Cleaning sour equipment and contamination

[Steve271828]

I recently brewed my first Berliner Weisse using Lactobacillus and Brettanomyces. I have a short Sterlite container that I use to soak bottles and my autosiphon and other miscellaneous things in oxiclean. I placed the autosiphon and bungs and things I used to transfer the Berliner Weisse to secondary in this container with oxiclean to clean them. Now I'm wondering if I have potentially contaminated the Sterilite container. Is there any risk of contamination if I clean my non-sour autosiphon and other equipment in this container? Or am I being paranoid? Thanks

 

[HDIr0n]

I don't think the oxiclean will keep the rest of your equipment from being infected. I personally have 2 sets of anything that touches beer for my normal beers and for my sours. It would just be safer to get some extra equipment and keep what you have already used just for sours.

-G

 

[Malric]

Jamil said the same on a string brew episode.

 

[eastoak]

very good sanitation is the key. it might be viewed as "taking chances" but i use exactly the same equipment to brew sour and clean beer without any cross contamination in the 2 yrs i've been brewing sour beer. i would not do this if i had a brewery with more equipment to keep clean but in my tiny garage with 6-8 plastic fermentors it's not a problem at all to thoroughly clean and sanitize. people often quote jamil (or some other brewer) as saying that 2 sets of gear should be used but i would expect them (public figures) to say that, can you imagine them saying the opposite? "jamil said i could do this and now i have 10 gallons of sour...." i'm not telling anyone to do what i do just that it is possible to clean off sour bugs with the commonly available sanitizers.

 

[Steve271828]

Thanks for the replies. I ended up just buying another container to be on the safe side.

 

[forcabrew]

Not to hijack this thread but I'm getting into brewing sours. I will be using buckets to primary ferment and I was wondering if I would need to use separate buckets for different bugs. One bucket for my all Brett beers and another bucket my lambics, flanders, etc...

 

[eastoak]

Not to hijack this thread but I'm getting into brewing sours. I will be using buckets to primary ferment and I was wondering if I would need to use separate buckets for different bugs. One bucket for my all Brett beers and another bucket my lambics, flanders, etc...

you can but you don't have to. if the only source of contamination were plastic buckets we'd all be able to avoid contamination pretty easily but we all carry bugs on our clothes, and bodies mouths. on top of that there are wild bugs floating in the air. my point is that good sanitation not lots of different fermentors is the key to avoiding sour beer. go ahead and have 2 or more sets of gear, nothing wrong with that at all but make sure your sanitation is top notch or your efforts (and money) will be wasted.

 

[PLOVE]

Funny in a way. We've all had that "infected" batch over years of brewing - if you haven't you're probably lying or incredibly lucky. Did we throw out all of equipment and startover? No. We just soaked it in oxy for a week or two (hoses included), rinsed thoroughly, and went back to brewing (fingers-crossed). If the battle between brewing worthy cultivated yeasts/bacteria vs wild yeast/bacteria is anything like good plants vs weeds, something tells me that the wild stuff is way tougher than any cultivated strain. If a good cleaning regime is good enough for the wild stuff, it's good enough for anything.

It all comes down to probabilities and risk taking. . .

 

[HDIr0n]

I think soaking in oxiclean doesn't do much. If you were soaking your equipment in sanitizer that is a different story and you will have a better chance to brew a noticeably cleaner beer. JMO

-G

 

[tally350z]

Funny in a way. We've all had that "infected" batch over years of brewing - if you haven't you're probably lying or incredibly lucky. Did we throw out all of equipment and startover? No. We just soaked it in oxy for a week or two (hoses included), rinsed thoroughly, and went back to brewing (fingers-crossed). If the battle between brewing worthy cultivated yeasts/bacteria vs wild yeast/bacteria is anything like good plants vs weeds, something tells me that the wild stuff is way tougher than any cultivated strain. If a good cleaning regime is good enough for the wild stuff, it's good enough for anything.

It all comes down to probabilities and risk taking. . .

I do see where your coming from but, for those who had the infected batch, lets say in carboy. Did you pull out all of your siphon gear and siphon it out of the carboy, or did you just dump straight out? Me personally, I just dumped it right outside in the woods.
I personally wouldn't trust using the equipment for sours after transfer, on my regular brews. Those bugs are pretty hearty.

 

[eastoak]

I do see where your coming from but, for those who had the infected batch, lets say in carboy. Did you pull out all of your siphon gear and siphon it out of the carboy, or did you just dump straight out? Me personally, I just dumped it right outside in the woods.
I personally wouldn't trust using the equipment for sours after transfer, on my regular brews. Those bugs are pretty hearty.

not heartier than star san or even plain soap.

 

[Indian_villager]

Bleach the hell out of it.

 

[LoloMT7]

Bleach the hell out of it.

Genius!