Infected Kegs? or not?

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Braufather

Landlord.
Joined
Aug 23, 2016
Messages
1,804
Reaction score
651
Location
NULL
Ive had to dump two brews and it looks likes its an infection in the kegs. whats surprising is that i split the brew into two 9l kegs and both brews were infected. ive reused the FVs and beer lines etc with no issues but the next time i used the kegs i got an infection again. its seems a big coincidence to get them both infected but nothing else is infected? maybe it was an issue with not rinsing properly. I have been out of pbw so have been using vpw. any ideas chaps?
 
An infection is an insidious thing to pin down.

My only advice is passed on from many books, articles and my own experience which are:
  1. Anything that touches the brew must be sanitised by heating or with a sanitising fluid.
  2. Allow sufficient time for the sanitiser to do its job. (I allows 15 minutes for Star-San.)
  3. Don't use scratched plastic fermenters, scratched PB's or any permeable materials such as wood; they can all harbour enough bacteria to cause an infection.
Er ... that's it really. With regard to cleaning out a 9 litre keg I use the "thingy" in the photograph fitted to a cordless drill and followed by a good rinse out with tap water and then sanitised with Star-San.

IMG_1271.jpg


Knocked up from a length of copper pipe and a few tie-wraps it ain't elegant, but it works!
 
What sort of infection are we talking about here? Is it something growing in the beer and causing it to go sour, a medicinal taste or something else entirely? Whenever someone mentions VWP we need to eliminate chlorine as the culprit.
 
Ive had to dump two brews and it looks likes its an infection in the kegs. whats surprising is that i split the brew into two 9l kegs and both brews were infected. ive reused the FVs and beer lines etc with no issues but the next time i used the kegs i got an infection again. its seems a big coincidence to get them both infected but nothing else is infected? maybe it was an issue with not rinsing properly. I have been out of pbw so have been using vpw. any ideas chaps?
If you have beer stone in the kegs just cleaning with an alkaline cleaner and StarSan will not dislodge any bacteria in the beer stone you will have to remove the beerstone build up.
 
Back
Top