Fermentor Infection, Sh*t

[Hatchy]

Take apart your ballvalve on your kettle, and if your using a plate chiller (appears you are not given its a cube), that will probably be the culprit.

Also, check the integrity of your cubes. Poor quality ones can leech chemicals into your wort VERY EASILY. Try chilling a batch. Or better still put some hot water in a cube overnight and taste it the next day.

The only cube infection I had was due to a bit of wort in the hosetail on the kettle.

 

[mckenry]

mje
Apologies if you've already stated this - just skimmed the thread.
Are your starters good? smell & taste? Equipment used to make starter clean? Or are you just picthing those smack packs directly?


Edit - forget that - just re-read and saw your bit about dry US-05

 

[cdbrown]

Do you take the fermenter /cube taps completely apart? Lots of nasties grow in there and I've found soaking alone doesn't kill them all off. They need to be taken apart for a thorough clean and don't forget the thread on the fermenter as well as bugs like to sit in there.

 

[mje1980]

Cheers guys, the cubes are different batches. They have all had 25+ at least ( 2 years old some ) brews each, no dramas. Just out of the blue i've got an infection somewhere. I use sod perc to clean, then iodophor to sanitise, never had a problem, and never had a "bug" in my brewery.

Frustrating!!

 

[drew9242]

I have the exact same problem at the moment. Mine are all good right up till the end of fermentation. Then it all turns to shit. I have had 2 bad batches and now am waiting on the third, it seems to be ok i will check in a couple days. This all happens just as i was getting confident that i had it down pat. F%$ it is annoying.

 

[pimpsqueak]

Do you take the fermenter /cube taps completely apart? Lots of nasties grow in there and I've found soaking alone doesn't kill them all off. They need to be taken apart for a thorough clean and don't forget the thread on the fermenter as well as bugs like to sit in there.

How do you pull the damn things apart? I tried but had zero success.

 

[Glenn Brown]

QldKev - Hat's off to you and you'r man pool. That's impressive.

 

[cdbrown]

How do you pull the damn things apart? I tried but had zero success.

The handle of a wooden spoon fits into the back of the tap. Make sure to turn the tap half way. Hold the body of the tap (nozzle part), have the spoon end on the ground, push the tap body towards the ground.

 

[pimpsqueak]

The handle of a wooden spoon fits into the back of the tap. Make sure to turn the tap half way. Hold the body of the tap (nozzle part), have the spoon end on the ground, push the tap body towards the ground.

Cheers. I shall have at the bastards in the morning.

 

[glassgrenade]

A friend of mine had some recurring infections. He got a 44 gallon drum (with a lid) and put all his fermenting gear in there and the cubes. Then he filled it up till everything was covered with water and tipped a thing of caustic soda in there (in the cleaning section of woolies), it all got an overnight soak. Then he drained the water and gaveit a soak in napisan overnight. Cleared his infection right up. NOw what he doe is once a month each fermenter goes into a drum with napisan, that way the inside AND outside get cleaned. Cubes get stored with napsian in them. Storing cubes with sodium metasilicate in them just leads to mould for some reason.

Anyway i've adopted the same practices, i'm a pretty lazy brewer but its not that hard to give the fermenters a soak once a month, they come out sparkling. I've even done it with an infected fermenter and it bounced back fine*.

Also, your problem may not even be infection, bandaids is from chlorine isn't it?

*EDIT~ Pretty sure using a fermenter after its been infefcted is not good practice, probably one of those things that might work sometimes and won't work others. Just thought i'd add that if any newbie kit brewers read that.

 

[hoohaaman]

Were they no chill cubes without swelling?But become infected after transferring to fermenter and inoculating?

 

[manticle]

:angry: Pitched a cube into my new fermentor with dry US05.

Guess what??

I've had a couple of spates of infections that have been very frustrating. One particular flavour I'm fairly certain I can relate to a wild yeast that grows on the property.

I've developed an insane sanitation regime and thrown every cube and fermenter that has been infected and still had the infection (not every brew - maybe one in 3 or 4).

To isolate the problem, I've taken to fermenting in the no-chill cube so clean cube + wort + yeast should be all good. Again - one in three/four/eight whatever - house infection. Frustrating. That's happened in cubes that have been used once before with beer that worked a treat.

More recently, I've questioned my starter vessels. I had one erlenmeyer and if that was busy, I used juice PET bottles. I've now thrown my Juice bottles and bought more erlenmeyers and maybe coincidentally have had no troubles since.

I think glass demijohns and glass starter vessels is eventually where I hope to get.

Anyway, upshot of that - have you looked at your starters or your starter vessel to see if that could be the cause? If not, maybe try a side by side with a plastic fermenter and a glass demijohn.

Also try brewing/fermenting at a mate's place.

 

[Steve@PMF82]

Maybe try alcohol in your sanitation regime, 99.9% ISO, wipe everything down with it, it cant be used no rinse for inside cubes, fermenter ect.

Also try spraying glen 20 around in the air prior to any transfers, after cooling your wort ect.

 

[Brewman_]

I too am having an infection issue, not quite as severe though.

With all the things you have tried, I would go back to the absolute basics. Get yourself a Kit and try and brew a kit. If you can you know that your environment, & your plastics are OK. If you can't, and you get the infection then you know you can focus on that rather than you cubes, starters, ball claves, racking hoses etc.

I nearly gave up a few years agonbecuase of this problem, but you can get on top of it.

Fear_n_loath

 

[Bizier]

Maybe try alcohol in your sanitation regime, 99.9% ISO, wipe everything down with it, it cant be used no rinse for inside cubes, fermenter ect.

Also try spraying glen 20 around in the air prior to any transfers, after cooling your wort ect.

After finally venturing into plate work last night, I sprayed the room with Glen 20 only to later read that the active ingredient is 60% (can't remember by weight or vol) ethanol. F*ck me, I had to sit in a room that smelled like my deceased grandparents' houses for no reason, I had a spray bottle of 70% vol metho that I was using to spray everything else with.

Perhaps see if you can get your hands on some peracetic acid based sanitiser to switch it up a little.

ED: I haven't disassembled my kettle outlet for yonks, but you could try disassembling all bits like this that you can get into a pressure cooker and sterilise them in case there are little colonies in them with ideas of greatness.

 

[bevdawg]

I had some major infection issues the past 6 months... I tried everything, bleaching 2 times, drying, sanitizer etc and still they kept happening. Best advice I received was from the guys at Grain&Grape just grabbed me a new fermenter, said here you go, throw everything else out. I've replace all my plastic equip with new. Starters in a flask, focus a lot more on sanitation, and also on surrounds... so no longer empty my no chill or kettle into the fermenter in the kitchen where the heater blows constantly, and where lots of crusties hide no doubt and do it in the spare room where nothing is going on... and I've been fine ever since. I lost 3 batches to infection... and I could have just bought some new gear and saved $ in the long run.

My next step is fermenting in kegs. More of a closed loop in the process, and stainless so if something ever goes wrong I can sterilie them and reuse unlike plastic which needs to be thrown out...

 

[hoohaaman]

I had some major infection issues the past 6 months... I tried everything, bleaching 2 times, drying, sanitizer etc and still they kept happening. Best advice I received was from the guys at Grain&Grape just grabbed me a new fermenter, said here you go, throw everything else out. I've replace all my plastic equip with new. Starters in a flask, focus a lot more on sanitation, and also on surrounds... so no longer empty my no chill or kettle into the fermenter in the kitchen where the heater blows constantly, and where lots of crusties hide no doubt and do it in the spare room where nothing is going on... and I've been fine ever since. I lost 3 batches to infection... and I could have just bought some new gear and saved $ in the long run.

My next step is fermenting in kegs. More of a closed loop in the process, and stainless so if something ever goes wrong I can sterilie them and reuse unlike plastic which needs to be thrown out...

Unless the said plastic is 20 years old and cleaned with a wire brush,there is no need to dispose of plastic after an infection.

There is no infection caustic or bleach wont solve.But feel free to spend money on new plastic against $2 for bleach or caustic.Have never had an infection that chemical didn't resolve,within reason of suitable containers.

I have used 30 year old canoe/raft drums as fermenters with no problems.The infection source makes all the difference how to approach brewery treatment.Once you have had a major infection you do things differently but with more of an understanding if you find the cause.

Finding the cause is the most important process.Even if the next few brews are clean

 

[goid]

Hi All,

I also have been having issues with infections for the last year up until the last couple of batches. I went through and replaced taps, vinegar+bleach fermentor. Still was getting infected brews. What I was finding at the end, was that my first hydro sample tasted properly without signs of infection. But the following samples tasted like crap.

I finally sourced my issue to not using a sanitised hydro and hydro jar. I started spraying (starsan) the tap, hydro and hydro jar before every sample taken.
)
Problem solved, so far......

My advice would be check and elimate (sanistising) any possible source of infection from getting in contact with your brew.

You CAN get rid of infections from an infected fermentor without replacement.

Hope this can help someone isolate there infection source.

Cheers

 

[reVoxAHB]

Is it possible to chill 1 batch, skip your cubes and go straight into your fermenter?

If the beer is not infected, it's a cube issue and you know the ferm is OK.

Is it possible to borrow a glass carboy or ferment in adapted keg? You can still no chill & transfer to new ferm@ pitch.

If the beer is not infected, you know it's your ferm.

You can also chill and go straight to borrowed fermenter, and if you still wind up with infection you need to be looking at all of your cold side sanitation. Consider swapping the iodophor for saniclean, 80/20 metho in a spray bottle. Clean and sanitise your fermentation fridge thoroughly. That sort of thing.

Cheers

 

[RdeVjun]

I also have been having issues with infections for the last year up until the last couple of batches. I went through and replaced taps, vinegar+bleach fermentor. Still was getting infected brews. What I was finding at the end, was that my first hydro sample tasted properly without signs of infection. But the following samples tasted like crap.

I finally sourced my issue to not using a sanitised hydro and hydro jar. I started spraying (starsan) the tap, hydro and hydro jar before every sample taken.
)
Problem solved, so far......

Goid, I presume you're returning hydrometer samples to the fermenter? If so, then don't, just discard it and that infection source problem should be solved! If not, then I'm struggling to see how a likely non- sanitary sample tube, hydrometer and tap exterior could be an infection source if it doesn't come into contact with the fermenting beer? :unsure:
As you've highlighted, everything that comes into contact with the wort must indeed be sanitary, as per reVox keeping the surroundings clean (eg. fermenting fridge, benches etc.) will be helpful of course, while short cuts in sanitation inevitably leads to disappointment.