wondercow
Active Member
Not sure which forum is the best to post this in. A few months ago, I posted about a few batches that turned into bottle bombs. Well, my problems have not gone away. I have now brewed at least 6 batches in a row that have all had overcarbonation problems leading to bottle bombs, and I don't know what to do anymore. Rather than overcarbonation due to incomplete fermentation or overpriming, I now suspect that my problems are result of infection, especially because of the consecutive nature of the batches turning into bottle bombs.
I was reading about lactobacillus infections on the forum a few days ago and read where someone said that most wild lacto can't survive in environments above about 3% ABV (sorry, lost the link, so hopefully nobody wants verification of this fact). My beers certainly taste like they are above 3% ABV (recipes indicate that they should be around 5%). However, that same thread also said that lacto is the same bacteria that causes milk to go sour. At my house, our milk pretty consistently goes bad on or slightly before the "sell by" date on the jug. I always assumed that was due to a roommate not closing the fridge all the way or Kroger doing a bad job of labelling their milk jugs, but now the pieces of the puzzle are coming together. Is it possible that I have some super-strain of wild lactobacillus in the air in my house that is getting into my beer and surviving at higher ABV? Is there anything I can do to more conclusively diagnose it? Is there anything I can do to stop the lacto (other than moving out)?
More details/ranting about my problem below (but my question is above so you don't have to read this part):
All of my exploding beers have been different styles. I have cleaned every signel piece of brewing equipment with a heavy dose of PBW and still had problems. I used to use StarSan, but when that ran out I replaced it with powdered One-Step, and I feel that all post-boil equipment is thoroughly sanitized before use. Every batch I brew, I get more and more obsessive about cleanliness for fear of infection, to no avail. All of my beers taste perfectly fine for about 2 months, then most of the bottles I haven't already consumed seem to get suddenly overcarbonated, and if left alone, will eventually explode. Short of brewing in an industrial cleanroom, I'm not sure what else I can do to make my process more sterile in the home environment. If there is super-lacto in my air, I don't know what else to do.
Brewing isn't nearly as fun anymore. Half the thrill, in my opinion, of making a tasty beer is giving it away. Now, I'm petrified to give my beer to anyone for fear of a bottle exploding on them. In the rare circumstance that I do give it away, I give a disclaimer that they must drink the beer within a week (which my friends have not heeded, and then complained when a bottle exploded in their fridge 2 months later). I love cellaring beers, but I can't keep any of my brews past about 3 months for liability reasons.
I was reading about lactobacillus infections on the forum a few days ago and read where someone said that most wild lacto can't survive in environments above about 3% ABV (sorry, lost the link, so hopefully nobody wants verification of this fact). My beers certainly taste like they are above 3% ABV (recipes indicate that they should be around 5%). However, that same thread also said that lacto is the same bacteria that causes milk to go sour. At my house, our milk pretty consistently goes bad on or slightly before the "sell by" date on the jug. I always assumed that was due to a roommate not closing the fridge all the way or Kroger doing a bad job of labelling their milk jugs, but now the pieces of the puzzle are coming together. Is it possible that I have some super-strain of wild lactobacillus in the air in my house that is getting into my beer and surviving at higher ABV? Is there anything I can do to more conclusively diagnose it? Is there anything I can do to stop the lacto (other than moving out)?
More details/ranting about my problem below (but my question is above so you don't have to read this part):
All of my exploding beers have been different styles. I have cleaned every signel piece of brewing equipment with a heavy dose of PBW and still had problems. I used to use StarSan, but when that ran out I replaced it with powdered One-Step, and I feel that all post-boil equipment is thoroughly sanitized before use. Every batch I brew, I get more and more obsessive about cleanliness for fear of infection, to no avail. All of my beers taste perfectly fine for about 2 months, then most of the bottles I haven't already consumed seem to get suddenly overcarbonated, and if left alone, will eventually explode. Short of brewing in an industrial cleanroom, I'm not sure what else I can do to make my process more sterile in the home environment. If there is super-lacto in my air, I don't know what else to do.
Brewing isn't nearly as fun anymore. Half the thrill, in my opinion, of making a tasty beer is giving it away. Now, I'm petrified to give my beer to anyone for fear of a bottle exploding on them. In the rare circumstance that I do give it away, I give a disclaimer that they must drink the beer within a week (which my friends have not heeded, and then complained when a bottle exploded in their fridge 2 months later). I love cellaring beers, but I can't keep any of my brews past about 3 months for liability reasons.
