Hi everyone. I am in desperate need of advice.My last 3 batches of beer have all be dumped due to infection and im at a loss. I apologize in advance for the length of this post. To give a little background I have been home brewing for almost 2 years and have never had an infected batch until now. A few months ago I brewed a batch and when I went to rack it to a keg I noticed the airlock was on the ground, someone walked by and accidentally knocked it out. Best guess, it was out for about a week. To no ones surprise this resulted in an infection. I then thoroughly cleaned everything and reused that fermenter for my next batch. I use the SS Brew Tech brew bucket with FTSS temp controller. This next batch was infected again, tasted like the exact same infection. Now I got serious, and replaced every single piece of plastic through my entire system. All tubing, racking canes, buckets, o rings, oxygen wands, you name it if it had any plastic I replaced it. I also boiled all stainless steel parts and thoroughly cleaned the brew bucket. Yet, I just racked the beer out and its infected again with the same infection. The beer has a super slick oily mouth feel, not the nice kind of slightly oily mouth feel but very off putting. It also has a slight sour smell/taste that only gets worse as the beer ages, not convinced its butter though. I know diacetyl come from dirty lines but everything was brand new for my latest batch. I also gave it a lengthy diacetly rest of 7 days at 70 degrees. Total of 21 in the tank. I am completely lost as to what to do. I taste the beer before putting it into the tank and all tastes fine. I have just recently started building my water for these last 3 batches but I find it hard to believe this could lead to such an off putting flavor. Is it possible I am just way off on my brewing salt addition that is causing the beer to go bad? Could the first infection really have infected my stainless steel bucket that bad? I have a brew day tomorrow and I am thinking of just using regular carbon filtered water with no addition and trying a good old plastic fermentation bucket. ANY advice would be greatly appreciated.
Needless to say I have not tasted your beer but the sour aspect which gets worse with age sure seems indicative of an infection. Based upon everything you detailed it sure sounds like you did a thorough job from a replacement of plastic items and cleaning/sanitizing but the fact that a second batch had the same indications of an infection seems to indicate that there is 'something' that is at issue here. This is an extremely difficult thing to diagnose provide advice on since we are not in your homebrewery to see everything. If I was in your position I would consider doing this as well. My advice: just do this. Now, how to get your stainless steel back in good shape: are you a member of a homebrew club? Is there an experienced member of that club which would be willing to come over to help? It seems that there are some 'missing' items here and maybe a second person (who is experienced) can be helpful here; a second pair of eyes if you will. Cheers!
Ummm from reading similar scenarios like this....make sure your salts are really what they're supposed to be. I read a really funny but crappy story where a guy had several batches go bad because he was using lactic acid instead of priming sugar. Apparently his LHBS sold him the wrong stuff. Besides that, it sounds like you're doing what you're supposed to be doing to resolve the issue. I would also taste the beer after everytime you rack it. Just to pin point more exactly where your issue is.
How are you transferring from the SS BB to the keg? Did you boil the parts from the keg or the SS BB or both?
Thanks everyone for the tips. Im transferring direct from the bucket via the bottom ball valve. I boiled parts from both.
Is there a ball valve on your kettle? If you're using a shrouded burner it may not allow the ball valve to heat adequately during the which could provide an optimal breeding ground for bacteria.
Have you pulled the posts and dip tube? Get a dip tube brush to clean it. Boil the posts and poppets if you haven't.
Have you dismantled the QD and swapped out parts or boiled everything yet? How about the swivel nut, did you boil that when you replaced all the tubing?
Sorry to hear that Sr. , I would check thoroughly all parts of the system in contact with wort after it was boiled. Do you use any device to aerate your wort prior fermenting?
Ya, I boiled every single piece I could. Just brewed yesterday and put it into a platic fermentation bucket. We will see how this on comes out fingers crossed. If I can pinpoint the infection to my steal brew bucked Ill consider that a win and then I can focus on getting rid of that nasty infection. I do use an aeration device but before last batch I bought a brand new one. Ha, I wish it was that easy.
