Need help! Brewing Troubles

[clintonforster]

Hey Guys,

I've brewed heaps of awesome batches of beer and had no troubles but recently I've had a bit of a problem.

My dog who spends much of her time in my kitchen where I brew is now old enough to shed alot of hair and she sheds ALOT for such a small dog. I've had 7 batches go wrong no matter how much I clean and have eliminated all other problems and am 100% sure it's stray hair getting in the brew.

I live in a small house and have no where else to brew, obviously i don't want to get rid of my dog and it will be a while before i am able to consider moving.

My question is, does anyone know of a facility where i can go and brew my all grain recipes in a Sterile environment so that i can once again have delicious beer flowing from the taps on my fridge.

I have been to u brew it before but obviously you have to brew in 50 litre batches, extract to their recipes.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Maheel]

maybe on brew day

ban the dog to the yard
clean the kitchen and sanitize everything in said kitchen
(napisan bomb the sh%t out of your brew gear the day before)
brew like a champion
clean kitchen again (SWMBO will love you for it)
ferment and enjoy great beer

but personally i dont reckon it's dog hair....
likely something else

when you say go wrong whats wrong with them ?
step us through your process (even with some pics of the gear)

 

[rosshorne]

I'm not sure dog hair is your issue. I have two cats and find cat hair in nearly every step if the brewing process. I have not noticed a specific change in my beers since brewing with these cats.

Furthermore, if the hair is on the hot side it is most likely sanitised anyway. On the cold side you should be pitching enough yeast to outcompete anything attached to the hair.

To experience any kind of dog hair-like flavour you are likely pitching too much dog hair.

 

[clintonforster]

Thanks for the replies guys,

I do 15 litre batches of all grain brew in a bag, dog is banned from said kitchen during brew, everything is sanitized and i use oxyper on everything to clean it and clean the crap out of the kitchen so there is no hair or anything to be seen.

I have been carbonating in Keg and when i pour the beer they are all coming out with the same strange smell and flavour. It's drinkable but doesn't smell of hops or anywhere near as amazing as the beer i was brewing before which is why i am putting it down to the dog hair.

I've replaced all my fermenters and am being way more thourough with my cleaning and sanitizing than i used to be when my beer was tasting great.

If it's not the dog hair then i have no idea what is going wrong :/

 

[rosshorne]

Has anything such as equipment, location, etc changed?

Didn't you have the dog before?

 

[clintonforster]

I had the dog before, but it wasn't shedding as she was a pup.

I was bottling and using a tapadraft before but am now carbonating with a co2 cannister in 12 litre kegs. I had 3 brews go great doing this before they started tasting bad/ not like they are supposed to, other than that i am doing everything the same. I use Phosphoric acid sanitizer from Grain and Grape.

 

[TSMill]

Drinking the hair of the dog before you have a hang over.....clever.

 

[Blind Dog]

What's the taste you're getting now?

What yeast do you use and how much? Isn't fresh or reused? Do you control fermentation temps?

I have 4 dogs, they all shed, but I've never re had an issue with dog hairs causing a problem. If you're drinking it, it's not infected so unlikely to be dog hair

 

[tazman1967]

Check your beer dispensing equipment, taps, lines etc. A bit of gunk in them will spoil your beer.

 

[clintonforster]

Taps and lines all cleaned to perfection, can't really describe the taste to be honest, It's just an off taste. I use fresh yeast the two most recent brews with us05. I also control fermentation temps with the fridge. I get all my sanitizing correct though i don't use starsan, i use phosphoric acid from grain and grape. I don't rinse the sanitizer out, would that be a problem? Should i try star san?

The only other possible explanation i could go for is my cannister of co2 is off but i doubt that.

 

[OneEye]

Does it taste fine out of the fermenter?

 

[clintonforster]

the last two batches tasted great out of the fermenter and then they seemed to lose their hoppy flavour near the end of fermentation. The thing is i'm not doing anything different to when i was making awesome beer so i really can't pinpoint what it is that's going wrong.

 

[clintonforster]

Since it has gotten colder I haven't been able to control the temperature as well as i usually can so the temperature of the beer goes up and down, would this impart bad flavours/ make the beer lose it's hoppines?

 

[huez]

You havent really said what this strange smell is that you are experiencing. Or is it just that the hop aroma/flavour is dropping out quicker then expected?

 

[clintonforster]

Unfortunately I'm not sure how to describe it! Apricotty? not very hoppy. I most recently did a pale and golden ale and both have a similar smell, did them in brand new fermenters cleaned and sanitized according to the book.

 

[Seaquebrew]

How old are your hops, how have they been stored ?

 

[OneEye]

Apricot would be a characteristic of some hops, particularly, in my experience, citra, simcoe and amarillo

 

[clintonforster]

the pale ale is citra + amarillo... brand new hops.stored in airtight bag in the freezer after.

 

[OneEye]

Seeing as you're in Footscray I'm guessing Grain and Grape is you LHBS? Maybe take a sample to them... I'm sure they would be happy to help identify the 'off' flavour

 

[clintonforster]

yeah they're up the road, that's probably not a bad idea, Cheers.