How do you clean fermenters?

[hooper80]

Hey guys, I've been brewing for over a year now and I've made some good beer. But in amongst that I've been haunted by phenolic (might be mis spelt) infection!! I'll make 3-4 good brews then boom, that unmistakable medicinal smell of phenols!! I clean my fermenters with pbw, rinse, a spray with starsan and let them sit till brew day. Then I'll rinse again with my left over hot mash in water.
I thought it might be wild yeasts, but I thought I eliminated that issue by carrying my fermenters full of wort into my shed and shutting all the doors.
Anyway... It is killing me.. Help please

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Change your cleaning and sanitation regime

Soak them in strong bleach for a few days

Then soak in caustic soda

Rinse with hot water and let dry in the sun.

Make sure you also do everything like taps, lids, bungs, spoons jugs...everything

Use a phos acid rinse prior to use.

Always store your vessels sealed

 

[Rocker1986]

I just use sodium percarbonate to clean mine out. I fill it up with hot tap water then dump 2-3 scoops of sodium perc into it and let it sit there overnight. Then it gets drained and rinsed 3 times with hot water and put away until I am ready to dump the next cube of wort in (which currently is 2 days after kegging the previous batch). On that day I rinse it again with hot water and then Starsan it and have never had any issues with infections or phenols in my beers.

Not really sure what could be causing your issues... maybe it needs a good hit with chlorine bleach or something.

 

[TwoCrows]

After I bottle from the fermenter. I remove all solids and the water I used to sterilise the bottles rinse the fermenter and then let it dry. Then put it somewhere clean ( wardrobe )

Starsan brakes down and bacteria will grow in the stagnant water.

 

[hooper80]

Change your cleaning and sanitation regime

Soak them in strong bleach for a few days

Then soak in caustic soda

Rinse with hot water and let dry in the sun.

Make sure you also do everything like taps, lids, bungs, spoons jugs...everything

Use a phos acid rinse prior to use.

Always store your vessels sealed

I used to use bleach but then stopped trying to eliminate problems and it worked..... But only for a few brews! Do u measure the bleach concentrate? Actually, can u please tell me the concentrate for all of the above? I need to solve this problem cause is very disheartening and my misses hates hearing about it!! Hahaha

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I am also fealing the same pain at the moment for all the beer I made for Christmas. Its an off smell and after flavour that my brain gives a kin to artificial fumes, plastic, poystyryne stuffed if I know but I think its something that happened with summer brewing but, i'm still guessing.

 

[panspermian]

Pink stain remover. Mix strong in about 2 litres. Cover airlock with duct tape.
Leave for a week or two and shake vigorously every now and then.
Should get rid of any microbial lingerers.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

In doubt to all cleaners and sanitizers and in the means that they were utilized I literally boiled up water and flood filled the plastic fermenter with added rehydrated Sodium Percarbonate. Sink the O ring in there and seal the lid shut at 90c plus and leave it for a day. Rince and dry. Ready for next time (fingers crossed)

 

[Judanero]

With my plastic fermentors as soon as I emptied the fv I would spray the krausen ring with the jet spray from my garden hose, spray until I couldn't see any left and then give it a wipe with a starsan soaked clean chux.
I would then give it all a spray of starsan and let it sit for five mins or so in the sun and then rinse it all off with the jet spray again, and turn it upside down for storage.

When it came time to use it again I would take the tap and take it apart and sit it in a bowl of boiling water and sodium perc.

While that was doing its thing I would boil a jug of water and pour it all on the inside of the fv, all around the inside of the lip and in the threaded part where the tap screws into, then I hit it with some starsan and let it sit for five mins.

Re-assemble tap, starsan everything again and install tap... usually I then gave it another rinse with boiling water, swirl it around and tip it out- immediately covering the top with gladwrap.

If I hadn't used the fv for a while I'd fill the whole thing with boiling water and give it some sodium perc to sit for halfa, empty, rinse with boiling water from kettle (~1.7L) and star san before covering with gladwrap.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I used to use bleach but then stopped trying to eliminate problems and it worked..... But only for a few brews! Do u measure the bleach concentrate? Actually, can u please tell me the concentrate for all of the above? I need to solve this problem cause is very disheartening and my misses hates hearing about it!! Hahaha

Make both very strong.

I would use a whole 500gm tub of caustic soda for 1 fermenter.. You can reuse it.

Wear gloves FFS, glasses etc... bleach and caustic soda can really **** up your day

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Ducati stu you nutter. :lol:

 

[Feldon]

Hey guys, I've been brewing for over a year now and I've made some good beer. But in amongst that I've been haunted by phenolic (might be mis spelt) infection!! I'll make 3-4 good brews then boom, that unmistakable medicinal smell of phenols!! I clean my fermenters with pbw, rinse, a spray with starsan and let them sit till brew day. Then I'll rinse again with my left over hot mash in water.
I thought it might be wild yeasts, but I thought I eliminated that issue by carrying my fermenters full of wort into my shed and shutting all the doors.
Anyway... It is killing me.. Help please

I reckon that might be your problem right there. Brew day is when your fermenter need to be at its most spick and span. Sanitising with Starsan days before doesn't mean its not filthy with microbes come brew day.

I'd avoid using caustic soda too if you're not used to mixing, handling and storing it safely. Not the sort of stuff to leave lying around or forget about and kids etc to get into. If you do use it, wear full face screen, shoes (or boots) and chem resistant gloves. No second chances if you f*ck it up.

 

[dicko]

There are many other things that may cause an infection in a ferment.

Yeast quality.
Water quality if topping up after the boil.
Air quality in the brewhouse.
Plumbing on the brewery itself.....ball valves, tubing, fixed piping etc
Contaminated equipment that come into contact with the wort....spoons, hydrometers, air stones no chill cubes etc...the list goes on.

If we go back before sodium percarbonate and napisan and did not want to use sodium metebisulphide which really was not a sanitiser anyway, then BOILING WATER was your friend in the home brewery, used after a thorough clean on all equipment.

Good luck with it as sometimes finding the cause can be a reall bugger.

 

[barabool]

As above but place special attention on cleaning your taps - i think it can be one of the most overlooked places for cleaning.

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/10484-cleaning-fermenter-taps/

 

[TwoCrows]

+ 1 to Dicko's post

Clean sterile water is key to limiting infection.
Also Dicko stated air quality, sit the lid on fermenter between additions of water , yeast and minimise airborne contaminates.

I use the kitchen kettle to boil the water I add to my stock pot for hop editions and then use the kettle to fill the fermenter in conjunction with chilled and sanitised water bottles from the fridge.
If you need to use a hose buy a food grade one as garden hoses tastes bad , really bad.

This is all I do and no infections as yet, if infected the above posts are the most plausible way to fix your problem

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Ducati stu you nutter. :lol:

Sometimes you have to go in hard to get rid of infections. No point ******* about, go in hard

And change in sanitizing regime helps a lot as does a rapid change from one type to another. Ie Acid --> caustic --> bleach

I would also look at the workspace you brew and ferment in. Is your fridge clean, is the workspace clean. The environment also is a factor to consider.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I'd avoid using caustic soda too if you're not used to mixing, handling and storing it safely. Not the sort of stuff to leave lying around or forget about and kids etc to get into. If you do use it, wear full face screen, shoes (or boots) and chem resistant gloves. No second chances if you f*ck it up.

Caustic is nasty, but its pretty much the ducks nuts when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing. Nothing survives a good does of caustic

 

[motman]

Medicinal off flavours can also be caused by chlorine from either sanitising or the source water (according g to J Palmer and a few other books). Maybe consider activated carbon filtering your water. It'd explain variable incidences, as treatment plants tend to vary chlorine and chloramine additions in response to water quality.

 

[Rod]

Pink stain remover

good rinse

before fermenting

 

[mofox1]

Most as above. After giving it a good jet hose out, I use a mild detergent with a soft sponge to mechanically remove all gunk. Then rinse and give it a good hot perc soak, then soak tap (occasionally breaking it apart).

The perc soak isn't full, maybe a third. As I'm usually cleaning other stuff I'll give a good shake and invert every time I go past, duct tap on the air lock hole.

Leave at least an hour or overnight, empty, rinse and throw in a cup or so of star san and give it a good shake.

I make sure I run the rinse water and some star san through the tap at the end too, and wrap the tap in some paper towel to keep garage dust out.

If/when bleach is required I give it a full volume soak after in hot perc to remove the bleach odours.