My beers keep getting infected

[The Baron]

Hopefully you've cracked it this time as it is pointing to infection prior to yeast addition as it has not fermented om its own Good luck

 

[jceg316]

Hopefully you've cracked it this time as it is pointing to infection prior to yeast addition as it has not fermented om its own Good luck

It seems like maybe I have, and the issue was in the grainfather (which I'll take apart and clean more often) not necessarily the fermenters. Although I don't want to speak too soon and still waiting to see how these next brews come out.

I have one demijohn left. For now I'm assuming the IPA and pilsner will come out ok and I can get my stack of homebrews back to their rightful levels. For this last test I was thinking a stout which I'll make this weekend. I have some kveik on the way I can use, but if it doesn't arrive on time I'm wondering what else could be good. Bearing in mind it won't be in the fermentation fridge, that rules out my lager yeasts and two of my Belgian yeasts. I have a wheat beer yeast I could try out.

 

[The Baron]

If your Kveik does not come in time get a packet of Wilko Ale yeast which will do a good job rather than using the wheat yeast. I have used Gervin (wilko ale yeast for most of my beers nowadays) it is a good allrounder and easy to get quickly if you are stuck

 

[jceg316]

If your Kveik does not come in time get a packet of Wilko Ale yeast which will do a good job rather than using the wheat yeast. I have used Gervin (wilko ale yeast for most of my beers nowadays) it is a good allrounder and easy to get quickly if you are stuck

Thanks I might try this. There's a wilkos about 10 mins from me. They have homebrew equipment but didn't look out for yeast, hopefully they'll have some.

 

[jceg316]

Update no.3:

The lager I made has come out drinkable. I'd like to start with I unknowingly underpitched and the beer tastes like a Belgian blonde instead of a clean Czech pils, but it's still a really good beer! Fermented in my stainless steel conical, no infection at all, although I cracked open the first bottle today and bottled it last week so it's still young. Inspecting the other bottles there are no pellicles forming (yet) so I feel I've fixed the problem. I also tried the Brulosophy quick lager method and it's crystal clear.

HOWEVER

I also made an IPA, fermented in a glass demi and then transferred using an autosiphon to the SS fermenter. I cold crashed for a few days and wanted to bottle today. I took a sample and it tasted like bitter soap. I opened the lid and the batch was infected. I saved the yeast from the glass demi in a large jar in the fridge, looked at that and it's looking fine. The infection must have come from my siphon in this case; I probably didn't sterilise it well enough when I was sterilising my equipment. Will use boiling water to sterilise my SS FV.

I have one 'trial' beer left: a stout in my other glass demi and it's looking ok so far, not tried it though. I want to leave it alone for as long as possible as of course introducing things into the demi always increases risk of infection.

 

[jceg316]

I think I've got to the conclusion of this, noticing when things get infected after I nuked all my equipment, and hope others can learn from this too.

All equipment that touches beer is sanitised with heat and/or starsan.

Whilst this thread was live and afterwards, I've made a couple batches of beer, have some in the FV, but also made starters and built up yeast from old packs. I've noticed yeast starters in my fridge develop bacteria, which are stored in new sterilised jars and made on my stirplate not touching any of my brewing equipment. I've also had batches of beer ferment perfectly and then develop pellicles after transferring to a different vessel.

I'm pretty sure it's the environment I brew in. I brew in my kitchen which is very well used. My wife and I do a lot of cooking, baking, pickling, and we have a lot of plants around the place so there's compost, plant food, as well as she is a farmer and comes home with food fresh from the ground. Needless to say it's not the cleanest environment and there is some bug (or bugs) which is pretty vicious and can easily get into my equipment.

Therefore, it's best to use as little equipment as possible. After brew day wort goes into my fermenter, once done fermenting I bottle straight from the fermenter. I might reuse yeast less and go back to dry yeast for the time being.

I'm building a dedicated brewing space at the farm, but until that's set up will have to be a bit limited on how I brew in my flat.