Beer Forum

So after 4 straight bad batches of brew, I have come to find out my wort chiller is the culprit infecting my beer. I took out each step of brewing including sanitation until I found the problem. I also forgot how long it takes to chill a batch with ice. It was costly to find the problem, but now I know for sure and have a tasty hefe on tap. I also had some great help from the MKE Beer Barons with getting my sanitation and so forth straight.

So here's the question, do I ditch the chiller(sell if for copper scrap?) and start over or try and scrub it out and sanitize one more time? I was all set to order a fermentation temp control unit for a freezer I acquired but now am second guessing that purchase. I want to be brewing all grain ASAP so I'm currently saving the cash and collecting the goods to make that happen.

Any thoughts, feedback, or heckling would be appreciated.

What kind of a chiller is it? Plate, Counter flow etc...

Don't second guess the ferm temp controller purchase. Pretty much the best thing I've done for my beer quality along with filtering my water. I don't see any reason to scrap your chiller. There are good products on the market that will clean it. If its an immersion chiller just soak it in PBW before and after use, rinse it real well and throw it in the boil with 15 minutes left. Counterflow chillers can be flushed or soaked and then sanitize with Star San prior to use.

It is an immersion chiller.

not sure how you have not been able to sanitize it by boiling it in the kettle for the last 15 minutes. NOTHING lives in boiling wort if you have it in there long enough. if you wanted to boile the entire thing inside/outside in a larger pot of boiling water that would certainly kill the buggies where they hide between brews, not sure how the IC is causing your problems... unless you are dripping water into the wort or not sanitizing the whole thing.

You know Todd I thought the same thing and it was the last variable I tried. Same steps, same place, same practices, same brewer, pretty much the same recipe and so forth just used ice no chiller in the last batch. Turned out amazing.

I'm willing to give it one last chance but if I get bad beer again, I will probably destroy it with pure rage.

If you're putting your immersion chiller in your kettle for the last 15 minutes of the boil and it is not leaking water into the kettle while it is chilling, I will garantee it is not your chiller that is causing your problems.

Replace anything plastic that touches your beer post-boil and fully disassemble and clean anything else that touches your beer post boil. By clean, I mean soak in PBW and scrub what you can.

WIll do. Thank you to everyone who responded.