General Category > Yeast and Fermentation

Airborne Infection

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crosswind:
I've been brewing for almost 6 years now and feel pretty confident in my sanitization process. However, a few of my beers recently have developed a white pellicle with hardened bubbles. Those beers have a lactic funk when I taste them that isn't very pleasant. I've retired all of the equipment that came in contact with those infected beers thinking I had done something wrong in cleaning/sanitation. I bleached down the floors and surfaces in the room I ferment in as well.

Fast forward a few weeks where I had split a 10 gallon batch of APA between a glass and a (brand new) bucket fermentors. They stayed in their fermentors for about a month. The glass half turned out fine. I peeked inside the bucket on Thursday for about 30 seconds and everything looked fine. On Saturday I went to keg it and it had that same thick white pellicle the infected beers had. Since nothing came in contact with this beer I would say this infection is airborne.

Has anyone else experienced a problem like this? What can I do to get rid of it?

nateo:
Something similar happened to me maybe 6 months ago. I just went with it and now I use that infected bucket for all my sour beers. It made a sticky biofilm that starsan wouldn't touch. A bleach/water/vinegar solution seemed to kill it in my glass equipment that also got infected, though.

kylekohlmorgen:
Its good to switch up your sanitizing routine to keep the bugs guessing (and to keep you thinking about the procedure).

If you're using Star San, switch to Iodophor for a few brews, or vice versa.

Make sure you're using enough sanitizer concentrate when you make batches of solution. Make sure its well-mixed, and check the pH before you use it. If you're using it over and over or making it with hard water, the life expectancy (i.e. acceptable pH) drops off quite a bit.

I also heard on the Basic Brewing podcast that Iodophor was only "good" for about 24 hours. That was a new fact to me!

crosswind:
Thanks for the advice. I've only ever used Star San so I'll give a Iodophor a try and see if that helps.

SecondRow_Sean:

--- Quote from: kylekohlmorgen on August 14, 2012, 08:28:27 AM ---Its good to switch up your sanitizing routine to keep the bugs guessing (and to keep you thinking about the procedure).
--- End quote ---

I understand the procedure part, but the "keep the bugs guessing" portion has got me confused. What does this mean?

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