Wort started fermenting in no-chill cube

[Dxxxx]

Ahhhhhhhhh a TAP

They tend to suck air in through the tap as they cool, and this air contains bacteria that will ruin the brew.

Ditch the tap, put a bung in the hole, and just pour it out the top into the fermenter.

Dont wory about any hop or break in the cube, it all settles out just fine!

The other ting i do religiously is tip the cube on its side once the lid is on to heat treat the lid and top of the cube. I let it sit on its side for 5 min and then stand it back up.

cheers

Edit.......... i often get busy (lazy) and let my cubes sit and go mouldy and rancid. 3 inches of hot tap water and 1/4 cup of uncented bleach kills all. I remove the seal from the cubes cap, and put it in the cube with the bleach bath, and leave the lid a bit loose so when i give it a shake up, it runs into the thread as well. 2 hours later its as good as a new one.

I currently have these cubes full that have spent months full of god knows what god awful mould, fungus, cures for cancer, dead insects, you name it........ and they are fine. One has been sitting for over a year now.

The 3 big killers for no chill are low temp into the cube, poor seal (lid or tap) sucking in air or not heat treating the top/cap.

hope this helps

cheers

Thanks for the advice, I'll get rid of the taps from now on.

I have only ever had one cube go bad, and that was a very low fill level (like half) from a bad brew day. The low fill and high air content just didn't pasteurise the cube like it should.

What was your final volume Dxxxx?

I ferment in my cubes, so mine was yeast, just the wrong one! I am still waiting to find out what a saison yeast x vienna lager tastes like.

I probably ended up with about 18 liters or so in a 20 litre cube, not certain as I haven't got markings on that cube or fermentor.

Thanks everyone for the help, I'll just let it do its thing for a while and see what happens. Can always try again later.

 

[super_simian]

I recently had a cube start fermenting, but I had my eye on it (I had some serious issues getting a seal on the lid) so I just dumped in a sachet of Belle Saison and viola, 5 days later you wouldn't have an inkling there was wild beasties involved. Thank god for BS' ability to rapidly chew every skerrick of sugar out. It's down to 1.002 and tasting great! I wouldn't try that without a super attenuating yeast however, since the risk off bottle bombs would be pretty high.

 

[scottc1178]

There is a much easier way.

Begin by pouring your wort from the cube to the fermentor, splash as much as you can to create lots of aeration and foam a few inches thick. Pitch your yeast and seal the fermentor, then go to wash your cube.

You will be surprised to find the seal missing, this is good as you have removed it to the fermentor without even noticing how easy it was.

The seal should now be already sanitised by laying several inches of foam and krausen, and is still available to you in a few weeks when you go to wash your fermentor.


The only downside to this teqhnique is on brew day when you brew 4 cubes of beer and then after trying to seal the last one for half an hour you remember the seal in your fermentor.

I just did exactly this 10 minutes ago.... I poured two cubes into 2 fermenters, and noticed that now only one of the cube caps has a seal... D'oh!... oh well... guess I'll see it again in a couple of weeks.... not happy

 

[breakbeer]

Just discovered my very first infected cube, it was a new one, but I followed my usual cleaning procedures.

Found this in the garage this morning:



I'll tip the contents, but will nuke the cube as it looks like it'll hold a few more litres now!