Chasing down an infection

Another Sabres fan, so my advice may be as good (or bad) as Larry Quinn's. I had always heard to clean everything with PBW (I use a home made mix) and sanitize with star San. Then, IF you get an infection, make a bleach solution (not too strong) and soak the culprit(s) well and rinse them well after a good soak. I've had one dumped batch and the fermenter, bottle bucket, spigot, tubing, and bottle wand got that treatment. Nothing since, and that was maybe 5 years ago. There has been a bottle here or there that created a volcano and watered the herb garden, but those have been rare. With a bottle it can be anything - One stray hop particle, a stubborn bit of stuck yeast, who knows? I find that if you soak the bottles overnight in PBW and then squirt them well with star San right before filling, they stay pretty fresh. I use one of those bottle rinsers with a star San solution and find them well worth it. https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/vinator-bottle-rinser
 
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I have to strenuously disagree.

To be fair pretty much all the original 6 designs are lame

I'm not a fan of anything red wing, but I recognize greatness, and they have had it starting with the sweaters.
 
Theirs is probably one of the lamest. Totally doesn't capture the spirit of reverse retro. It's a shame cause they actually do have some cool retro designs they could have worked with
 
I've made at least 25 batches now and don't clean with anything but boiling hot water, and I mean BOILING

Like someone said, use soft rags and stuff and don't panic

Hang your hoses, clean everything every time you use it, and it should be fine. I reckon something was in the bottles
 
So after deep cleaning all my plastic before my current batch and my blonde ale with S-05 just finished at 1.003. sample tastes fine without carbonation but that just seems too low. I'm going to prime it cause I already have the sugar ready but would hate to bottle it all if it's possibly infected
 
That's suspiciously low. Not impossible, but odd.
 
That's suspiciously low. Not impossible, but odd.
That's what I'm saying. But like I said it tasted fine. I only took the one sample before bottling but I checked it with both my hydrometer and refractometer since it was so suprising. My last batch over performed too though. That finished at 1.005 (88% attenuation) but if that one was possibly infected that may mean this one is too. I didn't improve my efficiency this time though from 59% to 68% by double milling my grain
 
Well bottle it up and try one in a week and I imagine you'll know. If it's still bad you definitely have something dirty somewhere.
 
Have you ever used a 'diaststicus yeast? Like maybe Belle Saison or another Saison yeast? They can hang around for a long time and push beers below 1.010 that you don't want going that low. Google can be your friend in learning more. Of course, if you haven't used a diastaticus yeast, you probably don't need the Google time.
 
Have you ever used a 'diaststicus yeast? Like maybe Belle Saison or another Saison yeast? They can hang around for a long time and push beers below 1.010 that you don't want going that low. Google can be your friend in learning more. Of course, if you haven't used a diastaticus yeast, you probably don't need the Google time.
I've used WLP300, Nottingham and S-05. That's all that's been in there
 
Worth a read ... https://www.chaibio.com/beer-spoilage/diastaticus

Even if diastaticus isn't it, this is worth knowing.
That does sound like what happened to my last batch. If this batch comes out the same I'm ditching my buckets. I'm planing on upgrading my fermenter after Christmas but I have another batch planned for December. I'd either have to put that on hold or go buy another bucket for the one brew
 
Diastaticus infection to me would be above average attenuation from yeast.
Probably worth watching out for if your brewing with Saison yeast.
 
I know several folks who do nothing special after using a saison yeast .. clean with PBW or oxy and sanitize with Star San. They have no issues. I did have the issue once and clean those fermenters and the bottling bucket with a bleach bomb (a stronger but not dangerous solution). The harder part is bottles (which I don't use a lot of) because you don't know which ones might have lingering d. I often fill 6 bottles and keg the rest, so I will bleach and rinse the bottles a few days ahead, then soak once more with oxy on bottling day and shoot with Star San right before filling.
 
So after deep cleaning all my plastic before my current batch and my blonde ale with S-05 just finished at 1.003. sample tastes fine without carbonation but that just seems too low. I'm going to prime it cause I already have the sugar ready but would hate to bottle it all if it's possibly infected

I've had the US-05 go that low before. Usually after a smoking ferment that ends rather fast and clears quickly. The S-04 usually finishes 3-8 points higher.
 
So continuing to explore that batch they aren't all infected or atleast not to the same extent. Last few have been ok, I think the bit of astringency is from a high mash temp. I had overshot my strike temp but went ahead anyways without letting it . I left the mash uncovered so it could come down to target but it definitely started high.

Bottle I just opened on the other hand was a dumper. Extremely bitter and a little dirty tasting. Left a nice head but I noticed a spot in the foam that was darker, like gray almost. Licked the spot and it tasted awful. Dumped the glass and about to pour my last brown ale to cleanse my pallet. Anyone come across anything like this?
 
So continuing to explore that batch they aren't all infected or atleast not to the same extent. Last few have been ok, I think the bit of astringency is from a high mash temp. I had overshot my strike temp but went ahead anyways without letting it . I left the mash uncovered so it could come down to target but it definitely started high.

Bottle I just opened on the other hand was a dumper. Extremely bitter and a little dirty tasting. Left a nice head but I noticed a spot in the foam that was darker, like gray almost. Licked the spot and it tasted awful. Dumped the glass and about to pour my last brown ale to cleanse my pallet. Anyone come across anything like this?
Maybe a few bottles wernt as clean as you expected:rolleyes:?
 
That would be my guess, if they vary on being bad or not I would imagine you had dirty bottles.
 
Maybe a few bottles wernt as clean as you expected:rolleyes:?
That's what I'm leaning towards although my last batch finishing so low still has me concerned about the fermenter. I did get a bottle sprayer before this last batch and all bottles were cleaned with PBW and then hit with Starsan before bottling but that was my process last time minus the sprayer
 

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