ah ok. well i haven't been doing that. can i just leave it on the side or do i have to come back 15 minutes later and sit it back up.

 

[Bada Bing Brewery]

Turf the lot and buy a new cube. **** happens
Cheers
BBB

 

[Dazza88]

and allows you to see if it is leaking

 

[1974Alby]

Turf the lot and buy a new cube. **** happens
Cheers
BBB

my thoughts too....calmed down now after a few homebrews!...could be worse, at least I have 2 fermenters in the fridge ready to bottle on the weekend! :icon_cheers:

 

[Josh]

Backyard lambic.

I had that hppen once. It was a lightly hopped pale ale I was brewing for a bucks weekend on a houseboat. Pitched a bunch of American Ale yeast and let it ferment out as normal. The wild yeast just added some fruity flavours similar to pineapple. My mates couldn't tell the difference.

 

[kelbygreen]

Yet to lose a batch to a infection (touch wood) had wild yeast before but lucky it got in late and I just chilled and kegged before it took over lol you get that when you live in a wine area. Well I did try to cube a partial into a 5lt cube so I could boil it at a later date, Found out the next day that does not work had a cube about to bust its seems and on opening it smelt so wrong :S lesson!!! always boil wort before cubing or fermenting lol

 

[Wimmig]

US-05 to the rescue!

 

[pyrosx]

Turf the lot and buy a chiller, **** wont happen again.

And that would have helped him empty his full fermenting fridge how? Guarantee you a non-hot-filled container of wort would've gone off a **** load quicker than a hot-filled one.

Back off-:icon_offtopic:

Commercially hot-filled pasteurised containers (think, for e.g., just about every juice bottle in the fridge at the supermarket) gets turned on its lid only briefly after being filled - it's not necessary to let it cool upside down, and as others have said, this can cause more problems down near the business (tap/bung) end. I fill the cube, leave upright for 5 minutes, up end for about half an hour, then turn back up. 15 minutes should be enough to pasteurise the cap/handle area, but shouldn't be enough to mess with the bung hole

(heh... bung hole)

 

[Phoney]

And that would have helped him empty his full fermenting fridge how?

If the fermenting fridge is full then the fridge is full. You either wait until there's room before you brew again or you get thinner fermenters like jerry cans so that you can fit more in at a time. Not rocket science.

Guarantee you a non-hot-filled container of wort would've gone off a **** load quicker than a hot-filled one.

Yeah the idea is that you pitch your yeast straight away so that the good bacteria out-competes the bad bacteria and you end up with no infection. Theoretically speaking of course.

 

[hoppinmad]

Sorry to hear about this Al. My thoughts are with you :'(

 

[yardy]

I cant stand to think what grows inside the counter flow chillers or plate chillers. At least I know the outside of my chiller will dry and it will be boiled for 15mins before the flames out!

i see your point mate but a good cleaning and sanitising regime will see you right, i leave my CFC soak in a weak PBW whilst it's idle.


hey pyro, calm down :icon_cheers: