Infection Photo Thread

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2 separate brews, 2 separate processes, same effing result.
 
loco88 said:
2 separate brews, 2 separate processes, same effing result.
What's that big black cord leading into your fermenter?!!
 
Kaiser Soze said:
What's that big black cord leading into your fermenter?!!
Immersion heater. May use it to choke myself if the next batch goes too.
 
Did you use that for both brews? That's a possible source of infection, rather large in the grand scheme of things.

Don't use the immersion heater in the fermenter next time, find another way. If you're using a fridge, put the immersion heater in a bucket of water an heat the water, which will in turn heat the fridge temps and your fermenter temps.
 
Got a thermowell in the mail (AusPost takes forever these days...) and blowoff tubing so I can use it in the fridge with my brewpi. I changed it up and used this FV & heater because 1) I'd successfully used them a couple of times before; and 2) I just had to toss a FV due to infection issues. I thought I'd solved the problem, and voila. I've created new problems.

When sterilizing (not sanitizing) does water temp matter? How much contact time is a solid bet? I feel like I'm probably doing something basic and stupid and losing dozens of litres because of it.
 
I brewed a sour wort batch normal brew day, up until boil didnt boil kept the wort at 46c for 3 days with 425g of unmiled two row in the wort. dont have any pics, because its not so much of an infection but just no fermentation, any tips? Pre boil sg 1040. after boil sg 1070 no pH test as I dont have pH tests. Pitched us 05 after boil at 21c, been 3 weeks since I pitched the yeast.
Thanks
 
barls said:
how does it taste?
Taste is still very nice as nice as unfermented sour wort should be, still very very cloudy gravity is still the same.
 
loco88 said:
Got a thermowell in the mail (AusPost takes forever these days...) and blowoff tubing so I can use it in the fridge with my brewpi. I changed it up and used this FV & heater because 1) I'd successfully used them a couple of times before; and 2) I just had to toss a FV due to infection issues. I thought I'd solved the problem, and voila. I've created new problems.

When sterilizing (not sanitizing) does water temp matter? How much contact time is a solid bet? I feel like I'm probably doing something basic and stupid and losing dozens of litres because of it.
What's your current process for sanitising? Can't really sterilise at home.. What do you use?

The hole in the lid doesn't fill me with much joy, nor the immersion heater. Better off with a reptile heater or heat pad.. Even a light and terracotta pot.. Anything but that immersion heater..
 
Yob said:
What's your current process for sanitising? Can't really sterilise at home.. What do you use?

The hole in the lid doesn't fill me with much joy, nor the immersion heater. Better off with a reptile heater or heat pad.. Even a light and terracotta pot.. Anything but that immersion heater..
Maybe I'm mixing up my terminology, if that's the case then complete this sentence: "StarSan is a sanitizer, PBW/SodPerc is a _____" I've been calling it a sterilizer, but I'm no bright spark.

My current process with fermenters:
  • On brew day/eve, appropriate scoop of PBW/SodPerc into the fermenter and fill from the hose
  • Let it sit for 30-60 minutes
  • Drain from the tap, swirling/shaking/wiping gunk off with a Chux (being sure to wet are again with cleaning solution)
  • Rinse
  • Rinse again
  • Squirt of StarSan, fill again from the hose
  • Drain as wort is cooling, lid is on at this point and filled to the point that solution is coming out the airlock hole
  • Take fermenter to kettle, open lid and open ball valve. The lid sits on top of the valve so to minimize **** falling in there.
  • Once full, add airlock, waddle full fermenter inside to the fridge if it's on the BrewPi, or table if it's using the immersion heater
  • Pitch yeast next morning
  • Stare at it at every opportunity
Anyway I can't explain the FV infection above, but the bottle infection was from a separate batch, and one (eventual) look into my bottling wand and I found the source... Gross. Picked up a mostly clear one for my next attempt.

On the immersion heater, I have since cracked it with plastic altogether and managed to pick up 2 glass carboys for reasonable prices and am now using them. One less place for nasties to be hiding in the cracks. But since only one can fit in the fridge at a time, I'm going to place carboy 2 in a big flexi-bucket thing, fill with water, and the heater can go in the water and heat from there. Too expensive to toss, to risky to use in beer.

And so my process changes again... This hobby will be the death of me.
 
PBW etc are cleaners. Cleaners remove contaminant materials. Sanitisers kill or incapacitate up to a certain percentage of living contaminants. You need to use both a cleaner and a sanitiser. They cannot do each other's job. Not sure about caustic in that regard though. Anyone know whether you need to sanitise after cleaning with caustic?
 
Hi all need some advice. Have been brewing this and have had it in the fermenter for around 3 weeks. I think it stopped fermenting last week as it reached its fg but I didn't have time to bottle it :(. What does everyone think? Used us05 at 18.5c

Forgot to mention. It smells like beer. Haven't tasted yet.

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Brewermp: Taste it. A sip won't kill you, even if it's infected. If it tastes remotely like beer, bottle it.

By the way, it looks fine. Sitting for a week once it reaches FG is fine. If you left in at FG for two months, that might pose a problem.
 
Is this anything to worry about?
It smells highly of alcohol, almost burns the nose

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