Hi All, I am new to this forum and fairly new to brewing. I am still not brewing properly so only from kits at this point. I needed to do this for a few years so get my confidence up. I have brewed maybe 8 or 9 kit brew successfully and really enjoyed it. I now have a problem. The last two brews I have worked on have gone bad. I use the bucket from my coppers starter kit. The first one that went bad I was thought went that way because I use SAN STAR. I store my san star in a sprayer and just assumed that the PH level had not been sustained while it had been stored for the time between brews. I purchased some PH testers to make sure this was now under 3.0. after the first one that went bad I read up online to try and find out. Sanitisation was the top culprit so this time I absolutely made sure everything could not possibly have any issues. About 4 brews before I had some exploding bottles and also read on forums that this might be a problem if you bottle before all fermentation has finished. So I now normally leave for 3 weeks. The advice am I am after is, What is the best thing to do here? I satanise as much as I can, make sure everything is clean, put everything in my brewing fridge, keep the temp at 21c, and leave for 3 weeks. What else can I try? Thank you in advance. Chris.
New to brewing and all going bad :(
- Thread starter Ninkasi
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use a hydrometer to measure your og and fg.
treat tap water with a campden tablet or buy bottled water.
star san usually keeps its ph. note that sediment may settle at the bottom of the sprayer of the diluted starsan you've made up.
if syphoning - don't suck start it with your mouth, some get away with this, you may not be so lucky. Older forumites may remember bruintuins who had a number of failed brews, but used to suck start a syphon.
Could be time to ditch the fermenter. I had similar issues and noticed my fermenter had gotten scratches. I thought my sanitation process was impeccable but my issues resolved once the scratched fermenter was chucked.
MyQul
Chairman of the Bored
I've read, so many times to replace your FV when it gets a lot of scratches because bacteria can hide in the scratches (which makes sense). Thing is, my FV's are scratched to feck mainly/possibly because I just stack all my FV's and brew pot inside one another. I've done it for several years and never had a problem with an infection doing this. I came to the conclusion it was just one of those brewers myths but then I read your post
RichieBeer
Junior Member
My local Home Brew shop has dozens of FVs for sale all stacked inside each other.
I'm sure if he thought that scratched FVs caused problems he wouldn't stack them this way.
MyQul
Chairman of the Bored
How would you store them otherwise?
Sadfield
Landlord.
Hi strickers, you mention starsan, but don't mention cleaning. The following three stage approach is good practice.
1) Physically Clean
2) Chemically Clean
3) Sterilise
Sanitising is the reduction of bacteria to safe levels. Starsan is a sanitiser and is great for this. What it doesn't do is clean. Bacteria has a little trick up its sleeve, and that is it produces a biofilm to help it adhere to surfaces, this biofilm can harbour and protect bacteria and wild yeast from sanitisers and must be removed first. The mechanical action of physically cleaning will do this to an extent, but won't get into small scratches, crevices, etc. This is where you need to employ a chemical to clean. Most homebrewers use a non-caustic alkaline cleaner such as PWB or a non perfumed brand of oxiclean.
Without knowing exactly what your regime is, it could be that bacterial biofilm has built up over time, and is now causing an issue, where starsan isn't reducing the bacteria to safe levels for good brewing.
1) Physically Clean
2) Chemically Clean
3) Sterilise
Sanitising is the reduction of bacteria to safe levels. Starsan is a sanitiser and is great for this. What it doesn't do is clean. Bacteria has a little trick up its sleeve, and that is it produces a biofilm to help it adhere to surfaces, this biofilm can harbour and protect bacteria and wild yeast from sanitisers and must be removed first. The mechanical action of physically cleaning will do this to an extent, but won't get into small scratches, crevices, etc. This is where you need to employ a chemical to clean. Most homebrewers use a non-caustic alkaline cleaner such as PWB or a non perfumed brand of oxiclean.
Without knowing exactly what your regime is, it could be that bacterial biofilm has built up over time, and is now causing an issue, where starsan isn't reducing the bacteria to safe levels for good brewing.
Although I am not convinced about the theory that scratches and cuts on the inside of an FV are the source of all evil provided you have a sensible cleaning and sanitising regime, it clearly wouldn't do any harm to buy another new FV and try that out. It might be ã10-ã15 well spent.
Next if the first few brews you did went well perhaps you should ask youself if you are doing anything different now, corners cut etc etc, and that may reveal the source of your problems. And if you are using a brewfridge have you cleaned and sanitised the inside since you started to use it?
Finally if you are now leaving your beer for 3 weeks before packaging I would have thought it unlikely you will suffer further exploding bottles, unless you have overprimed, although a hydrometer should confirm things have finished to make sure.
Next if the first few brews you did went well perhaps you should ask youself if you are doing anything different now, corners cut etc etc, and that may reveal the source of your problems. And if you are using a brewfridge have you cleaned and sanitised the inside since you started to use it?
Finally if you are now leaving your beer for 3 weeks before packaging I would have thought it unlikely you will suffer further exploding bottles, unless you have overprimed, although a hydrometer should confirm things have finished to make sure.
I've read, so many times to replace your FV when it gets a lot of scratches because bacteria can hide in the scratches (which makes sense). Thing is, my FV's are scratched to feck mainly/possibly because I just stack all my FV's and brew pot inside one another. I've done it for several years and never had a problem with an infection doing this. I came to the conclusion it was just one of those brewers myths but then I read your post
I thought the same and had tried everything to no avail. I think all fermenters will likely have many minor scratches. The one I chucked had one or two deeper ones that presumably were the issue.
IainM
Landlord.
I always pour a kettle of boiling water down the sides of the fv before using it, then rotate the fv and slowly pouring it out to make sure all the surface is covered. Even bacteria in scratches can't survive boiling water. Never had an infection despite scratches in my fv.
I do that too, but I am aware that boiled water drops temperature really quickly upon contact with a big area of cooler plastic! (Anyone have on of those laser temperature probes?) I have a vague recollection from my Hygiene training that sustained contact with water above 76 deg C is what's needed to kill the bugs.
sdt7618
Landlord.
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yes it would depend on the depth of the scratches surely? and of course how you clean the fv. I just use tap water and these,
https://www.spontex.co.uk/product/sponge-cloths-new/
then starsan and put the fv away. So far all 20+ brews with this method have turned out ok. I do replace my every 18 months or so along with other plastic bits.
ã175 I think
I have another on itââ¬â¢s way but itââ¬â¢s a different make ã125 I think ðŸË³
This if it works
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bielmeier-Stainless-Steel-Lauter-Fermenting/dp/B00750V5BG#
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bielmeier-Stainless-Steel-Lauter-Fermenting/dp/B00750V5BG#
Hi!
How much were the bourbons? à½Ã¸â¬
How much were the bourbons? à½Ã¸â¬
They come with it ðŸËâ°
Bursting bottles are more likely due to a wild yeast infection. Starsan doesn't touch wild yeast at all. Wild yeasts work slower than beer yeasts but also continue working long after your beer yeast has ground to a halt. So you think fermentation has stopped so you bottle your beer - but the wild yeasts are still slowly working. Hence the bursting bottles.
I've always only ever used boiling water as a sanitiser. Heat penetrates everywhere unlike chemicals so scratches are not a problem.
I've always only ever used boiling water as a sanitiser. Heat penetrates everywhere unlike chemicals so scratches are not a problem.
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