Gone sour

[Brett Hage]

I’m after some advice. I have had many brews in a row go sour to the point I don’t like them and tip them out. I’m about to give up on using the system given I’ve failed several hundred dollars of brew prints. 

Once a brew is complete i rinse out the brew droid including tap, plug and lid and seal. I then wash with dish detergent, rinse and wash with caustic and rinse with citric acid (as done in the wine industry) i then fill and use a cleansing tablet provided sit for a couple hours then drain rinse and finally spray out with a brew sanitizer i then fill immediately with tap water and once at temp add yeast and brew kit. Have been doing this for several years and all worked well until the last several months. Just don’t know what else i can do top cleanse or get the brew going strong enough to repel the bad yeasts making it sour. 

Any advice would be appreciated. 

[Captain 3 Droids]

7 hours ago, Brett Hage said:

I’m after some advice. I have had many brews in a row go sour to the point I don’t like them and tip them out. I’m about to give up on using the system given I’ve failed several hundred dollars of brew prints. 

Once a brew is complete i rinse out the brew droid including tap, plug and lid and seal. I then wash with dish detergent, rinse and wash with caustic and rinse with citric acid (as done in the wine industry) i then fill and use a cleansing tablet provided sit for a couple hours then drain rinse and finally spray out with a brew sanitizer i then fill immediately with tap water and once at temp add yeast and brew kit. Have been doing this for several years and all worked well until the last several months. Just don’t know what else i can do top cleanse or get the brew going strong enough to repel the bad yeasts making it sour. 

Any advice would be appreciated. 

Hi Brett and welcome to the forum. You certainly have a rigid cleaning and sanitising process. I assume with your cleaning/sanitising you pull the tap apart and you also clean/sanitise the tap and bung spouts.

Now you state you have been doing the same cleaning/sanitising processes for several years without problems. So what has changed? Sour tastes is usually associated bacterial infection or with wild yeast infection , this is airborne and can settle on the brew whilst preparing. So have you moved brewing locations, windows open etc?

Have you changed cleaning products? After cleaning/sanitising and you have filled the droid with 10l of water, taste a sample before adding the yeast to ascertain if there is any sourness at that stage.

Hope this helps, will await your response and we can go from there.

Cheers

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Captain 3 Droids

[Captain 3 Droids]

On 02/01/2021 at 10:18 PM, Captain 3 Droids said:

Hi Brett and welcome to the forum. You certainly have a rigid cleaning and sanitising process. I assume with your cleaning/sanitising you pull the tap apart and you also clean/sanitise the tap and bung spouts.

Now you state you have been doing the same cleaning/sanitising processes for several years without problems. So what has changed? Sour tastes is usually associated bacterial infection or with wild yeast infection , this is airborne and can settle on the brew whilst preparing. So have you moved brewing locations, windows open etc?

Have you changed cleaning products? After cleaning/sanitising and you have filled the droid with 10l of water, taste a sample before adding the yeast to ascertain if there is any sourness at that stage.

Hope this helps, will await your response and we can go from there.

Cheers

 

 

 

 

Have you worked anything out?

[Thagomizer]

Brett Hage,

I sympathize with your frustration - I once had this problem years ago, but with primitive equipment..  Your only step not yet clear to me is: have you pulled out the rubber gasket from the BrewDroid lid ad sanitized it?  It is tricky to re-install but it could harbor nasties under the lid if not sterilized as well as the rest of the parts,  Otherwise, soak all parts in a good disinfectant such as the BrewMax pellet solution but for double the time.

We hope you can solve this.  Please continue to keep us posted.

[Eltham Brauhaus]

On 26/06/2021 at 1:20 PM, Thagomizer said:

Brett Hage,

I sympathize with your frustration - I once had this problem years ago, but with primitive equipment..  Your only step not yet clear to me is: have you pulled out the rubber gasket from the BrewDroid lid ad sanitized it?  It is tricky to re-install but it could harbor nasties under the lid if not sterilized as well as the rest of the parts,  Otherwise, soak all parts in a good disinfectant such as the BrewMax pellet solution but for double the time.

We hope you can solve this.  Please continue to keep us posted.

I am far from being an expert but to me I think you should eliminate the use of dish washing detergent as well as the caustic & citric acid as it seems like there may be some conflict there, If I were in your situation I would give the Droid, the lid, the lid seal, the bung and the tap a good clean with warm water and soft clean sponge or disposable wipe ensuring that the half moon bung hole and the round tap hole are cleaned thoroughly, rinse everything with warm water and then give the Droid a good soaking with sodium perc for an hour or two (with the bung and tap in place). Drain the unit and then spray with Star San, the Droids internal surface and top lip, the lid and seal (removed from the lid), the bung and the two tap components. Leave everything for at least 10 minutes and then without rinsing, assemble the lid seal into the lid and place the tap and bung in position. Spray Star San on the lid seal to ensure you haven't contaminated the lid with your hands/fingers.

I fill the Droid with tap water that has been chilled to 4 deg C in my garage refrigerator and immediately add the yeast and other Brewart ingredients and then start the program using the app. I have done 18 batches so far without any issues.

[J P]

I have had similar results recently and Liam sorted me out with this advice:

1.  Soak droid and all bits (disassembled) in a droid full of water mixed with 40mL unscented bleach for 2 hrs

2.  per carbonate soak per normal routine for at least an hour

(and my additional) 

3.  Star san spray down.   

I've done this on all droids and seem to have fixed the issue, though I have a feeling my sourdough yeasts are roaming about...