Mystery recurring issue ruining all my beer

[lawrencedarcy]

Hi folks,

I've been make beer for a little while now, have done about 5 or 6 brews. I have been doing mostly 2 gallon all-grain brews based on a simple method which involves fly-sparging with a seive (this is basically the method) but is otherwise pretty conventional.

Every beer so far has had the same issue to varying degrees, and I just can't crack what is causing it.

Symptom one: after a few weeks of bottle conditioning, when opening they are very over carbonated.

Symptom two: the beer tastes very yeasty(?) and dry.. possibly not helped by the overcarbing throwing up all the sediment.

The beer shows no signs of infection at any stage. Before the overcarbing occurs, beers can be opened but still have a slightly gross taste about them.

The one drinkable beer among them is a porter, which seems to cover the off taste quite well (but has the same kind of issues). The other beers have been a british pale, british bitter, IPA, and belgian pale.

The most recent beer was the first I measured gravity of. It seemed to be completed (from memory something like 1050 to 1005), and had 3+ weeks in the fermentor.

In addition, I don't think I am over-carbing. I am using well established calculators to measure my brewing sugar, and always use less than advised (the last time, I used 50%).

I perhaps over-pitch for the quantity, but use less than a full packet (sometimes around 60%). Which is too much. But I heard it is hard for this to cause issues.

I am on the verge of giving up guys! ANY ideas greatly appreciated.

 

[-Bezza-]

What's your cleaning and sanitation routine like - fermentation vessels, taps, tubes, jugs, bottles, caps etc etc? What do you use for cleaning and sanitising and when do you do it? Can you think of anything that doesn't get sanitised?

Is the fermentor closed off to the outside?

 

[lawrencedarcy]

Thanks for the response... I use a non-rinse sanitizer on everything... we are very careful I think. The fermentor is a sealed plastic bucket.

 

[-Bezza-]

Which santiser is it? Do you sanitise things immediately before use or can there be a time delay?

What about cleaning? Santisiers are only so much use if things are dirty or plastic is scratched.

Might also be useful to understand which yeast you're using, quantities used, how you prepare it and what temperature you ferment at.

 

[lawrencedarcy]

What's your cleaning and sanitation routine like - fermentation vessels, taps, tubes, jugs, bottles, caps etc etc? What do you use for cleaning and sanitising and when do you do it? Can you think of anything that doesn't get sanitised?

Is the fermentor closed off to the outside?

I've used a mix of non rinse sachets from various shops... same with the yeast, one or two liquid, others sachet.

Sounds like you think it's a case of 5 gusher infections on the bounce? guess I will have to try for a more hardcore approach to sanitising.

 

[-Bezza-]

I've used a mix of non rinse sachets from various shops... same with the yeast, one or two liquid, others sachet.

Sounds like you think it's a case of 5 gusher infections on the bounce? guess I will have to try for a more hardcore approach to sanitising.

I don't know for sure and you should certainly wait for some other opinions to come in but a) yeasty taste and b) over carbonation suggests it's either that fermentation hasn't quite finished or there's a wild yeast infection.

It would be helpful to give as much detail as possible though. Paradoxically, brewing seems to be both very tolerant and very exacting and so it could be a very minor thing you're doing that's causing the issue. Hence why I'm asking exactly which sanitiser, when you sanitise vs when you use the equipment etc. General responses might not highlight where the problem lies.

 

[JonBrew]

I think Bezza's right in terms of it either being a case of packaging the beer before it's done fermenting, or there is a wild yeast infections.

Have a look back over your brewing records for each recipe. How did you actual final gravity readings compare with your expected final gravity for the recipe?

You could always open a bottle of each brew and pour samples of each into a trial jar. Let each sample go flat then take a hydrometer reading. See how that gravity reading compares with the gravity you recorded at bottling.

Wild yeast will eat everything in your beer and you'll see gravity readings of closer to 1.000. The beer will taste of nothing, i.e. no malt flavours.

If you're only a couple of points below when you bottled, it might be that you've bottled too early.

 

[Covrich]

Over fizzing , very high attenuating FG and still gushing ripping the yeast up and not great flavour tasting a bit nasty.

Hmm this sounds like wild yeast infection to me.. and you could be transferring from brew to brew..

If your first brew had this, no rinse sanitiser will not be enough to remove this.. you will need to bleach or steralise everything to eliminate it fully..

 

[rank_frank]

I've been battling a similar issue myself for the last year and trying to work out what is going on. In may case the beer ends up tasting very dry so I think it's some kind of wild yeast infection that carries on fermenting slowly so that any bottle kept more than a couple of months turns into a gusher. I switched to kegging my beer earlier this year but bottled a couple of litres for my Dad and they turned into gushers after a few weeks even though I bottled from the keg. Interestingly the beer in the keg tastes fine so it may be the sanitisation of the bottles themselves. I soak in VWP then rinse with water and drain on a bottle tree. I suspect that something is getting in around the point of rinsing/drying so next time I'm going to rinse the bottles in Starsan immediately prior to bottling and see what happens. I'll also soak the crown caps in Starsan too.

 

[foxbat]

Throw the plastic fermenter away. It's cheap to get a new one.

If you are transferring through a tap to the fermenter, read this and apply the fixes they did.

Either get new bottles or do the bleach/rinse thing. Particularly the rinse otherwise you'll go from wild infection to chlorophenol infection.

Replace all plastic hoses. Like fermenters, they're cheap.

 

[stan.distortion]

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be doing this but I'm boiling my bottles before use in a mild solution of VWP before allowing to cool and giving another rinse with a strong solution of VWP (no doubt overkill) and then another rinse with water. Not had any bottles break from it so far other than a couple that where cracked already (ex-pub bottles).

 

[hichaechoc]

In addition, I don't think I am over-carbing. I am using well established calculators to measure my brewing sugar, and always use less than advised (the last time, I used 50%).

I'm using a teaspoon of sugar (4g) per litre bottle to prime giving me a well carbonated beer that is chilled before opening if that helps....

 

[GerritT]

Have you ever brewed cider? Anything you use now, has it been used for brewing hard cider?

 

[Frogbrew]

I've had this with my last brew, 5 gushers and three exploding bottles. Never had a problem before and followed the same routine, could it have been the hot weather had something to do with it?
Maybe I'm getting a bit lax at sterilizing, I've always used bru-cleanse from wilkos without an issue.

 

[Drunkula]

Boil your priming solution, pour it straight in. I had a load of problems then changed to baking the bottles in the oven and it went away. It works out quicker than my normal wash, rinse, sanitise, drain routine.

 

[BREWERS DROOP]

I would ditch the bucket, and get a new un, don't bother putting a tap on it either, more holes, more risk, use a syphon.
As regards bottles, i have a dustbin full of cleaning solution,chuck em in and leave them for a week soaking if they are used ones, then rinse,then chuck em in another bucket with some starsan just before bottling.
Trial and error really.

 

[MyQul]

It sounds to me like you have a wild yeast infection in your bottles (and possibly else where). Non rinse sanitising solution wont kill wild yeast. If it did, it would kill brewing yeast too and you would have any beer or carbonation in your beer. What you need to do is oven your bottles.
Put them in a cold oven then turn it on too 150C and leave them for 40 mins. Wait for the oven to cool down enough to take the bottles out. This will kill sterilize not just sanitize and kill anything in the bottles. You can them put a little cling film or foil cap on the bottles and store them away. I've been doing this for the past 3 years or so and have never had any infections since.
If the problem still persists the infection is in your other equipment and you could try soaking everything in a bleach solution (as this will kill wild yeast as well as bacteria too)

 

[Nicks90]

I'd go with the above, dump a big bottle of bleach in to your bath and Chuck everything, bucket, pipes, bottles, caps, hydrometer, spoons, stirring paddle, sieve...blah blah blah in to the bath.
Leave it a day or two and then rinse the hell out of it and seal the lot up with caps etc. Small stuff like taps put in a sealed bag.
Then before you use it next sanitise it again using starsan or wvt.

 

[Leon103]

Loads of people going down the infection route but seeing that you only checked the gravity of your latest brew, how do you know it's fermented out completely.

Why haven't you been using an hydrometer?

 

[NIGHTSKY BREWING]

Don't give up it's a bloody great if addictive hobby... typing this at 6 mins to midnight.....hook up and brew with a top local gent.... you will not look back...

How much priming sugar did you use...
Matt