My wort is fermenting on its own

[MyQul]

@MyQul I always sanitise with heat where possible. However these are glass demijohns so possibly not the best idea. If I had an oven large enough to stick them in I'd do it that way.

The fermentation is dying down now and the airlock was smelling more like cloves, possibly due to underpitching. I'd imagine with a starting cell count of 0 there would be underpitching issues...

I use a demijohn for starters. The way to use heat (I use boiling water again) is as follows: Fill the DJ with cold water to about 1/4 full. Then boil a kettle and pour the boiling water into the the DJ. The boiling water will of course mix with the cold water creating warm water which will heat up the glass of the DJ but not enough to crack or break it. Next boil 5L of water and pour it into the DJ and leave it in their at least 15 mins (or overnight with a foil cover) to sanitise . Because the DJ is warm from the first lot of water the boiling water wont cause thermal shock to the glass of the DJ and break it

 

[foxbat]

Dangle a UVC bulb (Ebay) in the DJ for half an hour. That's what I do with my SS fermenter. UVC light will kill absolutely every living organism. Just don't ever expose yourself or others to the light while it's on.

 

[jceg316]

I use a demijohn for starters. The way to use heat (I use boiling water again) is as follows: Fill the DJ with cold water to about 1/4 full. Then boil a kettle and pour the boiling water into the the DJ. The boiling water will of course mix with the cold water creating warm water which will heat up the glass of the DJ but not enough to crack or break it. Next boil 5L of water and pour it into the DJ and leave it in their at least 15 mins (or overnight with a foil cover) to sanitise . Because the DJ is warm from the first lot of water the boiling water wont cause thermal shock to the glass of the DJ and break it

How big is your demijohn?

 

[jceg316]

Dangle a UVC bulb (Ebay) in the DJ for half an hour. That's what I do with my SS fermenter. UVC light will kill absolutely every living organism. Just don't ever expose yourself or others to the light while it's on.

Do you use this on all materials?

 

[foxbat]

Do you use this on all materials?

Only on my SS fermenter. I don't have any plastics left in my process and I use VWP on my glass starter flasks. If you were thinking of plastics then I'm not sure, I think UVC may make some plastics brittle.

 

[jceg316]

Only on my SS fermenter. I don't have any plastics left in my process and I use VWP on my glass starter flasks. If you were thinking of plastics then I'm not sure, I think UVC may make some plastics brittle.

Thanks, I'll do some research into this.

 

[dad_of_jon]

The way I nowsanise my FV prior to filling with wort should kill any residual/wild yeast. Fill the FV 1/4-1/3 full with boiling water and cover with cling film. The first 1/4-1/3 of the FV gets sanitised by the boiling water. The rest gets sanitised by the steam. I usually leave the FV overnight but you dont have to. Fifteen minutes or so with do the job

that's brill I'll do that when i've had enough of my house yeast.

 

[MyQul]

How big is your demijohn?

Standard DJ - 5L

 

[MyQul]

that's brill I'll do that when i've had enough of my house yeast.

I much prefer heat to sanitise as it's more thorough, and gets in all the nooks and crankies. My FV's are scratched to feck because I stack them all in one another along with my brew pot. But I haven't bought new ones for years because the heat kills everything

 

[Nicks90]

Same here, mine are scratched up to and my primary fv has a bit of beer scale build up that I'll get around to scrubbing off at some point.
Boiling water does the trick for sterilising and then dumping in 15l of wort @80c can't hurt!

 

[BeerCat]

I use a demijohn for starters. The way to use heat (I use boiling water again) is as follows: Fill the DJ with cold water to about 1/4 full. Then boil a kettle and pour the boiling water into the the DJ. The boiling water will of course mix with the cold water creating warm water which will heat up the glass of the DJ but not enough to crack or break it. Next boil 5L of water and pour it into the DJ and leave it in their at least 15 mins (or overnight with a foil cover) to sanitise . Because the DJ is warm from the first lot of water the boiling water wont cause thermal shock to the glass of the DJ and break it

I broke 2 in one night pouring hot water into them. Was drunk though. Sterident is good for getting mineral deposits from the bottom if anyone ever has that problem.

 

[MyQul]

I broke 2 in one night pouring hot water into them. Was drunk though. Sterident is good for getting mineral deposits from the bottom if anyone ever has that problem.

To clean my DJ, I have some decanter cleaners. Basically a load of ball bearings which you swirl around with some water to scour any crud out

 

[user 18729]

Dangle a UVC bulb (Ebay) in the DJ for half an hour. That's what I do with my SS fermenter. UVC light will kill absolutely every living organism. Just don't ever expose yourself or others to the light while it's on.

That’s a great idea

 

[jceg316]

Update: So the beer was fermenting quite vigorously for a while then krausen died down and bubbling stopped. Took a gravity reading, about 2 weeks after fermentation started, it's gone down to 1.040! I tasted some and it's like wet cardboard. I added some yeast to see what will happen, but will probably have to chuck this away anyway.