Motherly brewing advice (from my mother)
Last night, my mom sent me an email about our brewing processes. It was the best email I’ve ever gotten from her. (Mom, if you’re r ading this, that’s not true.)
Just read Jeff’s blog about the plastic buckets. I would switch to glass. Plastic tends to hold flavors in them and you can’t wash them out. The yeast may be staying in the plastic.
You know, that’s my professional brewer’s opinion!
mom
We actually came to the same conclusion, independent from above “professional brewer’s opinion.” Jeff purchased a few glass carboys from Bob the Brewmaster yesterday before brewing three consecutive batches of beer (more on that later). Fortunately for us, Jeff resisted Bob’s attempts to upsell us cheap plastic handles for the carboys. I am so thankful that we have a brewmaster capable of saying no to a cheap, efficient way to carry precious gallons of beer in fragile glass containers.
Jonathan, Joel & Jeff
April 4th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Glass carboys are definitely the way to go for fermentation. Plastic not only holds flavors but it also scratches. Scratches provide places for bacteria to hide and be protected from cleaning and sanitizers. This may have been your problem with the gushers, but it could also have occurred during bottling as well. I would check everything that touches the beer to make sure you do not find any visible contamination. If its visible then you know it is bad! After that, clean and sanitize everything very thoroughly. Also be sure that you are boiling the sugar and water you use to prime. In the end, vigilence and consistency in cleaning and santizing is all that will protect you. I have been brewing for 7 years and I have lost two batches along the way. One turned an Amber into a Belgian and another turned a Belgian into sour orange juice. Each of those was brewed after a long break in brewing and I am afraid my technique suffered some in the off time. Hope this helps!
April 5th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Thanks! We have officially switched to glass, though we have 32 kegs coming in and are toying with the idea of doing secondary fermentation in the kegs. No visible sanitation issues, so hopefully it was a plastic-related issue.
April 9th, 2007 at 10:21 am
ummmm. i’m pretty sure i went to buy the carboys and participated in the marathon brewing sesssion.
thanks… for nothing!