Hi,
I thought I’d start a thread for us to share the sources of our infected batches for others to learn from. I just discovered a source for several 5G batch infections. We lost three batches before figuring this out. The bottling bucket valves had loosened a little bit breaking the rubber washer’s seal and there was a ring of hardened beer gunk around it. Our starsan bath didn’t ever make a dent in it and it was always touching the batch before bottling. RIP - Chocolate Milk Stout, Town Hall Hope and King Scotch Ale, and Brown Ale.
7 year old fermentation bucket.
Noticed it was time to a replacement. Now I replace every year or so.
Fresh fruit from the garden. So far the ONLY source of infection I’ve ever had. Strangely though, it has never resulted in an off flavor that ruined the beer.
[quote=“Ravenous0001”]Hi,
I thought I’d start a thread for us to share the sources of our infected batches for others to learn from. I just discovered a source for several 5G batch infections. We lost three batches before figuring this out. The bottling bucket valves had loosened a little bit breaking the rubber washer’s seal and there was a ring of hardened beer gunk around it. Our starsan bath didn’t ever make a dent in it and it was always touching the batch before bottling. RIP - Chocolate Milk Stout, Town Hall Hope and King Scotch Ale, and Brown Ale.[/quote]
This is why I disassemble and clean my bottling bucket/spigot after each use. It just struck me as a very likely place bugs to take up residence.
[quote=“mattnaik”]
This is why I disassemble and clean my bottling bucket/spigot after each use. It just struck me as a very likely place bugs to take up residence.[/quote]
It’s being done every time now. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before. We were so careful with everything else.
[quote=“Ravenous0001”][quote=“mattnaik”]
This is why I disassemble and clean my bottling bucket/spigot after each use. It just struck me as a very likely place bugs to take up residence.[/quote]
It’s being done every time now. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before. We were so careful with everything else.[/quote]
Trust me, I’m sure there are plenty of things I overlook or just forget on a batch to batch basis. So far I’ve been infection free thank god 
A guess, here, but I eventually noticed a little lump of hoppy trub stuck in the spring of my bottle filler after a bad batch. I didn’t realize you could pull the end off the bottle filler and get that stuff clean before then. Who knows how long it was in there, but it looked pretty nasty.
Well, I found years ago that I got an infection from my bottling bucket too…. So I started to get stuff together and keg. AND if you still like to bottle you can from the keg. I just don’t care to put so much time into brewing a batch just to have it subjected to a plastic bucket that WILL get scratches that WILL harbor an invasive bug. I appreciate stainless for, mainly, can take the repeated use of the daily brewing routine and won’t lay down and die… Some of you bucket people may look to dairy buckets, which are stainless and about 6 gallons too! I haven’t had an infection since, Sneezles61 :cheers:
I’m not sold on this theory that bugs live in microscopic scratches. If bacteria can get in there, so too can StarSan. If StarSan can’t get in there, then neither can beer.
Agree completely. This is my opinion, feel free to disagree, but if you have a sanitation issue you’re more likely to see an infection in a bucket than a glass carboy. The bucket has a larger headspace, meaning more opportunity for oxygen to get in and feed the bugs that may be in there, whereas a carboy is much more likely to give you a good seal. They’re more error-proof. So I think plastic buckets get the blame, when the actual issue might be the sanitation method itself.
Cracks and crevices can harbor bugs, but that is almost always because some gunk gets in there that isn’t cleaned out, and thus prevents the sanitizer from getting in there effectively. But the material makes no difference. Bad welds in stainless steel are just as bad as deep gouges in plastic, and neither is as dangerous as the gaps around fittings and seals, which can happen with any container.
I agree with porkchop, if you get an infection the problem is more with your process than with your equipment.
A kettle ball valve full of brown gunk.
A bad weld on a keg. This was fine as long as I did a pbw soak for 6-7 hours, but it got me when I switched to marks keg washer. Sucks to because it was my nicest looking keg.
Contamination sources: Plastic buckets, dry hops, fruits, oak, yeast nutrients, you name it, I’ve had it.
Also I think I need to step up my sanitization practices to super ultra mega anal retentive status. Occasionally I have not been very careful. Odds of contamination in those cases are about 50/50 in my experience. Don’t take any shortcuts at all, zero, zilch, nada.
I totally agree with Dave, 20 yrs ago My then plastic bucket got scratched and had my first and only infection. I know plastic is better now and back then I only used bleach. Starsan is the best for me, and I’m anal about sanitize everything in contact now. Probably overly so. All you have to do is take that first sip of beer, and you never forget that taste.
[quote=“dmtaylo2”]Contamination sources: Plastic buckets, dry hops, fruits, oak, yeast nutrients, you name it, I’ve had it.
Also I think I need to step up my sanitization practices to super ultra mega anal retentive status. Occasionally I have not been very careful. Odds of contamination in those cases are about 50/50 in my experience. Don’t take any shortcuts at all, zero, zilch, nada.[/quote]
OK, since I’ll be having my first dry hopping experience soon, can I ask how you got an infection dry hopping? I’m pretty good about keeping things clean, but would like to be sure.
My pellet hops have been sitting, in the packages still, in my fridge. Just waiting for fermentation to finish up before I add my first round of dry hops. I’m just adding them straight to the carboy, no bags or anything. The second round of dry hops will be in a muslin bag in my keg. I will sanitize the bag before I put it in the beer.
[quote=“Templar”][quote=“dmtaylo2”]Contamination sources: Plastic buckets, dry hops, fruits, oak, yeast nutrients, you name it, I’ve had it.
Also I think I need to step up my sanitization practices to super ultra mega anal retentive status. Occasionally I have not been very careful. Odds of contamination in those cases are about 50/50 in my experience. Don’t take any shortcuts at all, zero, zilch, nada.[/quote]
OK, since I’ll be having my first dry hopping experience soon, can I ask how you got an infection dry hopping? I’m pretty good about keeping things clean, but would like to be sure.
My pellet hops have been sitting, in the packages still, in my fridge. Just waiting for fermentation to finish up before I add my first round of dry hops. I’m just adding them straight to the carboy, no bags or anything. The second round of dry hops will be in a muslin bag in my keg. I will sanitize the bag before I put it in the beer.[/quote]
As far as I am aware, no one gets infections from dry hopping. The bugs you need to worry about with beer just don’t naturally occur on hops. Of course, it is possible to contaminate the hops after you take them out of the bag and before you put them in your beer, but I’ve never heard of that happening to anyone, and it should be pretty easy to avoid with even minimal care.
My experience has been very different than Dave’s in this regard. I think it was George Fix who said something to the effect “when I began brewing, I used to sterilize the kitchen first. These days I don’t do more than sweep the crumbs off the counter”. That’s me too. I find myself slowly easing off. At somepoint, I’m sure it will bite me and I’ll get my first preventable infection. Then I’ll tighten up again. But maybe I won’t need to. I always clean everything as soon as I’m done using it (it’s less work to get things clean that way), and I’m convinced it is mainly leaving things dirty that encourages infection organisms to flourish. Without infection agents around, you wouldn’t even need to sanitize.
From now on I am going to try sanitizing dry hops in vodka overnight before adding to the fermenter. Don’t use a lot of vodka, just an ounce or two to cover them, so it shouldn’t have a huge effect on ABV of the finished beer. I believe I will have much reduced chances of contamination if I do this. I plan to do the same for oak additions in future if I ever try that again (I might not as oak isn’t really my thing anyway). For fruit, I would heat to 165 F for 15 minutes to pasteurize.
You think dry hops can cause infection? Maybe I’ve been lucky but I dry hop most of my beers and never had an issue.
I know they can and they have. You think it is impossible?
Its just this is the first time ive heard of anyone(pro or home brewer) say that they have got an infection from dry hoping. By the time you add dry hops the beer ph should be pretty low and the alcohol present should help combat any critters. Not to mention hops have a preservative quality.
