Infected fermenter?

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Hey everyone,
Meant to brew a batch on Wednesday but had some emergencies come up, I filled this fermenter up during Wednesday with star San and I was about to use it but when I poured out the star san looked like I found some “friends” anyone see star san do this before?
Thanks,
-Will
 

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Holy cow. Nope, never seen that.

I think a good scrubbing is in the fermenter's future.
 
The baffling part is I did give it a pretty thorough clean. The first rd of cleaning I pour a gallon of pbw in there and knock all the visible pieces off and then remove the ball valve and scrub and soak it. The it gets completely filled in one solution and overnight soak assembled before rinse and starsan bath
 
Spoon marks can look like that and seem odd, I've had horrendous looking kettle's and fermenters put out excellent beer so don't be to hard on your self
 
With stainless, you can add boiling water. The silicone gaskets is good to 350 degrees and the butyl gaskets/o-rings are good to about 270. 10 minutes at 200 degrees will kill about anything you might have missed.
 
Yikes, you have things growing on stainless. Tear that thing apart, and clean clean clean and clean, then sterilize.

Now that I look closer, I see spoon scrape marks. Maybe too vigorous with metal trying to stir and/or clean your SS vessel. I am not certain, but maybe the spots suggest it’s time to passivate your vessel.
 
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I like bubba's idea if nothing less. mate i can see your pickup arm on the wall I'm sure YOU cleaned it good.
Add some boiling water to it if you feel unsure fry them suckers he he he:eek:!
 
Donoroto said:
...as long as it is clean.
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Yes. Industrial biotech reactors often use a 2-step process. CIP followed by SIP. Clean in place is done first. Steam in place follows. There are not many organisms that we could see in beer that can withstand 200 degrees for 5 minutes.

Since I switched to a stainless fermenter several years ago, I have not had an infected batch. I clean, then sanitize. And for good measure, I transfer the boiling wort to the fermenter and chill the wort in the fermenter with the cooling system. In the 6-8 minutes it takes to drop the wort below 150, it is thoroughly sterilized.
 
Not my thread but will/may be relevant for people who search on here.
Star San vs. Iodophor? Why? What are the benefits of one vs the other?
 
Only used Iodophor until my last batch. Never had any issues with it (except darkening of plastic equipment/tubing over time). I used StarSan for the first time this last batch because I didn't want to stain my sister's counters :rolleyes: undiluted iodophor drops are mighty good at staining things. The foam on StarSan was so much! If I hadn't been prewarned to not "fear the foam" I would've been a little freaked out.
 
Sunfire96 said:
Only used Iodophor until my last batch. Never had any issues with it (except darkening of plastic equipment/tubing over time). I used StarSan for the first time this last batch because I didn't want to stain my sister's counters :rolleyes: undiluted iodophor drops are mighty good at staining things. The foam on StarSan was so much! If I hadn't been prewarned to not "fear the foam" I would've been a little freaked out.
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Starsan CAN stain the plastic work tops - wipe it up asap - it leaves white marks. Be warned. Especially if it's your sisters worktops...
 
Herm_brews said:
Yikes, you have things growing on stainless. Tear that thing apart, and clean clean clean and clean, then sterilize.

Now that I look closer, I see spoon scrape marks. Maybe too vigorous with metal trying to stir and/or clean your SS vessel. I am not certain, but maybe the spots suggest it’s time to passivate your vessel.
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Sad part is I’ve never had a spoon in there, those ball valves are just too easy to drop when you take them out
 
J A said:
The surfactant in Star-San settles out into a stringy slime that can look like that. It's very likely that you don't have a mutant Star-San-resistant organism but rather just a break-down of the chemicals in the liquid.
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I found it weird they dissolved completely when I swirled them, let’s hope you are correct. I gave it a quick rinse and another Stan San soak and the hazy I brewed last night is chugging away.
I did a 2L starter and had airlock activity in less than 12 hours with London ale III
 

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Josh Hughes said:
Not my thread but will/may be relevant for people who search on here.
Star San vs. Iodophor? Why? What are the benefits of one vs the other?
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Starsan will not kill yeast, iodofor kills anything. You just have to make sure you rinse unless you want to taste iodine
 
T
Minbari said:
Starsan will not kill yeast, iodofor kills anything. You just have to make sure you rinse unless you want to taste iodine
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The BTF Iodophor that I used was no rinse at the correct dilution
 
The iodophor from the company that makes star San is supposed to be no rinse as well.
 
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