Had over 25 gallons of wash infected

[speedfreaksteve]

My last couple mashes of wheat bourbon were a big fail after getting some sort of lacto infection. Things were fermenting out great at first but after less than a week of fermenting everything stopped dead in it's tracks. A day later got a cap forming on my fermenters. One smelled bad already, the others seemed to smell normal. I added a small amount of sulfate to all of it and the bacteria stopped dead in it's tracks. Unfortunately the damage is done. I ran 12 gallons of it and it came out a little cloudy and smelling sour. Got very low ABV as well as expected. I've added them to my shelf of jars to be re-run in reflux mode. I even tasted it and it was sour. Like milk that you left in the fridge too long. I'm just taking a break from dumping the rest as I type this.

So what happened? I'm not 100% sure on this being the actual cause but I did move my fermenters into the same area that I grind/store my grain. After reading up on some stuff this seems to be a bad idea. I think I'll have to be a little more careful for my next one.

[bitter]

If you make your wort like you do for beer and boil it then cool, You will have less issues with infections.

What steralizer are you using? Starsan will not kill everything. Harsher steralizers might be needed and air locks also.

Also when doing a ferment airrate really well and use a good starter will help decrease the chance of infections.

B

[speedfreaksteve]

I'm just using potassium metabisulphate. I have a shitload around since I make wine too on occasion.

I never use air locks and this is my first time to have one go completely bad. Usually my all grain ferments are going so crazy that it looks almost like it's boiling. I've had minor injections happen before that didn't affect the flavour.

For this one I used a starter that I put together around 12 hours before. Next time I'll make one in advance.

[frunobulax]

For a sanitizer try Star-San It's cheap and super easy to use. It's also no rinse. Alot of times I'll mix up 2.5 gallons, sanitize a bunch of stuff and toss it. I also keep a spray bottle of it around,'cause all it really needs is a 30 second contact time to work.
And yes, grain is full of lacto., so if your grinding grain near you fermenters, well you know the outcome. I've also had lacto infections that didn't affect the flavor, but it's best to not get 'em in the first place

[StillerBoy]

I'm just using potassium metabisulphate. I have a shitload around since I make wine too on occasion.

Potassium metabisuphate is good to sanitize the wine bottles just prior to filling them, but is a very weak sanitizer otherwise.. I use sodium metabisuphate which is much stronger, for my wine making and liker, never had an issue..

Mars

[jb-texshine]

I kebt getting a Brett infection. Wasn't to my taste. The culprit was the plywood I used on my barrel feenter. Switched to plastic drop cloth and alls well In the world.