Commercial Breweries

[milpod]

I know Homebrewers who are meticulous and get a bug,then others who have a slack sanitation procedure and never get infected.Location/geography often plays a part.

Do the big boys,bigger micro's still get the occassional infection,or a bad batch necessitating pouring it down the drain?I realise with a less then perfect batch,blending probably occurs.I think some brewerys blend for consistency anyway.I dont know alot about how commercials work.

Fascinated to hear how they deal with problems in the brewery.

 

[///]

Kinda answered your own thoughts really. Umm.. GO PASTURISATION!

 

[sinkas]

"dont mention the war"

 

[milpod]

Hmmm facts I can Live by

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

I was taught by a commercial brewer (ex Guinness micro biologist) that stated commercial brewing is all about blending.Its a fact.We at home have the option but I dont think we have the expertise.Then again we have the option of having a different brew every time and thats the advantage.
GB

 

[milpod]

I always thought blending played a major factor,as for GO PASTURISATION!"dont mention the war"

More purile responses.

Infections in the big brewerys,i'd like to hear about,and the outcome

cheers

 

[sinkas]

Milpod, dont use words you dont know the meaning of, moreless spell (puerile)

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Oh micros get infections alright... and not all of them pasturise the problem away. Sometimes they either fail to notice its there, or know, but fail to do whats needed to get rid of it and hope their customers don't know any better.

One particular Victorian micro springs to mind..... I wont say who, but lets put it this way - If you were to use a colloquialism to say that they have "very little chance" of me ever buying their beer again - the name might come to you.

Also - I often taste diacetyl in micro brewed beer and some of the brewers/engineers at work are of the opinion that this is less to do with poor fermentation technique than that micros often have a low level pedio infection that they cant shake because their CIP systems are less effective than they need to be.

Thirsty

 

[newguy]

All sizes of breweries get infections, from brewpubs right up to the multinationals. What happens depends on how badly the beer is infected, and when it is discovered. I suppose it may be possible to save a batch that hasn't really started to show major signs of infection, but that kind of vigilance is rare. With the small breweries and brewpubs that I'm familiar with, they just dump the batch. That also brings other headaches, besides lost revenue, as the taxman must sometimes be physically present to witness the dumping. This is because liquor taxes are levied based on the amount of wort produced, not the amount of beer that is ultimately sold. At least around here, anyway.

 

[Wardhog]

One particular Victorian micro springs to mind..... I wont say who, but lets put it this way - If you were to use a colloquialism to say that they have "very little chance" of me ever buying their beer again - the name might come to you.

It's nice to know I'm not alone in this, I've bought one of theirs on a couple of occasions and have been disappointed every time. They're out of chances with me, I will not buy their beer again.

 

[brettprevans]

screw it, I mention names. My old man bought a 6pack of wheat from Bintara and they tried to tell him the infection was how it was meant to taste and not infected at all. BS!. it was infected to high heaven. Grand Ridge is another that gets infections. Now I will say that most of the time micros are happy to exchange infected beer for another lot to make up for it, which is good business.

Then again Ive also had infected beer from CUB and Tooheys (very rare and usually because of bottling - you can see the rust/oxidisation on the lid).

ah well its all good.

PS Thirsty, so how does you-know-who deal with big infections? bottle it as VB? hahah.. seriously, do they dump it or what?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

The big guys sell infected beer labelled VB and Crown Lager