BamaPhil
Well-Known Member
DON'T DO IT!!
Ok, that may be overkill, but do so with extreme caution. I'm still reeling from my first infection that sent 13 gallons (2 full batches and one half batch) down the drain.
I posted a couple threads as I dealt with this, wondering if I had a bug, but here's what I was looking at:
-Strange film on the top of my bottled Blackberry Wheat (~2 weeks old)
-Same thing developing in my bottled ESB (<1 week old)
-Odd fermentation in my Cherry Wheat. I should have thought "infection" sooner, but I was telling myself what I was seeing was normal krausen.
-A perfectly good, bottled white IPA
As I was coming to grips with this, I tried to figure out what the common thread was. My process was basically the same with no major hiccups, I'm pretty careful with cleanliness. I thought it could have been the plastic water jug I use for secondary sometimes, but the ESB didn't get a secondary at all.
Then I thought it may have been my habit of reusing Star San, so I made a timeline:
3/29- White IPA into primary, clean
4/7- Blackberry into primary, clean as far as I could tell
4/20- White IPA into bottles, clean
4/25- Blackberry into secondary, clean as far as I could tell
4/29- ESB into primary, pretty sure it was clean at this point, it was darn tasty
5/5- Blackberry into bottles, infected
5/17- Cherry wheat into primary and ESB bottled, both infected.
I don't recall when the last time I made a batch of Star San was, but my buddy that brewed with me on 3/29 doesn't recall us making any then. It could have been before or after that. Either way, my theory is that my sanitizer failed between 4/29 and 5/5.
Moral of the story: Don't depend on "is it cloudy and does it still foam?" I had read this was a way to gauge its effectiveness and it will last a long time if you use distilled water. This is exactly what I did and I saved some money reusing multiple batches of it. However, I will forever test it with pH strips in the future.
Off to re-brew the cherry wheat tomorrow, it's for my Dad's 60th birthday, hopefully I can make it drinkable by 6/28.
Ok, that may be overkill, but do so with extreme caution. I'm still reeling from my first infection that sent 13 gallons (2 full batches and one half batch) down the drain.
I posted a couple threads as I dealt with this, wondering if I had a bug, but here's what I was looking at:
-Strange film on the top of my bottled Blackberry Wheat (~2 weeks old)
-Same thing developing in my bottled ESB (<1 week old)
-Odd fermentation in my Cherry Wheat. I should have thought "infection" sooner, but I was telling myself what I was seeing was normal krausen.
-A perfectly good, bottled white IPA
As I was coming to grips with this, I tried to figure out what the common thread was. My process was basically the same with no major hiccups, I'm pretty careful with cleanliness. I thought it could have been the plastic water jug I use for secondary sometimes, but the ESB didn't get a secondary at all.
Then I thought it may have been my habit of reusing Star San, so I made a timeline:
3/29- White IPA into primary, clean
4/7- Blackberry into primary, clean as far as I could tell
4/20- White IPA into bottles, clean
4/25- Blackberry into secondary, clean as far as I could tell
4/29- ESB into primary, pretty sure it was clean at this point, it was darn tasty
5/5- Blackberry into bottles, infected
5/17- Cherry wheat into primary and ESB bottled, both infected.
I don't recall when the last time I made a batch of Star San was, but my buddy that brewed with me on 3/29 doesn't recall us making any then. It could have been before or after that. Either way, my theory is that my sanitizer failed between 4/29 and 5/5.
Moral of the story: Don't depend on "is it cloudy and does it still foam?" I had read this was a way to gauge its effectiveness and it will last a long time if you use distilled water. This is exactly what I did and I saved some money reusing multiple batches of it. However, I will forever test it with pH strips in the future.
Off to re-brew the cherry wheat tomorrow, it's for my Dad's 60th birthday, hopefully I can make it drinkable by 6/28.