Homebrew Disaster!

[Tony]

i have lost 2 or 3 cubes over the years.

I can put these down to:

Letting the wort cool too much first.
The lid not sealing properly and it sucked in air as it cooled
didnt tip the cube on its side hot to steralise the top and lid (this also checks if the lid is sealing)

clean and steralise the cube with starsan, fill it hot, make sure it seals, and let it cool on its side to heat steralise the lid and check the seal...... follow this and its hard to go wrong.

cheers

 

[Nick JD]

Have you ever tried using a sqirty bottle inside one of these?? I use these for cubes and fermenters now.

Yup. I use them as fermenters and I starsan them like I'm fixing Jim Henson's infections.

Squirt with the bottle on fine mist and it's possible to get it into the handle from the spout. Then, after much of the sanitiser has flowed to the bottom, I tip it upsidedown so the handle gets coated - and give it a little shake.

Between squirting the fermenter and filling it can be quite a long time - the cool thing about startsan is the longer it's on there the better, and the thin film stays on whatever it touches - so alls you gots to do it get it on there.

Sure you can soak it and shake with 500ml, but I think that's excessive. $10 says your infections are due to cube sealing problems and bugs/yeast getting sucked in when it's <40C and basically an agar plate.

 

[InCider]

I've never lost a Willow cube... I never leave a cube behind.

But I did have a issues (read: throwing hammers in a mantrum) with non-willow cheapy cubes from Bunnings.

Like everyone has said.. after use as no-chill - soak in napisan until needed, then Starsan. After fermenting, a week or two in napisan and then SS again.

Never use hot water though - only a kettle the shed.

I used to NEVER sanitise... ... until the non-willow cube......

 

[bradsbrew]

On brewday. After cleaning with sodium percarb and a couple of rinses with cold water, I do two or three rinses with boiling water. I leave the last kettle full (1.7L) in the cube until i am about to fill it. havn't lost a cube yet. Starsan gets used on bits that boiling water cant sit in.

Cheers

 

[InCider]

On brewday. After cleaning with sodium percarb and a couple of rinses with cold water, I do two or three rinses with boiling water. I leave the last kettle full (1.7L) in the cube until i am about to fill it. havn't lost a cube yet. Starsan gets used on bits that boiling water cant sit in.

Cheers

I brewed with you once and your idea of cleaning up was sitting on the mower (after Ross had been taken away to be an amorous octopus) and singing every Australian 80's rock song that came on the radio. We had no infections (of beer). :lol:

I remember because you knew more than me... well you could sing in key

So Wallace, sing The Takeaways or Uncanny X-Men to your wort!

 

[bradsbrew]

I brewed with you once and your idea of cleaning up was sitting on the mower (after Ross had been taken away to be an amorous octopus) and singing every Australian 80's rock song that came on the radio. We had no infections (of beer). :lol:

I remember because you knew more than me... well you could sing in key

So Wallace, sing The Takeaways or Uncanny X-Men to your wort!

Sometimes the wind blows hot and cold .................

 

[Parks]

Bleach wont stay effective for more than a day.

I honestly don't believe this is true in a closed container. Definitely in an open ones are the chlorine evaporates.

I use pool chlorine as a long term soak / eat the sh!t out of whatever was in the container cleaner and have never had an issue. I do, normally us napisan but this is really only on grime which hasn't attached itself too much to the vessel.

Anyway, that's my experiences...

 

[InCider]

Sometimes the wind blows hot and cold .................

And Chappos' in control....

 

[haysie]

Always liked this post from a couple of year ago>>>>>>>>>> :super: >>>>>>>>> :lol:
Goodonya Rook.



Saturday 24th March was to be a big day for Rook in doing his first AG, something like man landing on the moon.

This was to be my first serious attempt at making beer since my last K&K 3 years ago

I should have realised at 5:30am that morning when i tapped the missus on the shoulder and before i even had time to take a breath, i hear the words i'm to tired and its to early, go back to sleep.

back to sleep i go dreaming of the adventure ahead of me

Get out of bed at 8:00am, put the strides an t-shirt on and are about to head out to the shed when i hear " where are you going "......out to start my new adventure i tell her..." dont forget i'm going to yogalates at 9:00am and you have to look after the baby.....i cant repeat what went through my mind but it wasn't nice.

These was the good things so far ....lets skip ahead a couple of hours.

1. okay, got the HLT, Mash Tun out sitting on the bench.....good start

2. take 25lt jerry can out to tank to fill with water....start filling, bloody tap falls off...no worries just screw it back on, only wasted 10 - 15 litres of water....were only in a drought

3. Pour the water into the HLT......****, forgot to tighten the element after playing around with it last week....were are the bloody shifters.....phew, tighened up okay, no leaks even though i havn't wired this 3000kw element up yet i have installed it.

4. The mashmaster heating thingy with my hand held immersion element is working a treat and after 40 minutes i am ready to mash in at 76c..... i figure after adding the grains it will drop about 9c and i will be around 67c......great....WRONG.....WTF.....the temp gauge is reading 47c . **** ****, put in 4 litres of boiling water from the house kettle, up to 55c .....were is the immersion element....here it is, put it in the mash tun and no temp rise....what the hell....after 5 minutes of shitting like a big Rottweiler i realise i havn't plugged the immersion element in, ok temp is rising...phew.....get to my 67c target after about 25 minute.

5. The good lady sticks her head in and asks " Are you having fun ".........FUN i yelled, i havn't had this much fun since my last root canal.....with that she went inside.

6. after 50 minutes i have calmed down and am getting the sparge water ready......i get ready put the 85c sparge water in and decide to test the water.......if thats 85c then i'm either stupid or i have no feeling in that finger.....yep i'm right......no were near 85c so i up the temp to boiling and then add it......ok good temp.........all this time i keep reminding myself that my good buddies on the AHB forum keep saying " making beer is so much fun ". i let the grain bed settle and then sparged away.

7. Were is that 1300 BEER help line

8. After that things sort of went to plan...... i have 21 liters in the fermenter...should have been 25 but i lost count of how much water i used in the caos


9. Next day i say to myself, self lets go and do a test, i set up my HLT with 35 litres of water and heat to 80c...start running it into the mashtun and read the temp....60c....WTF

QUESTIONS

1. How can i loose 20c from the HLT to the mash tun ( Converted keg with 1/2 inch ball valve and 1 meter of 12 mm silicone hose connected via plastic garden snap lock conector )

2. I am using braid in the mash tun as my manifold and it floated, therefore i dont think i got as much out of the Sparge as i should have, how do the braid brewers deal with this.

What did i learn......CHECK YOUR TEMP BEFORE ADDING YOUR GRAIN....Screwtop told me to do this and i knew i had to do this but i didn't do this.....the adrenalin was pumping and i was to excited....bit like my first kiss behind the shelter sheds at Pascoe Vale primary school


Apart from that i had a ball....finished of drinking a Du Pont saison



Next week i think i might try something easier like shitting in the queens handbag

I want to thank

Screwtop - for the many PM's ( very helpful and knowledgable person )
PistolPatch - for his AG/Sparge thread....most informative and helpful post i have seen
Wazza - got to thank a paco boy
Batz - for his help on the HLT
Ross - for his gear
Devo
T.D for the recipe ( JS Amber Ale )

AHB for telling me how much fun this is


Recommendation

1. A 1300BEER helpline with 20 CSR's

Sorry for the PP type thread

The missus came up with a name for my brewery

" The Nagging Wife brewery "

Rook
Forum: All Grain (AG) & Partials Post Preview: #195912

 

[Golani51]

You would be better soaking the cube in Nappi-San, Starsan etc. Bleach wont stay effective for more than a day.

Keep the cube filled with nappi-san untill use, then rinse it hot water.

Fill your cube with HOT wort from the kettle, dont let it cool first. The hot wort will aid in sanitizing. Make sure the lid/cap is secure and tight

what concentration of napisan?

 

[dougsbrew]

thats a great story/post there haysie. seeing that i'm rather pedantic - a 3000kw heating element..
imagine that, big diesel generator in the background powering up your boiler. like a v8 chainsaw.

 

[dougsbrew]

i know i'm going to get shot down in flames here, but here goes. why no chill.
i can feel the knifes coming my way, better duck down..
the amount of time it takes to prep, mash, lauter, boil, whats the extra 30 mins
to hour to cool and pitch yeast going to matter. as mentioned in posts here, even
with extra caution into sanitisation, problems are occuring. why do it.
oh no what have i started...

 

[[email protected]]

One other point which hasn't been raised. When you've filled your cube do you leave it on each side for a few minutes so any tiny air space gets a nice dose of boiling wort? Doubt it would cause two infections if you didn't but i guess its possible.

 

[donburke]

i know i'm going to get shot down in flames here, but here goes. why no chill.
i can feel the knifes coming my way, better duck down..
the amount of time it takes to prep, mash, lauter, boil, whats the extra 30 mins
to hour to cool and pitch yeast going to matter. as mentioned in posts here, even
with extra caution into sanitisation, problems are occuring. why do it.
oh no what have i started...

this has been debated before, many times, search and you will find pros and cons for both methods

 

[felten]

Make sure you wet the threads on the tap/bung whichever you're using, and assemble them while they're wet as well. I make up a litre of starsan on brew day, half goes into a spray bottle, and half into the cube, which is re-used on my siphoning gear.

 

[[email protected]]

i know i'm going to get shot down in flames here, but here goes. why no chill.
i can feel the knifes coming my way, better duck down..
the amount of time it takes to prep, mash, lauter, boil, whats the extra 30 mins
to hour to cool and pitch yeast going to matter. as mentioned in posts here, even
with extra caution into sanitisation, problems are occuring. why do it.
oh no what have i started...

The big problem with no chill is not that problems are occuring, it is that they are easily detectable when they happen. I'm moving from chill to no chill because I believe it is more sanitary. The 30 mins of wort below pasteurisation temperature, semi exposed through my understanding of microbiology is far more risky then the no chill method.

 

[Phoney]

The big problem with no chill is not that problems are occuring, it is that they are easily detectable when they happen. I'm moving from chill to no chill because I believe it is more sanitary. The 30 mins of wort below pasteurisation temperature, semi exposed through my understanding of microbiology is far more risky then the no chill method.

30 mins?

You're lucky, I dont know if im doing something wrong, but I can only ever seem to chill my wort down to about 30C (using a mashmaster chillout). So the fermenter goes in the fridge for up to 12 hours to drop down to 20C before I pitch the yeast.

Touch wood I haven't had an infection yet..

 

[[email protected]]

30 mins was from the original post I was replying to...

I'm lucky to get it to 35 after 45 mins... and then if you sit it in the fridge for over 12 hrs without a yeast your essentially taking the risks of no chill without the awesomeness of pasteurization.

30 mins?

You're lucky, I dont know if im doing something wrong, but I can only ever seem to chill my wort down to about 30C (using a mashmaster chillout). So the fermenter goes in the fridge for up to 12 hours to drop down to 20C before I pitch the yeast.

Touch wood I haven't had an infection yet..

 

[QldKev]

i know i'm going to get shot down in flames here, but here goes. why no chill.
i can feel the knifes coming my way, better duck down..
the amount of time it takes to prep, mash, lauter, boil, whats the extra 30 mins
to hour to cool and pitch yeast going to matter. as mentioned in posts here, even
with extra caution into sanitisation, problems are occuring. why do it.
oh no what have i started...

For me I started before I had a chiller. Now I do it so I can brew when I have free time, and not need to brew when I have free fermentors. Also I only normally run 2 fermenters, but I can push out 4 cubes on a brew day. Finally I can prep for peak periods say around Christmas, when I may not have much time for making a brew, but it happens to be the time the relatives/friends drink lots of your beer.

QldKev

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I also store my cubes upside down so it cleans the handle as well