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Novice Homebrewer: My First Infection
For my company’s golf outing, I agreed to brew an IPA and re-brew a batch of strawberry wheat since my coworkers loved it so much. My plan was to use the same Cooper’s kit that I used previously to make Batch #3. When I arrived at the homebrewing store, I was confronted with the fact that they did not have the Cooper’s Wheat Beer kit in stock. Therefore, I had to resort to using a recipe that the homebrewing store had on hand.
I was absolutely fine with using this new recipe, as I would consider it the next step up from the Cooper’s kit. So I went about my merry way, brewed the batch, and added the strawberries. After about three days, the fermentation slowed pretty significantly. Thinking nothing of it, I waited until the sixth day and transferred it to the secondary.
Upon removing the carboy plug, I was greeted with a rather foul aroma. It was slightly tart, but had a horrendous funk to it. Maybe it was just the way this beer smelled, I thought to myself. While transferring, I poured a small taster glass as I always do and took a sip. It seemed to be off, but I had also just brushed my teeth so I got a second opinion from my fiancee. She agreed that it was off as well.
Ultimately, I thought i would give it a little more time and let it sit in the secondary for a few days. Knowing that I was limited on time to re-brew this batch, I tried the beer three days later and it was one of the most foul things I have ever tried. So what went wrong?
I soaked the strawberries in water to remove the pesticides for about an hour. Then, while brewing, I cut them up, placed them in a blender, pureed them, and placed them into a sanitized carboy. Once the wort was cool, I added it to the carboy with the strawberries and pitched the yeast. Did you spot my mistake?
The first time I brewed this beer with the Cooper’s kit, I poured the boiling water on the strawberry puree. During this brew, I believe that since the strawberries did not come in contact with extremely hot water they were never fully sanitized. Sadly, it was a bit price to pay as i had to dump the entire batch of strawberry wheat. Thankfully I had enough time to brew another batch and have it ready for the golf outing.
Filed under: Brew It Yourself · Tags: Homebrewing, Infection, Lincoln Abbey, Strawberry Wheat
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