An Unwelcome visitor!

It seems like I've encountered my first real brewing disaster - an infection in my Tripel. This is really disappointing because initial signs were good for this. I felt like I'd done my research right for the recipe, and the brew-day went reasonably well. Even the initial tastings were promising, but as it has continued to ferment out it has developed a nasty, dry, powdery astringency. The body has also started to disappear since first tasting. I think this is due to an infection from Lacto bascillus or something similar. I've read that they can give these off flavours and thin out beers once infected. I'll take a sample along to BCB on Thursday for a second opinion on the cause, but I can see this batch going down the drain.

When I first found this off taste in the beer, I thought it was going to be something process related, but I couldn't think what I'd done that would cause astringency. My mash temperature was low and there were no dark grains involved. I then thought it could be oxidation from the longer lauter I used. My first beers hadn't had this problem, and the lauter time was the only process change I had made. But i think that it is down to an infection now.

I'll clearly have to tighten up my sanitising routine for the next brews. I'm usually pretty careful but, now I think back, I did use my brewing paddle to clear trub from the hop-screen as I was running the wort from the boiler and I can't remember sanitising it first! That might be the culprit. Otherwise I have another american IPA fermenting at the moment which might be in danger of the same issue. Finger crossed it's ok though as I don't want to have to ditch another batch - this is supposed to be saving me money!

Time will tell...

This is doubly annoying as I've just swapped 100g of Cascade hops for a box of belgian beer bottles! I heard that a tripel should be quite highly carbonated and standard beer bottles might turn into bottle bombs! So I got hold of some small belgian bottles, which have thicker glass and are able to hold more pressure.

40-odd bottles all de-labled and washed out, sprayed with sanitiser, and draining  on the dishwasher drawers.

Yes, this is what I do with my evenings!

I guess I'll have to wait a bit in order to use them now, but at least they'll be all clean for when I need them!