TTL => DTD (Down the drain)

[johnrm]

Are you fermenting in the kitchen? Dirtiest place in the house, even dirtier than the jacks.Wonan on the radio yesterday saying a tea towel has more bacteria on it than a toilet seat! Euuww!

Was that Wodewicks fwiend?

[DEMPSEY]

Wodewicks fwiend was he not a friend of the Roman centurion "Biggus Dickus"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8_jgiNqUc

[Bazza]

Well guess what? This has happened again

Last night I went to keg my brown hop-user-upper brew, which has been in the brewfridge for the last fortnight. As soon as I lifted the lid on the FV, the vinegar smell hit me, and I could see the familiar last traces of the white film sticking to the sides.

Only 4 brews since the last infection of a similar nature, and I'd been extra careful only to lift the lid once in the 2 weeks. That was after 7 days and there was no smell then. I can't think that lifting the lid for a couple of seconds did the damage, so it was probably already there, quietly working away.

The yeast was recyled Notty; the exact same one (one of 2 harvested bottles) that I used in for the Belfast brew demo beer and it's turned out okay (although that one was done in my spare FV - more below).

So, whilst cleaning my FV (a 33L SS stock pot), after tipping its contents down the drain, I noticed something inside the pot - about 2 inches up form the base, there was a 1cm ridge of what look like like scratches pretty much all the way around. Not especially deep, but noticeably rough to the touch (I got my wife to confirm). Now, I'd bought the pot specifically as an FV, so have always been extra careful not to use metal, abrasives, etc on the thing, so I can only assume it was like that when bought. Even after I'd washed the thing in boiling water the rough area looked grey-ish.

So my thinking is, in some brews the yeast has been strong enough, or got a head start enough, to overpower possible nasties lurking in the scratches and the brew has turned out fine. Other times, if there's any sort of lag on the yeast, the nasties take over.

...or am I barking completely up the wrong tree?


By way of consolation, I decided to 'work from home' today and brewed up a simple TTL clone, threw it in the spare FV (a 30L plastic wine fermenter, airlocked), threw in a sachet of S-04, and into the fridge it went. Fingers crossed my theory is correct...

Cheers,

-Barry

[Bazza]

I'm starting to realise that, Shane; I've had 4 infections (all of the same type) in that SS pot since getting it just over a year ago. I do clamp the lid down with bungee cord but I guess that's no guarantee.


With the airlocked plastic FV I had 3 infections in the past, none of them were this vinegar lacto bollox, and on each occasion I pretty much knew as I was pitching that the yeast was dodgy, so was not surprised.

About 40+ brews prior to that I was doing smaller batches using my 1 gallon glass demijohns. These demijohns are almost 20 years old, as are the airlocks and bungs. I still use them for cider and wine. No infections to date.

Is is time for a glass carboy?

-Barry

[DEMPSEY]

If its stainless steel then you can polish out the scratch but sorry to hear about your woe's.

[Bazza]

If its stainless steel then you can polish out the scratch but sorry to hear about your woe's.

Thanks Dempsey. It feels as if someone has run a 1cm wire brush around the inside of the pot. Could this be enough to cause the dreaded acetobacter?

Cheers,

-Barry

[Eoin]

Acetobacter causes Acetobacter, it's a living thing. The scratches can house the bacteria in between brews. Metal is normally pretty good but that might be your issue. SS is normally pretty good for not being a good substrate. I'd put some water in it and boil the shite out of it. Really though look at removing deep scratches.

Sent from my HTC One

[JD]

Boiling water may not be enough. Some bacteria spores can withstand boiling water. Instead, boil some sunflower oil until it smokes and you'll have brought the pot up to 225^oC. Nothing will survive that, even spores. Follow this with a serious detergent heavy wash or you might have a few brews with lousy head retention for a while.

You'll still need to deal with the rough spot. Don't use steel wool (as used in Brillo pads for instance) or your pot will rust.
Anyone have any thoughts on what would be a good polishing method? Perhaps some very fine emery paper followed by a thorough wash.

/J

[johnrm]

Emery followed by Autosol?
Autosol is not food safe, but a good cleaning after should pull any nasties down to 'trace' levels.

Interesting bit on polishing Perspex here...
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=8113

[Will_D]

The power of bacteria:

A long time ago I left a saucepan half full of Homemade Tomato Soup on the back of the cooker - with the lid on!

After a week there were some blue furry colonies at the edges of the pot and the Fekers had eaten through about 2 mm of aluminium in several places! Others sites were like cratered on the moon

I know Aly is not SS but Eek!!

After all they now have bacteria that can eat industrial heavy metal sludge (Cd,Pb), be dried and then the metals extracted by conventional smelting.

They contain higher %s of the metals than the traditional native ores!