the-adjunct-hippie
aspiring brewgenius
I can't for the life of me figure this out. 3 of them were stouts, 1 of them was an IPA, and one of them I'm not sure is infected, but it's a little snappier than I'd like (PB&J beer).
I recently picked up some green Menards buckets (HDPE 2, food safe), brand new never used :
https://www.menards.com/main/menard...0-c-7113.htm?tid=-4242568597668123607&ipos=21
https://www.menards.com/main/housew...7-c-7113.htm?tid=-4242568597668123607&ipos=35
The first infected beer came from the top pail. The spigot leaked while we were on vacation and I deduced that if there was liquid coming OUT, there had to be bacteria going IN. I tossed it.
The second infected beer came from my Mr. Beer fermenter which has NEVER had a problem with infection. I chalked it up to not using enough sanitizer and vowed to use more next time.
The third infected batch came from another one of the pails posted in the top link. This one I could see a problem with as we had fruit flies in the house and I did catch a couple around the lid when I went to check the gravity.
The fourth and fifth ones though, I am really scratching my head.
Fourth batch was just dumped. It was made in the square bucket in the second link. Has a proper lid and everything. I sanitized the **** out of it. Filled it to the top with piping hot water, dumped my C-Brite in (which I have used since the beginning), let it soak for 30 minutes, dunked the lid in for 30 more minutes, sanitized everything I touched, and it still ended up infected. This was a big one. It was a chocolate-peanut butter-coconut stout. I re-used the bagged peanuts and bagged coconut from the boil, placed them in a sanitized dish and rinsed them with sanitized water before sticking them into the fermenter right after the wort and yeast were pitched. Awful vinegar flavor. I easily spent $25 on this 3 gallon batch. I am livid.
The fifth batch is a little more tart than I'd like. This was made in the Mr. Beer fermenter which I also scrubbed out thoroughly and soaked with C-Brite for an hour. It's a peanut butter jelly beer and the grape jelly flavor has just a little more acidity which I'm picking up faint infection - though I'm not 100% sure it is yet. The gravity reading on this one is 1.020 so it's almost finished. Lids were not opened or touched, buckets not shaken, nothing happened to these beers but sitting there fermenting at a comfortable 70 degrees.
US-05 was used in all batches. I've been much less careful in the past with sanitization and all my beers up until a month ago have turned out near perfect.
Is it these stupid green pails??
Also of note, these are all relatively small batches ~ 1.5 gallons in a 3 gallon or 4 gallon bucket. Too much headspace?
Everything I've told you is everything I've done. There is no mystery between the time I dump the wort into the sanitized bucket, pitch the yeast, and take a gravity reading 2 weeks out.
I'm going mad here. Our water softener is out of salt, and my wife suggested that was the problem. I can't for the life of me figure it out and it's gotta stop.
Help?
Thanks
I recently picked up some green Menards buckets (HDPE 2, food safe), brand new never used :
https://www.menards.com/main/menard...0-c-7113.htm?tid=-4242568597668123607&ipos=21
https://www.menards.com/main/housew...7-c-7113.htm?tid=-4242568597668123607&ipos=35
The first infected beer came from the top pail. The spigot leaked while we were on vacation and I deduced that if there was liquid coming OUT, there had to be bacteria going IN. I tossed it.
The second infected beer came from my Mr. Beer fermenter which has NEVER had a problem with infection. I chalked it up to not using enough sanitizer and vowed to use more next time.
The third infected batch came from another one of the pails posted in the top link. This one I could see a problem with as we had fruit flies in the house and I did catch a couple around the lid when I went to check the gravity.
The fourth and fifth ones though, I am really scratching my head.
Fourth batch was just dumped. It was made in the square bucket in the second link. Has a proper lid and everything. I sanitized the **** out of it. Filled it to the top with piping hot water, dumped my C-Brite in (which I have used since the beginning), let it soak for 30 minutes, dunked the lid in for 30 more minutes, sanitized everything I touched, and it still ended up infected. This was a big one. It was a chocolate-peanut butter-coconut stout. I re-used the bagged peanuts and bagged coconut from the boil, placed them in a sanitized dish and rinsed them with sanitized water before sticking them into the fermenter right after the wort and yeast were pitched. Awful vinegar flavor. I easily spent $25 on this 3 gallon batch. I am livid.
The fifth batch is a little more tart than I'd like. This was made in the Mr. Beer fermenter which I also scrubbed out thoroughly and soaked with C-Brite for an hour. It's a peanut butter jelly beer and the grape jelly flavor has just a little more acidity which I'm picking up faint infection - though I'm not 100% sure it is yet. The gravity reading on this one is 1.020 so it's almost finished. Lids were not opened or touched, buckets not shaken, nothing happened to these beers but sitting there fermenting at a comfortable 70 degrees.
US-05 was used in all batches. I've been much less careful in the past with sanitization and all my beers up until a month ago have turned out near perfect.
Is it these stupid green pails??
Also of note, these are all relatively small batches ~ 1.5 gallons in a 3 gallon or 4 gallon bucket. Too much headspace?
Everything I've told you is everything I've done. There is no mystery between the time I dump the wort into the sanitized bucket, pitch the yeast, and take a gravity reading 2 weeks out.
I'm going mad here. Our water softener is out of salt, and my wife suggested that was the problem. I can't for the life of me figure it out and it's gotta stop.
Help?
Thanks
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