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uniiqueuser

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Hi all, I have been lurking here as a guest and this forum seems to be a wealth of knowledge for brewing, so I finally got around to joining up and announcing my existence.

I usually just make kits, a vast majority of them being homebrand kits from Coles and Safeway, and maybe a few Coopers etc as well. Even in this impoverished form my brew tastes better than most of the average commercial beers (not counting the Heinekens and Grolschs of course) and when I am forced to drink bottled Yarra water or maybe non-Mexican beers like Tooheys they taste rather watery and weak, and I am soon pining for my basic homebrew. After reading some of the other posts regarding the effort that some of you take with your own beers my beer is admittedly very humble, but it offers huge bang for the buck, and a lot of other people think that it tastes pretty good too.

Not that my primary concern is financial, it is more about time. In the future I may look more into adding extracts or even going AG, but with work and the kids, as well as renovations and too many other hobbies it is not possible at this point. As well as my 44 gallon fermenter I still have 2 25 litre fermenters (gathering dust) so the option doing something more ambitious on a small scale is always there.

I usually make 200 litres at a time and this yields around 280+ bottles. I brew in winter to keep the fermentation controlled, and the fermenter has an electric urn element which is controlled by a good quality thermostat. I bottle straight from the fermenter after three weeks or so. I have been doing it this way for perhaps 10 years and only recently have I been hitting trouble- I have been getting what appears to be green 'fibers' (for want of a better word) which appear on top of the head of the beer and float around in the liquid.

I suspect this is caused by infection of the beer, and rather than throw it away when I see a white film on top of the brew after fermentation I have proceded to bottle anyway, and the beer doesn't taste any better or worse than in previous years, especially if I can be patient enough to leave it in the bottles for long enough to mature. Yes, I have cracked a few a couple of weeks after bottling but I was dreading having to buy another box of Fosters longnecks because I had run out of last year's beer. Longnecks of course- it adds to my stock of empties- when you give beer to friends the bottles don't always come back.

(Of course supplies of bottles can always be found at your local tip. You might need to jump in the bin and dig out the good ones, and the broken glass is a hazard, but this is better and cheaper than having to empty out commercial beer!! And most tip workers can be bribed with home brew.)

I suspect this infection is coming from the lid of the fermenter- it is a blue food-grade plastic barrel with a black lid. The lid has a recess around the rim in which there is a rather ancient looking rubber seal, and I suspect that unwanted microbes are hiding under this seal and are surviving my attempts at sterilisation.

Am I correct in this assumption or is it something else?

Up to this point I have only used sodium metabisulphate, until it was replaced in supermarkets by sodium percarbonate, which I have used since. After reading this forum I have since soaked the lid in a solution of bleach and white vinegar as suggested by some of you guys, but I have not yet made another brew. I might remove the rubber seal altogether and try my luck then.

The seal is not used during fermentation as i usually sit the lid loosely on top of the barrel to let the gas escape rather that push it down all the way.

I haven't used an airlock for a long time, and even when I brewed in the 25 litre fermentors I ditched the lid and used cling wrap with a rubber band, with a small hole made with a knife. I never have had an infection this way, and my Dad, who I learnt this trick from, has been doing it for nearly 25 years and only has had a couple of infections. The advantages are less nooks and crannies for microbes to hide, less stuffing about with lids and seals, and no need for airlocks, which are useless anyway if the fermentation blows out the liquid and you are not there to top it up.

I am tempted to buy another drum and try decanting the brew from the fermenter into the second drum for settling. As you can appreciate these drums weigh a lot when full and I am relying on gravity for bottling, so the settling drum option would require a pump, and if I am pumping beer under pressure I may as well install a filter.

Has anyone had success with filtering, and where might I find such equipment? Would filtering remove too much yeast and prevent carbonation in the bottles?

Also,when I do have to go to the bottle shop, why do 750ml bottles of Fosters (etc) cost more that 375ml bottles for the same amount of beer per carton? I have phoned Fosters and they say the price is set by the retailer, and at the bottle shop say the price is set by the wholesaler, and a lot of people just don't know. Any ideas?
 
. I have been doing it this way for perhaps 10 years and only recently have I been hitting trouble- I have been getting what appears to be green 'fibers' (for want of a better word) which appear on top of the head of the beer and float around in the liquid.

I suspect that you barrel is starting to degrade and the fibers are not an infection just bits of the barrel. Or hose maybe some other fitting.

Cheers. :)
 
Thanks for your reply, but I don't think it's something hard like bits of barrel, because it more or less disintergrates when you touch it. I did read something here about bacteria hiding in scratches inside the barrel (this is why you don't use scourers for cleaning etc) which I haven't done, but I did clobber the inside of the barrel with the stirrer a couple of times which left a couple of gouges.

So perhaps it is time for a new barrel. Maybe a new stirrer as well- the old one is kinda primitive, consisting of a piece of stainless rod with a another stainless rectangle TIG welded to the end and bent to form a crude propellor, which then goes into the electric drill. Gets out of hand real quick if you have a lapse in concetration or have been consuming your product :rolleyes:

This is necessary to mix the huge amount of LME sitting on the bottom. 200 litres means 9 cans, which is reluctant to mix in with the water etc.

I am sure my TIG welding skills have improved sufficiently to perhaps make a stainless fermentor, but I'd have to talk to a few people about making such a container 'food grade'. I don't think beer can be improved with leftover s/steel pickling paste....
 
Hi

Welcome to the forum.

I don't think you need the rubber seal and as you say it is just an area where bacteria can congregate. You could even replace the lid and just put cling film over the top or alternatively put the lid on loosely.

I think today there is too great an emphasis on sanitation whether it is justified or not is another matter. When I started brewing 40 years ago it was in a plastic dustbin with a loosely fitting plastic lid, never had any problems.

Also began using meta-bisulphite but now use bleach and vinegar 1.6ml per litre for sanitation.

It could be that some of the nasties are hiding in the walls of the drum and maybe that another drum is called for.

my 2c
 
What sort of mighty barrel is it at 200L and what is it made out of?
 
What sort of mighty barrel is it at 200L and what is it made out of?


I was going to say something like "thread too long, can someone write a precis for me please !"

If you have had the same fermenter for ten years, you've got your moneys worth. Upgrade.

Personally, why brew that much beer. If its shite, 200l of crao beer is 200l too much crap beer.

Thinking this poster is like his beer - infected.
 
I was going to say something like "thread too long, can someone write a precis for me please !"

If you have had the same fermenter for ten years, you've got your moneys worth. Upgrade.

Personally, why brew that much beer. If its shite, 200l of crao beer is 200l too much crap beer.

Thinking this poster is like his beer - infected.

Does this win 'best helpful answer'? Or what... :rolleyes:

Hi BTW, welcome... do you have any photo's of the unwanted adjunct?
 
From what i see you have paid for your barrel about 30000000000000000 times over...
Just toss the barrel and get a new one and forget about the infection.
 
Well Drinker from hell . It is hard to answer some Questions from the post so when you said green fiders and blue barrel. I would suspect the hardware as infections don't look like fibers.. As well if the brew taste OK you can over look an infection..

Hope you find the answer and enjoy your brew... :icon_chickcheers:
 
I was going to say something like "thread too long, can someone write a precis for me please !"

If you have had the same fermenter for ten years, you've got your moneys worth. Upgrade.

Personally, why brew that much beer. If its shite, 200l of crao beer is 200l too much crap beer.

Thinking this poster is like his beer - infected.


You might be right, but I don't think the beer infection has crossed the genetic barrier. Might have come from something that sometimes results from drunkeness... but I haven't found any nasty sores or itching yet.....!

Rather than defend my crap beer, it is good enough for me at the moment. Obviously if you spend the time and money trying to make better beer then ultimately you will succeed. I shall raise my glass of swill and drink to you a toast, and aspire to one day run out of excuses as to why I am not doing it myself.

Thanks to you and all posters for your advice, yes it is time for an upgrade. I see the light.
 

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