Messages

1

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: New Toy

« on: July 15, 2013, 12:11:16 PM »

Come on guys nobody has experience with this manufacturer of microscope?

2

Yeast and Fermentation / New Toy

« on: July 13, 2013, 10:50:06 PM »

I want to purchase a microscope for yeast counting and infection identification.  I searched and there was a informative post by member Kaiser.

What do you guys think of this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0VU0AF0219

I am not well versed in microscopes.  Is this a decent model from a reputable brand?


Thanks as always

Pat

3

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Infection

« on: June 21, 2013, 10:05:55 PM »

Closure!!!

This is for AmandaK. 

I brewed three batches of beer (Irish red, Blonde, and California Common) using the exact methodology I described earlier; but, with new bungs and airlocks.  AND NO INFECTION.  Never underestimate Occam's razor.

Thanks to everyone who provided input. 

pat

4

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Infection

« on: June 07, 2013, 08:22:41 PM »

Those are some very good points AmandaK.

The beer is sours during the fermentation.  All in all I have had 7 sour batches out of about seventy batches.

All my hoses are high temp silicon and all the fittings are stainless camlocks.  The wort goes from the boil kettle to a march pump then a blichmann ferminator.  After that straight to the glass carboy.  I add 60 seconds of Oxygen at 1 cfm thru a stainless 5 micron air stone.  After that I pitch the yeast, cap the car boy with a bung, and agitate it for 60 seconds.  I then place the air lock and fill it with everclear and put it in the chest freezer.

I identified some discoloration in my carboy bungs.  Looked like a mold discoloration.  I am leaning toward the carboy bungs being the case of the infection.

5

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Infection

« on: June 06, 2013, 08:26:24 PM »

The beer had a very sour rancid flavor that overwhelms all other flavors.  The beer was also cloudy with a fine white haze.  My uninfected beer tends to be very clear.  Also this flavor increases with time so after about a week and a half the beer is so bad it is impossible to drink more than a couple of sips.

Since I don't have a microscope I am guessing this is acetobacter.  Am I incorrect in this guess?

I thought of the bung thung also so I threw them out and ordered new ones.

6

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Infection

« on: June 06, 2013, 06:21:44 PM »

Well the gourds  were on back order so I have to settle for glass carboys.

7

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Infection

« on: June 06, 2013, 06:05:34 PM »

The taste is definitely acetobacter.

I will keep an eye on the fluid level in the airlocks.  I do not sample in the freezer.  On the last beer, the esb, I didn’t even pull a sample at all.  Filled the airlock with everclear and left it alone for two weeks and kegged.

I haven’t defrosted the freezer since its set at 65 degree and has no frost build up on it.

Thanks for the suggestions

8

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Infection

« on: June 06, 2013, 10:24:42 AM »

I use standard air locks filled with everclear.  I definitely get a moisture built up in the freezer.  I installed a couple of 120 mm computer fans to circulate the air and put some silica gel crystals. 

Could the lacto have found its way into a part of the freezer that's not easily accessible.  Such as the inner walls or coils of the unit?

thanks for the help

9

Yeast and Fermentation / Infection

« on: June 05, 2013, 07:50:58 PM »

OK Guys this one has me scratching my head.

I use a 26 cu foot chest freezer with a Johnson controller for my fermentation chamber.  A while back I was making a few batches of various lagers (four in total) and had them fermenting in the chest freezer.  I got lazy for a couple of these beers and didn't make yeast starters.  As a result the beer, all the beer, got horribly infected, lactobacter most likely.  OK flash forward a few months and I placed another couple of beers in the freezer and they also got infected.

I suspected a sanitation issue.  I tore down all my equipment and scrubbed, pbw'd, and star sanned everything.  I use a blichmann thermonator  plate chiller and I pumped pbw at 150 deg thru it for about four hours.  Then cooked it at 350 deg in the oven and pumped pbw back thru it.  Then I soaked it in star san for an hour.

I made another couple of batches  and didn't place them in the freezer.  No issues.  Then I made a run of the mill ESB, a recipe I have brewed dozens of times with no issues and placed the beer in the freezer and viola infection.  The ESB was pitched with dry yeast that was rehydrated exactly as specified by the directions.

Here's the question can a freezer harbor a lactobacter infection and if so how do you get ride of it?

Thanks

pat

10

All Grain Brewing / Re: Water Connundrum

« on: March 26, 2013, 12:28:44 PM »

Wow!  I knew it was bad but I didn't think it was that bad.  There's no possibility of using it? (the water that is)

pat

ps thanks for the responses

11

All Grain Brewing / Water Connundrum

« on: March 26, 2013, 10:20:16 AM »

I need help with with my water adjustment.  I have been brewing with RO water but want to try to use the local water supply with no RO dilution.  The water is filtered thru an activated carbon filter.  Other than that it is untouched. 

Here's the profile

Total disolved solids           700
Phenol Alkalinity CaCO3    <1.0
Total Alkalinity CaCO3       133
Total Hardness CaCO3        230
Chlorides CL                      133
Sulfates SO4                     182
Flourides                           .62
Silica SiO2                         20
Nitrates NO3                      2.1
Nitrites NO2                     <0.05
Phosphates PO4                 .68
Calcium CA                         71
Magnesium Mg                    15
Sodium Na                         133
Potassium K                        8.6
Iron Fe                             <0.03
Manganese                      <0.0010
ph                                      7.3

I know this water is pretty bad.  I want to brew lagers (Pils, Amber, and Dortmunder).  What additions would you recommend excluding RO dilution.

Thanks

pat

12

Equipment and Software / Re: Chilling

« on: September 09, 2012, 05:31:30 PM »

Well I tried whirl pooling and chilling with my supposedly good hop filter.  To make a long story short it was a complete disaster.  When I tried it on the first batch the filter got so clogged I had to by pass it.  This was with only three ounces of pellet hops.

I tried leaving the hop filter out on my second batch.  This time the plate chiller clogged up and I had to make a mad dash for my old immersion chiller.

I am definitely going back to a separate whirlpool then chill.

t-bone

13

Equipment and Software / Re: Chilling

« on: September 08, 2012, 07:59:13 AM »

Thanks for all the info.  I'm not using a hop rocket as a filter I'm using one of these

http://www.brewershardware.com/FILTER1.html

Its worked out pretty good for me.  I'm not affiliated with the company in any way so please don't think I spamming for them.

What pumps are you guys using to pump ice water in the plate chiller?

Thanks

T-bone

14

Equipment and Software / Chilling

« on: September 04, 2012, 06:28:04 PM »

I have a question concerning wort chilling.  I am currently using a Blichmann plate chiller in a standard setup.

Here's what I want to try.  Listed in order of connection 

Boil kettle to
march pump to
hop filter to
plate chiller to
boil kettle for a whirlpool thru tangential inlet.

I plan to whirlpool and chill for approximately fifteen minutes.  Then let the wort settle for five.  Then pump to carboy.

Good idea or bad?  Any potential drawbacks?

As always thanks for any input

t-bone

15

All Grain Brewing / Re: Parti-Gyle Brew.

« on: July 02, 2012, 08:54:49 PM »

The recipe doesn't show the addition of 2lbs of brown sugar and 1 lb of lactose.  I didn't include these since they were not part of the grain bill for a second running.  I'm showing a theoretical alcohol content on BeerTools of 10.98%.

I haven't really tried to determine the viability of this recipe.  I figure I would just brew it.

Thanks again
T-Bone