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Date: 30 Nov 2006 09:20:33
From: Just Another Bob
Subject: Contaminated batch - confirmation (gushing bottles)
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This is a follow up posting to a post I put up on November 13th with
the subject line "two bad batches in a row."
Well, I suspected it when I bottled a few weeks ago, and it was
confirmed last night. For the first time since I started brewing, I
had an *obviously* infected batch of beer. I don't know if it is
bacterial or a wild yeast strain, but it is definitely infected.
The brew had quite a few things go wrong, so I'm not exactly sure at
what point the infection occurred. I started with a Pilsner Urquell
clone recipe from my Clone Brews book. It was my first attempt at a
lager. We inherited an old chest freezer from my wife's parents, and I
purchased a Johnson external temperature controller.
The actual brewing process went fine, but when I was siphoning the wort
from the brew pot to the counter-flow wort chiller, the pellet hop
remains clogged the racking hose and caused it to blow off the C.F.
chiller several times. Next time I need to use hose clamps to keep the
flexible hose on the 3/8" copper of the chiller.
I had sanitized the chiller by running a solution of SaniClean through
it (at least I thought I had sanitized the chiller.) In the future, I
think I should use boiling water. However, the problem there is that I
only have one brew pot, and even it doesn't have a spigot. So, I'd
have to use a separate pot on my one burner (presumably with the brew
pot containing the wort set to the side with the lid on.) I'd have to
wait 10-20 minutes to bring a few gallons of water to a boil, and then
siphon it through my chiller and then down the drain.
Another problem with this batch is that there was an extremely long lag
time. I pitched a tube of White Labs Bohemian Pilsner yeast directly
into the cooled wort at about 65F, and then put the fermenter in the
chest freezer with a blow-off tube (I have to use a blow off tube in
the chest freezer, because an airlock makes it too tall to close the
freezer lid.)
It was Friday evening when I pitched the yeast. By Sunday afternoon
(nearly 48 hours later) there was still no visible activity in the
fermenter. So, I drove into town and bought another tube of the
Bohemian Pilsner yeast as well as a small jar of yeast nutrient, and I
dumped them in the fermenter. I brought the fermenter into the kitchen
to allow it to warm up. The next morning, I had a fairly active
fermentation going on, so I moved it back into the chest freezer set at
50 degrees (however I don't think the chest freezer is actually
functioning, so it was really whatever the ambient temperature of my
garage is.)
It seemed to ferment out for about a week or so at which point I
intended to rack it into the secondary. I was too busy to get it moved
over to the secondary though, so I just left it in the primary for
about another 3 weeks. At this point it had been in the primary for
about a month, so I figured fermentation had to have been complete. I
didn't even bother to take a final gravity reading. I racked it into
my bottling bucket, and noticed a strong sour smell and taste. I
figured it was 'bad' at this point, but decided to bottle it anyway.
So I primed it as normal and bottled about 30 Easy Cap bottles. It's
been in the bottles about a month now, so last night I decided to try
one. The flip cap almost tore my thumb off when I opened it and it
popped like a gun shot. Then the gushing started. This beer foamed
over for about 10 minutes. I drank some, and it was extremely sour.
Strangely, I don't find the taste entirely unpleasant. It's sort of
lambic-like. The smell and taste actually reminded me of something,
but I couldn't quite place it. It's definitely sour, like maybe the
smell of an apple orchard after all the windfall apples have started
rotting, but no, that's not quite right. Anyway, this is what happens
when a beer goes bad. The point is there is nothing subtle about this.
What lessons have I learned from this? Well, first off, I need to make
a starter, especially on a lager. I'm not going to try making a lager
without a starter ever again, no matter how much the tube claims to be
"pitchable." Secondly, I need to do something different with my
chiller sanitization technique. Thirdly, I need to add some hose
clamps to the transfer hose on the chiller--having them blow off
repeatedly and spray near-boiling wort isn't a lot of fun, especially
since I was trying to siphon up and out of the brew pot with no spigot.
I do plan on adding a spigot to my brew pot in the near future.
I've found someone locally who does sanitary S.S. welding.
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Date: 30 Nov 2006 11:49:46
From: The Artist Formerly Known as Kap'n Salty
Subject: Re: Contaminated batch - confirmation (gushing bottles)
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Just Another Bob wrote:
>
>
> What lessons have I learned from this? Well, first off, I need to make
> a starter, especially on a lager. I'm not going to try making a lager
> without a starter ever again, no matter how much the tube claims to be
> "pitchable."
This is absolutely a good idea. Unless you're using a stir plate, I'd
recommend pitching the slurry from a gallon starter
> Secondly, I need to do something different with my
> chiller sanitization technique.
Bes sure you're using your sanitizer correctly (I've never heard of
'Saniclean', so I have no suggestions there). We've had people around
here in the past using excessive dilutions with concentrated sanitizers
and basically not getting anything sanitized at all. You could also
consider changing sanitizers. Iodophor is widely available and reliable,
as is Star-San.
>Thirdly, I need to add some hose
> clamps to the transfer hose on the chiller--having them blow off
> repeatedly and spray near-boiling wort isn't a lot of fun, especially
> since I was trying to siphon up and out of the brew pot with no spigot.
> I do plan on adding a spigot to my brew pot in the near future.
> I've found someone locally who does sanitary S.S. welding.
There's no need for a sanitary weld on your brewpot -- a weldless
fitting would probably be easier and cheaper.
Good luck -- m
--
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