First infection, toss all my plastic?

I would not throw away my fermenters. Just clean them really well and sanitize. I still have and use the original fementers that came with my first equipment kit over 20 years ago.

 

For complete peace of mind, just buy a new bucket. Sure, you could probably use boiling water and kill what's inside, but you'll never be 100% certain. This is just me though, and I tend to worry too much!

 

Unless your bucket, etc. has a lot of scratches or abrasions where the little buggers can hide, you should easily be able to clean it. If there are scratches, etc. then you start taking a riskier chance to clean/re-use it, but still a good cleaning should be able to get your equipment going again.

 

He may have a Grand Master II palate, but his advice is shoot from the hip nonsense...especially when he doesn't have a clue about the brewers' procesess (other than the beers were obviously contaminated), imho. His advice might work, but so might a lot of other solutions (like pitch your yeast promptly in this case)

 

What are you cleaning and sanitizing with between bug and sacc batches?

 

I agree with Brew_Betty...I've recovered from a bad infection without chucking the equipment. I clean the bucket and lid after kegging with bleach based cleanser. On brew day everything cold side gets Starsan. I soak the spigot parts seperate for a few minutes in Starsan...then rebuild the bucket and spray the bucket and lid...

 

PBW and hot water soak overnight.

Mix up a stronger than normal batch of StarSan with pH of 2 or less. Let the SS soak for 30 mins. Dump it. Repeat once. Probably overkill.

Rinse. Store.

Haven't done a bug batch recently. All my clean beer buckets have been used for bug beers.

 

I'm firmly in the camp of "it can be cleaned". I've had infections and the dilemma is you have no idea of the source (yeast, tubing, airlock, stir-spoon, whatever). In your case it's pretty clear only the bucket/airlock is infected (replacement cost south of 20 bucks). But as mentioned, clorox is a serious killer. I cleaned all my infected equipment with clorox until it begged for mercy . . . then an overnight starsan soak. Problem solved. Lesson learned: don't ever start a brew day without yeast and back-up yeast ready for action . . . elsewise you'll be showering with bleach like the aforementioned brewer from NY .

 

It's not shoot from the hip nonsense to those who've experienced a year's worth of problems like I did about 7 or 8 years ago. It's not worth the risk. Replace the shit and start over. It's worth the expense. Or, don't listen to me, listen to your own experience, that's your prerogative. I learned the hard way.

 

It's simple brewery maintenance. No different than maintaining proper fermentation temperature or calculating appropriate hop additions.

Nobody is suggesting that your solution is wrong for you. But it is wrong to recommend disposing equipment after an infection is the best solution. And it is simply factually incorrect to imply that because nothing in a brewery can be 100% sanitized (aka sterile) the best or only solution is disposal and start over. That kind of reasoning got a few of us to raise eyebrows and think, hey hold on a minute here. what?

Cheers.

 

what if it was just a dirty bottle or two? thats happened to me before - had a few infected bottles but not he whole batch. sometimes its better to think than to speak.

 

Please don't discourage him. I enjoy hearing about his year long run of infected beers and this is probably the 78th time I've heard him talk about it. Then comes the "ditch the plastic and get on glass" speech delivered in a "scared straight inside the jailhouse style". Then comes the part where he won homebrew contests with infected beer! Sadly, we missed out on that part this time. It never gets old!

 

The bearded lady does bring up a great point: Ditch the plastic and get on glass.

Sorry I'm not discouraged. Believe you me, I'll tell you my stories 78 more times if I damn well please, or at least until I mention the words cider, apple, wine, mead, and Voldemort too many times.

 

GASP!

 

I have also successfully sanitized equipment after working with bugs and not had it contaminate subsequent clean batches. Maybe try it on a batch of something you aren't too emotionally invested in at first, and tap out if you end up with a subsequent infected batch, but certainly give cleaning/sanitizing a try first.

My 2c.

 

Bleach will kill anything a brewer might pick up.