Do You Stress Over Infection?

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Banshee

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Last week I did a brew. During the process I emptied the finished beer from my fermenter into a keg and some bottles so I could use the bin for the days brew. I took a FG of the finished beer tipped it out and then took a OG of the wort just made.
How I get my wort for my OG is from my trub left in my kettle. I get four glasses out of the cupboard and tip the trub into them and let it settle and decant the clear wort off into the test jar. None of which were sanitised.
I looked at the wort sample the next day to find that it was fementing. There was residual yeast left from the FG sample which took. I placed a film of glad wrap over it and let it finish fermenting and just took a sip to find a nice beer with no infection to be tasted. Makes me think that infections are more likely to be caused from poor cleaning rather than poor sanitzing.
 
The vast majority of sanitising is cleaning. You get something scrupulously clean, and its already 99% of the way to being sanitary. Just ask all the people out there who "sanitise" with percarbonate.. which is a cleaner.

Infections are way more likely to be caused by poor cleaning than poor sanitising - for starters, its basically impossible to sanitise something that's not clean, so if you clean poorly - you cant sanitise.

Think of it as varnish - the coffee table you just made in woodwork is smooth and silky because you spent hours and hours sanding it, then you whack a coat of varnish on it to make it shine as well. The varnish wouldn't make a rough sawn lump of wood look good, and without the varnish you'll always know that it could have been just a little better. Cleaning is the sandpaper and varnish is the sanitiser.

You clean really really well, and most times you'll get away without sanitising - I don't know about you... but the 6 hours I spent brewing the other day is too much of my life to waste on "most times" so I spend another 30seconds sanitising and jack up the odds to "pretty much every time".
 
I don't know about you... but the 6 hours I spent brewing the other day is too much of my life to waste on "most times" so I spend another 30seconds sanitising and jack up the odds to "pretty much every time".
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Well said thirsty :beerbang:
 
you have to think where the infection came from first..theres that many variables..clean and santise everything that comes in touch with your beer..no shortcuts..
 
The vast majority of sanitising is cleaning. You get something scrupulously clean, and its already 99% of the way to being sanitary. Just ask all the people out there who "sanitise" with percarbonate.. which is a cleaner.

Infections are way more likely to be caused by poor cleaning than poor sanitising - for starters, its basically impossible to sanitise something that's not clean, so if you clean poorly - you cant sanitise.

Think of it as varnish - the coffee table you just made in woodwork is smooth and silky because you spent hours and hours sanding it, then you whack a coat of varnish on it to make it shine as well. The varnish wouldn't make a rough sawn lump of wood look good, and without the varnish you'll always know that it could have been just a little better. Cleaning is the sandpaper and varnish is the sanitiser.

You clean really really well, and most times you'll get away without sanitising - I don't know about you... but the 6 hours I spent brewing the other day is too much of my life to waste on "most times" so I spend another 30seconds sanitising and jack up the odds to "pretty much every time".
x2
 
I don't quite see your point. You made some beer in a non sanitised vessel which didn't turn out infected by the end of the ferment cycle. Doesn't really mean anything beyond exactly that - you made some beer in a non sanitised vessel that didn't turn out infected by the end of the ferment cycle.

Do I stress about infection? Enough. I've had them and find tipping full mash beer down the drain to be very depressing. Whatever works for you in your brewery but yes you need to be clean first. Whether spraying something with starsan is worth the extra effort is up to you I guess.
 
I recently did a double batch lager where one of the cubes swelled up... clearly an infection i thought. :angry: I ended up pitching some dry yeast yeast and let it ferment along side the first cube which was fine.

Couple of weeks ago i kegged both beers and I am now enjoying both kegs... the "infected" one is a little dryer and has a slight sourness... which is actually quite pleasant. The "clean" keg is full bodied, and has a touch of sweetness to it... fairy much exactly as planned.

The sour lager is actually more sessionable, refreshing and enjoyable than the clean batch... so not all is lost. I plan to finish the sour keg this weekend, just so it doesn't somehow take a turn for the worst.

Not all was lost... and i was very happy when it turned out well. :icon_cheers:
 
Drinkable beer was made for centuries without much understanding of sanitation. This doesn't mean sanitation shouldn't be a key point in the process of making beer for a homebrewer or commercial brewer these days.
Ask an American microbrewer who makes "American Wild Ales" or 100% Brett fermented beers if they still sanitise their fermentors or not.
 
Do I stress about infection...absolutely. clean everything like a mad man twice and then santise and then discover you have an infection. Its depressing.

But on a plus note - I discovered that my infected brews can be salvaged...not as their original incarnation but as nice sour. Wyeast's sour blend and 12 months turned an APA into a great sour that's now on tap in the King's Palace. Another lighter Ale that well was also given the treatment.

Infections - the easy way to create a new sour. :icon_chickcheers:
 
I do stress over infection if I believe there may have been an avenue for one to take hold during my brewing process. I strive to leave no door un-opened but sometimes there may be one slightly ajar from a momentary lapse of concentration.
So far, so good, touch wood.
 
I don't quite see your point.

It was an observation which made me think twice. In my whole close to 20 years of brewing I have only ever had one infection that I can remember. I know we only sanitize our eqipment and don't actually sterilise it, but I believe now with this event I can relax and have a homebrew and not worry to much about my sanitising regime but keep up my good cleaning practices.

And not stress over infection.
 
It was an observation which made me think twice. In my whole close to 20 years of brewing I have only ever had one infection that I can remember. I know we only sanitize our eqipment and don't actually sterilise it, but I believe now with this event I can relax and have a homebrew and not worry to much about my sanitising regime but keep up my good cleaning practices.

And not stress over infection.

I do. The very thought of what a Wild Yeast looks like terrifies me. Probably like a domesticated yeast but with sharp teeth and crazy eyes.
 
I don't stress, but i do 'clean'. 6 hrs as stated before is a long time to invest into an infected brew.
Cheers
 
a big thing for me has that on bottling day i used to spray my bottles with sanitiser let them dry and then rins them again with fresh water (an experienced brewer taught me this method) and it made bottling a 1 or 2 hour ordeal which i would dread. now i just rinse my bottles with hot water and dont bother to drain. the whole thing is a painless 20 minute process and it means i enjoy it more. also i figure an infection would only affect one bottle rather than the whole batch: another thing is 'no chilling' in the pot overnight rather than in a cube. (i dont want to spend the 20 bucks at the moment)

of course whatever routine works for you is the best i guess but i can say that for me all the advice to worry about infections took a lotvof the fun out of brewing for me and im just now starting to enjoy myself now that im taking some more shortcuts.
 
Suggest you invest in some no rinse sanatiser either Starsan, Iodophor or even bleach vinegar solution.

I fill a plastic bucket with 10L of Iodophor solution 10ml use a couple of litres for fermenter and caps etc chuck back in bucket then do about 5 bottles at a time pour out back into bucket and then fill with beer. Dead easy. The thing that takes all the time is filling the bottles with the little bottler thingy. :icon_cheers: Never had a bottle infection yet. Only problem is Iodophor makes glass bottles very slippery got to be careful they can slip out of your fingers. Also use thin latex gloves like ambos use to keep skin away from chemicals and hand contamination.
 
When I started brewing I made an issue of being a clean freak. It was a bit of a task at the beginning but it has become a habit now and part of my routine.

I always have a 500ml spray bottle of Starsan close by, if in doubt give it a spray. I've done 31 brews since I got back into brewing 11 months ago and I've had one infection. Brew no.4 I pitched an infected starter that was made in a crumpled up, grubby old PET bottle. Doh!

I don't stress about infections atm, but I would if I started getting them often.
 
I don't stress too much at all. I am confident in my simple cleaning/sanitising regime and I just make sure I stick to it.

1. I clean fermenters thoroughly after use and store them DRY.
2. While brewing, I put in a couple of litres of dilute iodophor in my fermenter(s), shake around and let it drain out just before I fill.
3. Anything with yeast, I use 70% ethanol and cotton balls for wiping around (This is the one thing I am VERY careful with).
4. Bottles get washed out well after consuming. Then I just rinse with hot water, sit for a minute, empty and put a cap on. I bottle when they are cool.
5. Go back to step 1.

Occasionally I will get an over carbonated bottle that's a bit thin (probably slight infection). I can't remember the last full on infection I had.
 
a big thing for me has that on bottling day i used to spray my bottles with sanitiser let them dry and then rins them again with fresh water (an experienced brewer taught me this method) and it made bottling a 1 or 2 hour ordeal which i would dread. now i just rinse my bottles with hot water and dont bother to drain. the whole thing is a painless 20 minute process and it means i enjoy it more. also i figure an infection would only affect one bottle rather than the whole batch: another thing is 'no chilling' in the pot overnight rather than in a cube. (i dont want to spend the 20 bucks at the moment)

of course whatever routine works for you is the best i guess but i can say that for me all the advice to worry about infections took a lotvof the fun out of brewing for me and im just now starting to enjoy myself now that im taking some more shortcuts.

I started this argument a few months ago, upset a few people. The thing with bottles is to clean them as soon as you empty them to drink, then when you come to bottling them you just need to rinse. Plenty of people do this no trouble, plenty of others think its crazy. With fermenters, its so easy to use a bit of sanitiser you would be silly not to. Beer gets boiled so if you pitch yeast as soon as its cool the chances of an infection are remote. Winegrapes are never even cleaned, let alone sanitised, and problems are pretty rare. If you saw the stuff that goes into the grape crusher sometimes you would be amazed - caterpillars, spiders, bees, leaves, even lizards, not to mention the inevitable birdshit. It makes people's obsessions with sanitising look a bit silly.
 
yeah thats the key i suppose, rinse out the sediment with hot water as soon as they're empty (i always try to make sure i've got the smell of the beer out) then one more quick rinse before bottling and you're good to go! i just someone told me this before i spent half a dozen afternoons bleaching/boiling/baking for no reason! :)
 
Think of it as varnish - the coffee table you just made in woodwork is smooth and silky because you spent hours and hours sanding it, then you whack a coat of varnish on it to make it shine as well. The varnish wouldn't make a rough sawn lump of wood look good, and without the varnish you'll always know that it could have been just a little better. Cleaning is the sandpaper and varnish is the sanitiser.


Nice analogy Thirsty Boy, you can take it a bit further too, if you leave your freshly sanded surface untreated with varnish for a while, it will get dusty, pick up some airborne dirt, moisture and other bits that will impact on the final varnish coat. Don't wait too long before you lay on the varnish.

cheers

grant
 
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