Help, my beers are under attack!

[Sadfield]

So this is interesting as I'm assuming if there was an infection from a wild yeast, I would have off flavors/gushers...but I don't. Just the film. I hadn't even thought about beerstone. I feel like it's a wild yeast though. Phosphoric acid is a good shout though. I'll try and pick some up!

Agree, wild yeast is most likely (brettanomyces rather than wild saccharomyces), although they are pretty slow working, so gushing and off flavours may not present themselves for many months. Biofilm (pellicle) formation is a reaction to oxygen in the the headspace of the vessel, which may explain why in some instances this problem didn't show up in the fv, but did after bottling.

 

[Hop_on_the_good_foot]

So for a bit of closure, it looks like yes, it was the plate chiller. Soaked the ******* for 24 hours in pbw and nothing happened. Ran some boiling water through it, clear as a bell. Put my chops over it and blew through it...well, more funky black stuff came out than water. Half hour later, I'm still there at the sink all puffed out with black stuff still coming out. I think I'll go back to my trusty immersion chiller. Essentially, I upgraded my gear and didnt adapt my cleaning routine. Lesson well learned. At least the beer is fine. Thats the main thing! Thanks to everyone for your advice. Cheers!

 

[Clint]

There must be a solution...hot caustic,a solvent of some kind of maybe an acid. We have solvents in work that would clean it but they are quite dangerous..

 

[Hop_on_the_good_foot]

There must be a solution...hot caustic,a solvent of some kind of maybe an acid. We have solvents in work that would clean it but they are quite dangerous..

So I'm pretty sure it is 99% clear. Good to go probably. It just makes me a little nervous now to know that amount of crap was in there. It may come out of the box again...in the summer...maybe.