My beers keep getting infected

[Sadfield]

Phew. Sorry, I read "I don't want to bleach every time I brew as it's not great for the environment and requires a lot of rinsing afterwards." to imply that you did this sometimes.

 

[Sandimas]

I feel your pain, I went through a series of infections that spread across all my FVs and containers. I'd get rid of it from one only for it to come back. I've sorted it now without having to buy any new kit nor use bottled water.

- use a good diluted bleach solution to deep-clean everything then rinse well
- sanitise with your favourite sanitiser
- as insurance, use kettles of just-boiled water down the inside of your FV and all your brewing kit
- keep an eye out for fruit flys when brewing, I made a little trap

 

[jceg316]

I feel your pain, I went through a series of infections that spread across all my FVs and containers. I'd get rid of it from one only for it to come back. I've sorted it now without having to buy any new kit nor use bottled water.

- use a good diluted bleach solution to deep-clean everything then rinse well
- sanitise with your favourite sanitiser
- as insurance, use kettles of just-boiled water down the inside of your FV and all your brewing kit
- keep an eye out for fruit flys when brewing, I made a little trap

Do you bleach everything every brew?

 

[Sadfield]

Looks like you don't have a chemical cleaning step in your regime. Things that look clean aren't always that, and as the old saying goes 'you can't sanitise dirt'. As you are using Stainless and Glass FVs, an embedded infection is highly unlikely, however there may be a film of protein, biofilm and minerals protecting bacteria and yeast from sanitizers.

Time to invest in some PBW/Oxyclean.

https://ssbrewtech.zendesk.com/hc/e...first-use-and-removing-white-powdery-deposits

Does Bleach clean? Very effective disinfectant and reduces pigmentation, but does it actually remove dirt?

 

[Rodcx500z]

This may not be the answer I have a thing about taps on fv's and kettles, I always take the taps off my fv,s and pb's for cleaning they are then left in a 12L fv in solution, my kettle after use gets the boiling water treatment through the tap and the same before I brew in it, your draining cooled wort through the kettle tap, this keeps me happy

 

[MyQul]

I find heat the most effective thing for sanisation. You can use it on glass, you just have to be gradual so you dont thermally shock the glass and cause it to crack. E.g. I oven my bottles by putting them in a cold oven then turning it on, rather then putting them in a hot oven.
I sanitize jars and my demijon when making starters but warming the glass up first by putting some cold water in them ad then mixing in some boiling water. This warms the the glass. I then put boiling water in the jar/demijon.
I find you dont have to fill whatever your sanitizing right up to the top with boiling water e.g. a 23L FV . Just fill it 1/4 -1/3 then cover with cling film. The steam sanitises the bit of whatever your sanitising that isnt covered by the water

The one time I did have an infection I used a bleach solution to deal with it

 

[The Baron]

It sounds like your chiller. Chill half and no chill the other half that should help to answer the question

 

[Jakeyboi]

Boiling water or steaming is a good was to sterilise things. You could get a baby bottle steamer to sterilise all your small equipment. I’m sure you could get one second hand cheap. And I think I would try to fill the ss fermenter with boiling water or I would nuke it with bleach, or Milton tablets.

 

[Gerryjo]

You could try one of these
https://www.therange.co.uk/househol...9j6f0pxrfreNzIpS3ikXDCytkaAsGOEALw_wcB#208267

 

[jceg316]

I find heat the most effective thing for sanisation. You can use it on glass, you just have to be gradual so you dont thermally shock the glass and cause it to crack. E.g. I oven my bottles by putting them in a cold oven then turning it on, rather then putting them in a hot oven.
I sanitize jars and my demijon when making starters but warming the glass up first by putting some cold water in them ad then mixing in some boiling water. This warms the the glass. I then put boiling water in the jar/demijon.
I find you dont have to fill whatever your sanitizing right up to the top with boiling water e.g. a 23L FV . Just fill it 1/4 -1/3 then cover with cling film. The steam sanitises the bit of whatever your sanitising that isnt covered by the water

The one time I did have an infection I used a bleach solution to deal with it

I remember you saying this in another thread and I've been thinking about it, and whether I could get the glass demi hot enough to sterilise. They are 23 litres so would need a fair amount of water, I can boil the kettle twice but wondering if the water in the demi would have cooled down by then. Whilst I'm sure it's safe as you say, there is a bit of me which is nervous about it!

It sounds like your chiller. Chill half and no chill the other half that should help to answer the question

It won't take much effort to boil 5 litres of water in my GF, then pump it round my chiller for 10 mins. I think this would be easier than splitting a batch.

Another issue you might have to consider is the environment you brew in. For example, if you brew in your kitchen and do a lot of home baking and are working with flour etc, you're possible more at risk of wild yeast infection.

Been thinking about this. I do brew in my kitchen and I do make bread often, never on the same day though. I also mill my own grain but keep it all separate from the boiled wort.

 

[MyQul]

I remember you saying this in another thread and I've been thinking about it, and whether I could get the glass demi hot enough to sterilise. They are 23 litres so would need a fair amount of water, I can boil the kettle twice but wondering if the water in the demi would have cooled down by then. Whilst I'm sure it's safe as you say, there is a bit of me which is nervous about it!

I think the first lot would stay hot long enough for the second kettle to be boiled. I understand your nervousness. Even though I've done it loads. Every time, I still hold the kettle at arms length as I pour the boiling water in, thinking, is this the time the glass cracks?

 

[Leon103]

Describe the infection? How do you know it's an infection?

 

[jceg316]

Describe the infection? How do you know it's an infection?

Sometimes in the demijohn a white film will appear on top after fermentation along with pellicles. Other times it will appear in the bottles. The beer tastes awful as well, and will often gush on opening.

 

[Sandimas]

Do you bleach everything every brew?

No, it was a one-off to try to get rid of the infection and it seemed to work.

The combination of other steps seems to have kept it away.

 

[foxbat]

This is reminding me of the Brulosophy story about a guy with an infection in his ball valve that he couldn't see. My guess is the chiller or something close to it.

 

[Leon103]

Sometimes in the demijohn a white film will appear on top after fermentation along with pellicles. Other times it will appear in the bottles. The beer tastes awful as well, and will often gush on opening.

I have had a pelicle appear before and beer was fine. I think it came from the saison yeast I used. To me you are going well above what most do for cleaning and sanitising. I would to replace one thing at a time.
Perhaps a thorough clean of the fridge first. If it still there buy a cheap plastic fv to eliminate the fv's as the source. Replace all bottling kit, if all else fails it's the grainfather.

 

[foxy]

Sometimes in the demijohn a white film will appear on top after fermentation along with pellicles. Other times it will appear in the bottles. The beer tastes awful as well, and will often gush on opening.

Gushing on opening sounds like a wild yeast, (though they don't always taste awful) could be in your bottles. If I bottle, my bottles are pre cleaned with Sodium Percarbonate, bottling day each bottle is filled with hot water and brushed I then use PAA to sterilise the bottles.

 

[MyQul]

Gushing on opening sounds like a wild yeast, (though they don't always taste awful) could be in your bottles. If I bottle, my bottles are pre cleaned with Sodium Percarbonate, bottling day each bottle is filled with hot water and brushed I then use PAA to sterilise the bottles.

If this is the case and the infection is wild yeast in the bottles, ovening the bottles will do the trick and kill just about everything

 

[foxy]

Sounds like he has a problem with wild yeast, the ferment starts off on it's own, gushing bottles, Star San wont work it doesn't kill fungus, I would never recommend Milton tablet but one thing its good at is killing fungus, yeast inclusive. Maybe a good bleaching is called for.

 

[Alside101]

Could it be a siphon hose or bottling stick maybe a tap on a fermenter or something