oliver tate wrote:Many thanks for all the replies. Unfortunately, I have a 4 hour drive tonight to as music festival so no time for bottling. I have racked it into a 2nd fermenter and stuck it in the fridge and will see what it's like Monday and report back. I left the last few cm's in the original fv and tasted it out of interest. Tasted great! Not a massive loss if it does turn bad as it was only a small batch. I will relegate the fv to a grain store and replace it, plus I will get some different sanitizer.
Out of interest Andy, what did you change which meant no more infections?
On the day I brewed the beer I actually did 2 batches, and the other batch looks fine in the fv, so I am guessing the infection came from the fv
Assuming you've covered hygiene of the basic items like your chilling coil (and any potential leaks causing aerosols), FV, anything you use to aerate (if you do) and whatever you use to take gravity samples the other place to look is the tap on the boiler.
I had a right old run around with mine - I stripped it and found growth behind the ball and seals, cleaned it and boiled it up, still got a problem. Stripped it and removed the spigot this time and found more growth on the shaft of the spigot - not a lot mind you but it was just shielded enough from the heat and sanitiser to be able to survive and cause a problem. The thing to remember about sanitisers is that they are only effective a) where they can reach and b) if they have a long enough contact time (at least 20 mins for chlorine based products really to be on the safe side)
Now I fully strip the valve after each brew and the problem is solved.
Do you circulate/draw off hot wort from the tap near the end of the boil to sanitise it? There might be an issue with contamination ending up on the nice worty boiler tap after brew #1 maybe?
Cheers
Steve
