Cleaning up after an infection

[paulschuit81]

I have just had 2 infections back to back, both were fresh wort kits from all inn brewing.
The first was a penny pale ale that tasted like vinegar / wine and was flat after 3 weeks in bottle and the second was a bill Murray lager that grew a thick white skin in the fermenter and had the exact same shit taste before bottling , can the fermenter be cleaned and used again , if so what with ? Please help

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Yes it can

Be very rigorous with your cleaning and use multiple steps and santizsers.

Soak in nappi-san for a few days, then use bleach, then use caustic soda.

Put EVERTHiNG you use for brewing in the fermenter as well. Spoons, jugs, hose, funnels, taps..etc

 

[paulschuit81]

I have soaked for 20 mins in strong bleach, what now? How much caustic soda for a 25l fermenter? Is the napi san soak needed after the bleach? I am also going to start using star san instead of the cheap coopers sanitizer

 

[indica86]

I have thrown a full FV and two boxes of full bottles in the bin before,

 

[Seaquebrew]

Buy a new tap

Hard to clean, cheap to buy

Cheers

 

[MartinOC]

Cleaning & sanitising is going to take-up 80% of your time as a brewer. There's no getting around it if you want to make good beer.

I've just spent a day brewing a couple of batches, but whilst everything was going-on, I was cleaning & sanitising everything else. That's just the way it is.....

Get into a regime & it'll pay dividends down the track.

 

[Yob]

Buy a new tap
Hard to clean, cheap to buy
Cheers

Hard to clean?

 

[MartinOC]

Hard to clean?

Yeah, it means you have to actually take it apart & put it back together after it's been cleaned.

Effort required....

 

[seamad]

Are you using starsan ?
I use napisan ( unscented ) to clean then starsan. Regularly do sours ( on purpose) and never had a cross infection ( well not yet )


edit. oops, didn't see your post #3.

 

[Seaquebrew]

It means it has close mating surfaces, fine corners and areas that are hard to scrub

Easy to pull apart, not so easy to clean thoroughly

I have solved 2 infection issues by buying new taps

Cheers

 

[antiphile]

Judging by the "vinegar" hint, I'll bet a forum moderator's testicle it's an acetobacter infection. If you do a search here or more widely you'll find what's required to clean up to minimise any recurrence. Good luck! I had it in my brew area last year, so I know what you're in for.

 

[Brew Forky]

Put the tap in very hot water, put a wooden spoon in the guts and smash down on a bench. Clean. Not hard. Gave my fermenters a proper clean the other day. Gave a bleach shake as per the volumes by John Palmer. Rinsed well with hot water. Soaked the whole lot including taps in 2 with the rubber taken off in Sod Perc. Rinsed well with hot water. A Litre of Starsan in each one and a shake every time I walked past them. Their clean now. They could rear an IVF baby.

 

[Brew Forky]

Addendum: Clean your taps. The shit that gets in them that you can't get to without breaking them apart is amazing.

 

[Diesel80]

Hey, kind of related. can you buy new rubber washer for these taps?
I have a bucket of taps with the rubber disintegrated.
Seems dumb to keep buying new taps just to get a new washer!

Long shot, anyone got a part number for them or equiv?

I agree with cleaning out the taps though! Make a habit of it about every 3 brews for a breakdown.


Cheers,
D80

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Taps and vessel threads are mostly over looked

When I mean soak...I mean soak for a day or 2

Keep you ferm full of nappi san solution and have everything sittting in it untill you need to use it

Star san is good, but not the only sanitiser out there. To many brewers just rely on star-san alone

It is always good to change chemicals used, especially if you get one that mutates

 

[paulschuit81]

Cheers for the feedback guys, the fermenter is a DIY coopers kit with the pull foward white tap , coopers want $5 for a new tap ( all good) then $15 postage!!!!!!! For that price I will just buy a new fermenter.

 

[Nizmoose]

Cheers for the feedback guys, the fermenter is a DIY coopers kit with the pull foward white tap , coopers want $5 for a new tap ( all good) then $15 postage!!!!!!! For that price I will just buy a new fermenter.

I'd be very surprised if you couldn't find a correctly threaded tap at bunnings, bcf, and the like for about 4 bucks?

 

[antiphile]

Unfortunately, Niz, the newish Coopers fermenters use a proprietry tap that isn't threaded. It's a good excuse to get a new fermenter, though.

I ended up ordering 5 new taps to justify the $15 postage.

 

[paulschuit81]

New fermenter it is, cheers boys

 

[fraser_john]

<snip>

It is always good to change chemicals used, especially if you get one that mutates

This!

Big swings in pH are excellent at killing bacteria/mold spores etc. So a hot caustic bath (hour or so) followed quickly by an acid rinse (pure vinegar) is very effective and at $1/litre at Aldi, every one can afford vinegar!

Those people that also talked about pulling taps apart, that is spot on too. You can search the threads and find where lots of us have suffered problems due to our taps, whether they be the plastic drum types, or the two/three piece stainless jobs.