Infection- About to go Nuclear.

Okay, so, I want to make sure I am not missing anything before I go nuclear tomorrow and get all new plastic equipment.

So, I have had a few batches that have become gushers in the bottle. I have made 29 batches. Batch 008- An amber made with WY3522 (gusher, tastes like high carbonation). Batch 013- A porter made with Notty (gusher, tastes like old newspaper/stale). Batch 014- An IPA made with US-05 (slow gusher, but tastes like slight acidity). Batch 023- A blonde made with a 4th generation WY3787 (Big gusher, seriously tastes almost like a berliner weisse right now, but it is really fresh.)

Now, I should mention that batch 9 was fine, batch 10 is fine, batch 11 is fine, batch 12 is fine, batch 15 is in secondary, batch 16 is fine, batch 16 is fine, batch 17 is half in a keg-half in a secondary with no signs, batch 18 is in secondary, batch 19 is fine, batch 20 is fine, batch 22 is in keg with no signs, batch 24 is in secondary, batch 25 is in keg with no signs, batch 26-29 are still in primary.

So, here are my thoughts:
It shouldn't be the glass carboy, thoroughly cleaned and glass won't harbor wild yeast well. It shouldn't be the racking cane/tubing as there is no signs in my keg after at least 4 weeks. It shouldn't be the bottles themselves because it is unlikely it would be in ALL of the bottles. It shouldn't be the the propogation mechanism for yeast as 1. They don't taste sour going into the bottle, 2. There is no visible pellicle at any time, and 3. Dry yeasts and liquid yeasts are infected.

It could be the bottling wand/tubing. It could be the spoon I stir with before bottling. It could be the bottling bucket itself. Anyway, I the last instance makes me want to think that it is lacto, but I don't know for sure.

Yes, I do sanitize well with starsan. Yes, I also rinse before sanitizing with oxyclean and do not "scrub" my buckets/plastic parts, merely wipe hard.

Anyway, my plan is to get a new bottling bucket, spoon (stainless steel), bottling wand and tubing. Also, buy some iodophor and alternate between that and starsan from now on, and getting rid of all of the above possible infection spots.

Just to clarify, do all of your kegged brews turn out fine? If so, the infection is coming in after bottling/kegging. Kegged beer shouldn't keep fermenting if it's kept cold.

maybe a problem with your bottles or caps?

Good luck,

So far, they have been okay. But, I have only been kegging for ~5 weeks. I would think I would notice something after 4 weeks at ~40F. If I bottle my next batch, after replacing bucket, wand, and spoon and it is still infected, I'll check out the bottles, and put them in the oven to sterilize them.

I doubt if it is the caps. I open them fresh every ~3 batches, and have them in a starsan solution the whole time, within the bottle rinser.

Gotcha,

It might be worth putting half your next batch into a keg and bottling the other half. I'm guessing that 40* will help preserve your kegged brew but bottling it will let any nasties keep going and going and going. Did you notice any difference in the bottles as time went on?

I only keg it, so not sure what you can do with the bottling pipeline to help sanitize, but it sounds like you're on the right path to tracking it down!

Best,

JCrazy84 said:

So far, they have been okay. But, I have only been kegging for ~5 weeks. I would think I would notice something after 4 weeks at ~40F. If I bottle my next batch, after replacing bucket, wand, and spoon and it is still infected, I'll check out the bottles, and put them in the oven to sterilize them.

I doubt if it is the caps. I open them fresh every ~3 batches, and have them in a starsan solution the whole time, within the bottle rinser.

Click to expand...

Yeah, 40 would slow it down, but from what I understand, it may not stop it completely. The bottles got a bit worse (more carbonated) as times went on, but nothing ridiculously noticeable, or to the point of bottles blowing up.