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[fasty73]

I am brewing 23ltrs at a time in all 8 fermenters. I don't like the though of using plastic bottles, just seems unnatural, but thats just my opinion.Yeah, I've been brewing for 4 weeks. So far I have drank all of the first 2 batches, which batch 1 was Tooheys lager, fermented fro 5 days and bottled for 11 days, was a bit "green" then I am just finishing my first batch of Brigalow "New", now that IS NICE, only fermented for 5 days and bottled for 14 days. Now I am using my hydrometer and fermenting closer to 14 days. I am about to start drinking my 3rd batch which is Tooheys Draught. I got a bad feeling about this one. Will keep you updated in about 5 minutes when I crack the first one. It too was fermented for 5 days and bottled for 11 days.

 

[manticle]

I don't know. Just offering something different from the 3 pages of "you have an infection" he may practice safe brewing by wearing a condom to reduce the chance of infection...

The reason I asked is because beer and wine yeast can tolerate temperatures a fair bit higher than 30 degrees (some yeasts can grow above 40 degrees if the other conditions are OK). It's pretty unlikely that the yeast was pitched at 50, even if the thermometer was out although yeast health/dysfunction could still be an issue.

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

Maybe a stupid suggestion but the guy says he keeps his fermenter in a "Laundry Spa room".......maybe if the spa is functioning there will be some airbourne chlorine which if hes opened his ferm it may nuke the brew.

 

[bum]

But the chlorine that might be in his water would be fine?

 

[ribsmasherau]

No chlorine in spa gets run fresh each time we use it's not huge but great to kick back in with a beer after work
I think i just jumped to fast to say it was infected or stuffed because i bottled a case of the 2nd failed one before i emptied and cracked a bottle
today just out of curiousity and was the best damn beer ive tasted i messed up throwing out all that beer.

 

[kelbygreen]

yeah when they ferment they can throw all smells depending on the yeast and temp fermented at, They usually look infected when fermenting (this is krausen) its a thick slug like stuff ontop. I just done a lager and they usually smell like sulfur and it was swiss lager yeast I thought it smelt bloody nice and fermented quicker then I thought at 12c. So yes never throw a beer, Well if after you bottle and they explode, taste and smell off then yes but otherwise it could very well be your best beer. I have a few i wanted to throw from tasting after fermentation and some have been my best beers after 1 month or so in the bottle.

Thats another thing they may taste not so good after 2-3 weeks but after 4 they are alright and after 6-8 weeks they are bloody good, or you could crack one at 2-3 weeks and its bloody good but after 6-8 weeks its lost a bit of bitterness or something that made it good so make sure you keep a few to try for the weeks ahead. write the recipe down when you brewed it, the temp it was kept at, when you cc it (if you did), when you bottled it (with the amount of sugar used) and then when you tried it and take notes each week for what you think so the next time you can go right I liked it best at 4-6weeks so dont touch it till then.

 

[Acasta]

Honestly, this seems like a waste, if you got the money to spare its fine i guess, but i mean 8 batches? You wont learn as much doing to it like this. And your going to have so much beer your not going to have enough room to brew for ages!

Then again. Free beer at fasty's place in 4 weeks?

Enjoy it mate.

 

[fasty73]

YUP!!!!! Got a spare room dedicated for beer on it's own. Hell yeah!!! Party at my place in 4 weeks, you're ALL invited!!!

 

[Acasta]

Haha, all my beginner beer ended up going to my mates, and i only drank it after i've lost my taste buds on a few good beers.

 

[colonel]

I think there's a lot of fear of fear out there as regards sanitation.
I have made over 300 brews, and, other than the first ten or so (newby), I rarely sanitise anything.
I have only had 2 or 3 "weird" batches in 17 years.

Maybe it depends where you live, and the "resident" bugs.

After bottling, I wash and rinse wort with boiling water, and immediately refill for the next brew.
All bits and pieces go onto the kitchen bench, to be washed with the other kitchen dishes, and kept in a drawer.
Bottles are rinsed after drinking (or, next day, if it's a big session), with cold water, and stored upside down (bread crates are ideal for this) ready for next filling.

I firmly believe in not doing anything with chemicals if it isn't needed.

Yeast is the most likely culprit of the original problem.

Cheers

Colonel

Welcome to the forums from one noob to another.

I have to ask, did you santise EVERYTHING that touched your wort? By that I mean EVERYTHING including the can opener you used to open the tin of goo? scissors for opening packets, the tap of your fermenter everything? This is the MOST important part of making homebrew beer. I'm only on my second brew and I am absolutely paranoid about sanitation, everything gets a squirt of sanitiser before I attempt to do anything.

After that fact, your kit yeast might have died an old aged death. as suggested.

 

[bignath]

I think there's a lot of fear of fear out there as regards sanitation.
I have made over 300 brews, and, other than the first ten or so (newby), I rarely sanitise anything.
I have only had 2 or 3 "weird" batches in 17 years.

Maybe it depends where you live, and the "resident" bugs.

After bottling, I wash and rinse wort with boiling water, and immediately refill for the next brew.
All bits and pieces go onto the kitchen bench, to be washed with the other kitchen dishes, and kept in a drawer.
Bottles are rinsed after drinking (or, next day, if it's a big session), with cold water, and stored upside down (bread crates are ideal for this) ready for next filling.

I firmly believe in not doing anything with chemicals if it isn't needed.

Yeast is the most likely culprit of the original problem.

Cheers

Colonel

I couldn't agree more with ya Colonel. I recently had a friend who started his first ever batch of homebrew. Purchased a coopers micro kit, and then set about rinsing it in nappy san, bleach, sodium met. you name it he used it at the direction / fear of his partner telling him he needed to....Talk about paranoid.

I do exactly the same, boiling water rinse fermenter, then cold rinse, it's good to go again.
Bottles - boiling / hot tap water after using, put away in clean dry atmosphere for next batch.

That's all i do, never had an infection. Made plenty of bad beer over the years, but none of the problems have been due to cleanliness....

Nath

 

[JestersDarts]

uh ohhhhhh...

 

[olde]

Yep, sanitation is sometimes overstated.
That said, I can without a shadow of doubt guarantee that I could wipe my arse on Nath and the Colonels bottles and not make a skerrick of difference to the "quality" of their product.

 

[JestersDarts]

I guess when you don't care if your stuff is sanitised or not, you don't care which brand of goop you use..

 

[bignath]

funny stuff fellas, but there's a lot of generalisations going on here....

Firstly, I never said i didn't care about cleanliness.. I am a very clean person and a very clean brewer. Just merely pointing out, that SOME people in my opinion take sanitation TOO far. Absolutely it's important to be concerned about cleanliness while you are brewing beer, or making anything fit for consumption for that matter, but sterilising a pair of scissors to open your yeast for ****'s sake??? I think that's a bit extreme.
I don't brew in a filthy environment, and i am cautious about what i put in my beer and whether it has been cleaned or not, i just think that sometimes people tend to go overboard for "FEAR" of contamination. Every second post it seems in the kits forums is about "is my beer infected".

Secondly, you have never tasted my beer. How do you know it's no good?

Thirdly, who said just because i answered a topic in kits & extracts, that i brew with kits? In the last 6 months i have gone AG and producing nice beers. I may not have thousands of posts next to my name as i don't make a habit of throwing smart arsed comments around. I generally only post if i think i have something that someone else may find useful to add.

As i said in my post above, i have NEVER had an "infected" brew or a problem with my level of sanitation after nearly 10 years of brewing, but i am careful with how i brew beer. Just not paranoid that's all. As i also mentioned, i have made plenty of crap beer when i first started out, but that was due to not understanding key ingredients and process of fermentation (temps, pitch rates etc.). Never from not being clean though....

Don't make assumptions that i am not a competent brewer who doesn't understand what he's doing.

 

[Dazza_devil]

I don't believe homebrew can be 100% free of infection no matter what we do to avoid it. I do believe that minimising any amount of infection will always lead to better beer. The more we can minimise it the better the beer will be. Sanitation isn't sterilization and is very worthwhile IMHO.

 

[pk.sax]

Last time I Checked, yeasts were another microbe that spoils food. Albeit is useful to us if We feed it what we want to.

Yeasts are not the only thing either, the bacteria that sour your curd are also apparently responsible for your belgians tasting that bit different. Every micro-organism provides its own process and byproducts, flavours etc. Sanitation really has to be taken in context. Would I really really worry about the amount of time the beer is exposed to the air while racking it etc.... No, that's preposterous, it's already high in alcohol and has a ton of yeast that anything else would have to compete with.
I would however, spray around the area I am working in with sanitiser before I go about doin all that work to reduce the chance of infection. I don't see anything wrong with sanitizing scissors either. Dry dormant yeast is no match for alive n thriving bacteria even before any fermentation starts. Doesn't hurt to do it.
I wonder if all the ppl that scream "infection" ever got infections in the brews for the reasons they go on about. More of a statistical proof that all those things ppl are warned about have actually caused infections to the ppl preaching them.

 

[Shed101]

I'm scared stiff about infections ... that's why I wear a rubber outfit and bathe in starsan before brewing.

 

[JestersDarts]

Nath / Colonel, I wasn't having a go at your beers, but I don't think that missing an important step in the brewing process is going to teach others that are learning how to brew, good practice.

Whats wrong with sanitising the scissors? you've got the solution already floating around on brewday.. so why not? Why not sanitise everything that comes in contact with something you brew with? surely its a better practice than not.

I dont think people are scared of infections as such,
scared isnt the word when your brew is infected.
Wasted time? dissappointment? thining that maybe i should have sanitised my scissors when cutting open that smack pack?

At the end of the day - do what works for you, and congrats on not getting any infections.

 

[mwd]

I'm scared stiff about infections ... that's why I wear a rubber outfit and bathe in starsan before brewing.

That's what happens when you drink unpasteurised stout and blackcurrents.