Chasing down an infection

The last 5 I've drank from that batch but I have more but every new one I open seems to have the same problem. A week and a half ago didn't have that problem with them
 
Oh I misunderstood, I thought it was the last 4 of the batch not the last 4 you've tried in general.
With 5 infected out of a batch pulled at random, it's a dumper.
 
The reason is without a surfactant (think dish detergent, a wetting agent), the water's surface tension can keep it out of a scratch. So while it's surrounded by the bleach solution, the volume within the scratch can stay completely dry.
After a soap and water cleaning, I use a LOT of diluted bleach solution (3 caps full in 5 gallons) with a tad of dish soap, too. Bottles, buckets, fermenters... and give them a 12 minute contact time . Rinse well or followup by soaking in just clean water. I spray Star San on everything just before used during the brew and the last thing before storing dry in a box. So far, only the tubing has been a problem and replaced it.
 
Problem with bleach is people tend to use waaaaayyyy more than what is needed.
When I brewed in the late 80's early 90's that's about all we had, so I graciously accept PBW or oxy, and Star San. Cheap and easy.
 
After a soap and water cleaning, I use a LOT of diluted bleach solution (3 caps full in 5 gallons) with a tad of dish soap, too. Bottles, buckets, fermenters... and give them a 12 minute contact time . Rinse well or followup by soaking in just clean water. I spray Star San on everything just before used during the brew and the last thing before storing dry in a box. So far, only the tubing has been a problem and replaced it.
I'm pretty sure it's bad to mix bleach (chlorinated) with dish soap. It makes mustard gas, I believe. Can anyone back me up?
 
Chlorine and acid causes issues.
Chlorine and alkaline doesn't and soap is alkaline
 
You mentioned that you sanitize caps after a package has been opened. Are you using caps without sanitizing when you start with a new package?
 
I'm pretty sure it's bad to mix bleach (chlorinated) with dish soap. It makes mustard gas, I believe. Can anyone back me up?

I was told that two of the three chemicals I have make mustard gas so I do believe that. I can't tell you which two though and I'm not prepared to Google it :)

Hot caustic is pretty bad ass so needs plenty of ventilation, I'm very careful around that one.
 
You mentioned that you sanitize caps after a package has been opened. Are you using caps without sanitizing when you start with a new package?
The one time I had a fresh package yes but that was my first brew. Wouldn't be affecting this batch. I take my caps and throw them all in ones of my mesh bags and then throw that in the sanitizer for several minutes. Then I pull it out and place the bag on a freshly sanitized surface.
 
The one time I had a fresh package yes but that was my first brew. Wouldn't be affecting this batch. I take my caps and throw them all in ones of my mesh bags and then throw that in the sanitizer for several minutes. Then I pull it out and place the bag on a freshly sanitized surface.

On bottling day, I leave my caps submerged in sanitizer and pull them out as needed. Saves a step, opportunity of infection and a mesh bag.
 
Problem with bleach is people tend to use waaaaayyyy more than what is needed.
When I brewed in the late 80's early 90's that's about all we had, so I graciously accept PBW or oxy, and Star San. Cheap and easy.
Agree, folks use more bleach than needed. I like cleaning in a large sink rather than a bucket and submerge, and give some soak/contact time. That is when I'm making 5-10 gallons and don't use the PBW or Star-San and grab the bleach. Since PBW is used hot, I usually do that cleaning in a pot on the stove. A spray bottle with Star-San is a "can't live without" item and used constantly on brew day/bottling day. I think it was Nosybear who said to alternate between Star-San and PBW and I found that to fix about every problem I had with sanitation and biofilms developing.
 
I always sanitize any caps that aren't coming out of a sealed package (so all of them for that batch) any suggestions for cleaning tubing? I do my best to run my cleaning solution through them but I worry cause there doesn't seem to be any good way to completely eliminate moisture inside when hanging them up to dry.

I clean most of my tubing with a beer line cleaning brush (https://www.morebeer.com/products/beer-line-cleaning-brush-12-48.html) and then hang them in front of the (forced air) furnace vent. I think anything with a fan would work. Just need to get air flow across the tip to pull or push air through the tube.
 

Back
Top