Chronic contamination woes
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 2:13 am
Hullo,
I have been brewing AG for about a year, and every time I brew I have contamination problems after bottling. I say after bottling, because the beer always tastes good before bottling. Of course, I don't have any evidence that the beer isn't contaminated before.
My sanitation process is quite thorough, I steep everything before and after brewing and then sanitize with either starsan for fermentors or iodophore for bottles before use. Filling stick and plastic taps are fully dismantled, washed, steeped and sanitized before use. Glass bottles and caps are washed and sanitized.
This cleaning process has been improved over time through the discovery of colonies hiding in various places.
I use a secondary fermentor for bottling (have tried without also). I boil and sanitize the pipe that runs from the fermentor to the bottling one, and boil the conditioning sugar also. Basically anything that comes in contact with the beer is washed, boiled (if possible) and sanitized.
And yet, every brew lasts roughly 1-2 weeks in the bottles. At first the taste is great, but it rapidly develops a vinegary smell and excess co2 after 5-7 days. It doesn't matter what equipment I have used, whether bypassing the filling stick or the fermentor tap altogether, or brewing in glass fermentors with no taps, or conditioning in plastic bottles, in each case the contamination appears in all bottles, at exactly the same time. Even when fermenting in 3 different fermentors the contamination was across the board. I am often tempted to drink the beer straight out of the fermentor, before it is ruined.
I have run out of ideas what the source of the contamination is. Before I moved to AG I had far less contamination problems. Is there any chance that the grains are causing the problem? I buy milled grains as I don't have a mill.
Any ideas that will allow me to stop drinking cheap commercial beers are more than welcome.
Cheers,
I have been brewing AG for about a year, and every time I brew I have contamination problems after bottling. I say after bottling, because the beer always tastes good before bottling. Of course, I don't have any evidence that the beer isn't contaminated before.
My sanitation process is quite thorough, I steep everything before and after brewing and then sanitize with either starsan for fermentors or iodophore for bottles before use. Filling stick and plastic taps are fully dismantled, washed, steeped and sanitized before use. Glass bottles and caps are washed and sanitized.
This cleaning process has been improved over time through the discovery of colonies hiding in various places.
I use a secondary fermentor for bottling (have tried without also). I boil and sanitize the pipe that runs from the fermentor to the bottling one, and boil the conditioning sugar also. Basically anything that comes in contact with the beer is washed, boiled (if possible) and sanitized.
And yet, every brew lasts roughly 1-2 weeks in the bottles. At first the taste is great, but it rapidly develops a vinegary smell and excess co2 after 5-7 days. It doesn't matter what equipment I have used, whether bypassing the filling stick or the fermentor tap altogether, or brewing in glass fermentors with no taps, or conditioning in plastic bottles, in each case the contamination appears in all bottles, at exactly the same time. Even when fermenting in 3 different fermentors the contamination was across the board. I am often tempted to drink the beer straight out of the fermentor, before it is ruined.
I have run out of ideas what the source of the contamination is. Before I moved to AG I had far less contamination problems. Is there any chance that the grains are causing the problem? I buy milled grains as I don't have a mill.
Any ideas that will allow me to stop drinking cheap commercial beers are more than welcome.
Cheers,