Sanitary Kettle to Fermenter transfer

[jb1677]

I always have heard that there is no need to sanitize the brew kettle because boiling will kill off anything which makes sense. What about when one goes to transfer the cooled word to the fermenter, assuming a kettle that is only partially full the wort will have to pass across a portion of the kettle that never had boiling liquid on it. (I then go a step further and pour back and forth 2 or 3 times from kettle to fermenter to aerate)

Is there any concern there or a better way that I am missing? Am I just worrying too much? I just had an infected batch, trying to figure out where I could have introduced something and thought about the kettle itself.

 

[edmanster]

ball valve

 

[drhookmec]

auto siphon is what i use.

 

[HootHootHoot]

I've NEVER had a problem with this.

When you heat your kettle, the kettle itself gets very hot. In fact, one could assume it reaches 200 deg F. It's the temperature, not the boil, that sterilizes your kettle. At least that's what I figure.

Even if I'm wrong, I've never had a beer go bad due to the transfer from kettle to fermenter. In fact, I've never had a beer go bad, period- and I've had some crazy stuff happen. For example, fermenting a very high OG, I forgot to put a blow off valve on and came home to a huge mess- the bung blew off the carboy due to the build up of pressure and I had wort everywhere 8' up the wall and on the ceiling. At that time I was fermenting in my spare bathtub (swamp cooler), so it was an easy clean. Even without an air lock for probably half the day, the beer still turned out fine.

You have to figure this, bacteria is going to come into contact with your wort. It's inevitable. Unless you suck all the air out after you put the air lock on, you have air in the top of your carboy. Air has bacteria, natural yeast, etc in it. The reason why we don't have spoiled wort is because the yeast acts faster and produces enough CO2 to kill off those things so that they can never take hold.

You have to try really hard to spoil a batch of beer

 

[Golddiggie]

I then go a step further and pour back and forth 2 or 3 times from kettle to fermenter to aerate

This is most likely your infection source.

I run my wort through a plate chiller (and all connected tubes, ball valves, and such) while still boiling to sanitize, then turn on the chill water (recirculating to chill close to my target temp before running into the fermenter). Once it's in the fermenter, I then infuse with my pure O2 system (60-120 seconds at 1-2LpM of pure O2 does wonders) before pitching the yeast slurry. I also sanitize with StarSan anything that will come into contact with the cooled/chilled wort. That includes the tubing that runs the chilled wort into primary.

 

[HootHootHoot]

This is most likely your infection source.

I run my wort through a plate chiller (and all connected tubes, ball valves, and such) while still boiling to sanitize, then turn on the chill water (recirculating to chill close to my target temp before running into the fermenter). Once it's in the fermenter, I then infuse with my pure O2 system (60-120 seconds at 1-2LpM of pure O2 does wonders) before pitching the yeast slurry. I also sanitize with StarSan anything that will come into contact with the cooled/chilled wort. That includes the tubing that runs the chilled wort into primary.

One hell of a set up. Maybe in a few years for me. How do you infuse with O2? I guess I'm having trouble picturing this. Just a tube in the bottom blowing O2 up into the wort?

I agree, that this is likely the source of infection. The extent of my Aeration is a straight pour into the carboy and some shaking. Never had an issue with yeast starting fast enough or not completing fermentation fast enough

 

[MississippiSlim]

You have to try really hard to spoil a batch of beer

this