WTF, I just made beer vinegar

[steveh2112]

i made my second extract kit recently (first one turned out great) but this one, tastes like vinegar. i had it in the FV for 3 weeks and i could tell it was bad when i bottled it, but i wanted to give it a bit more time anyhow. so 2 weeks after bottling i tried again and it's still undrinkable.

i doubt there's anything i can do other than flush it down the drain at this point but i'm wondering what i did wrong.

i sanitize all my stuff with boiling water, i keep the FV temp around 20-21degs, the FV is a plastic bucket with a lid. i don't have an airlock on it, its not an air tight lid but it fits snug, and i've done many brews like that before without a problem, so i don't know what i did wrong this time.

i know it isn't a bottling problem since it was bad going into the bottles.

any ideas?

BTW, the kit was one of those with a bag of grains and a can of LME and a bag of DME

thx steve

 

[Dutto]

I understand that some of the Forum members give up brewing in summer because the chances of infection is so high.

If everything was sanitsed normally and you haven't had a problem before then I suspect either airborne wild yeasts or something brought to your door by a fruit fly.

At this time of the year I spray the garage with Raid before starting a brew, stick to kits to try and make everything as simple as possible and at the moment it's "So far so good!" :thumb:

But the man who first said that was passing the third floor of a fifteen storey building having fallen off the roof! :whistle::whistle:

 

[steveh2112]

well its always summer here in Thailand and risk of infection is always a possibility. i guess that's what happened. i keep my FV in a big ice box and add ice each day. i try keep the inside of the ice box clean and bug free but there's only so much you can do.

 

[Covrich]

Could it have been something got in when it was exposed during the cooling stage? Thats the stage where you are quite vulnerable.. did you have lag on the yeast?

 

[strange-steve]

Vinegar is an acetobacter infection I'm afraid, almost always caused by a fruit fly sneaking in somewhere. Don't bother waiting for it to get better because it won't, dump it and give everything a really good clean.

 

[Cwrw666]

+2 for the fruit fly idea (or any kind of fly actually).
Possible way to avoid the problem may be to use boiling water for the whole brew so that as it sits in the FV it's at sterilising temperature. Get the lid on and let it cool naturally and the only possible time for infection then will be when you lift the lid a bit to get the yeast in. That's basically how I brew anyway as my water supply needs boiling before use even when making kits.
Also when I'm brewing in summer and the flies are about, whenever I'm transferring beer - into secondary or bottling - I drape clingfilm over any exposed beer just to protect it from flies.

 

[steveh2112]

great advice but since you need to froth it around to oxygenate it, that's an opportunity for the flies to get in that's hard to stop. unless i skip the oxygenation.

BTW, the yeast started off after about an hour, it always seems to get started quick for me and i don't pre hydrate or anything.

 

[BeardySi]

great advice but since you need to froth it around to oxygenate it, that's an opportunity for the flies to get in that's hard to stop. unless i skip the oxygenation.

BTW, the yeast started off after about an hour, it always seems to get started quick for me and i don't pre hydrate or anything.

You could get a small aquarium pump and an aeration stone. You can drop it into the wort and run it under a closed lid for 10 mins. Saves the arms a bit too!

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