Post Lacto infection guidelines

[CasselBrewery]

Hi!

4th batch in our soon to be opened nano brewery (opening on july 14th!) and we get an infection. It was caused by me for forgetting about sealing the vent that comes with our plastic fermentation tanks. There is a vent on the top lid and I sealed them all for our other fermenters but that one I was tired/burnt that night and I forgot to seal it. After 7 days in ferm, open the lid... nice big bubbles and biofilm LACTO!!!

We mill in the same area as everything (we are space restricted) although we use a vacuum to suck as much dust as possible some make it in the air for sure. We also have an exhaust fan which I installed 2 days ago.

Not having this vent sealed... brought in mill dust for sure. I dont see any other causes cause I took samples up stream and incubated them... no infection.

Now the cleaning part. Do I simply sanitize as I always do? I use Saniclean and let it run 15 min, should i make it 30 this time?

Any special precautions I should take to prevent further infection in this particular fermenter?

Any help/guidance will be very appreciated! It's heartwrenching to dump a fermenter after all this work.

Thanks!

[GarySped]

You are in a very tricky situation. I'd either get the grain already pre-milled for you or relocate the mill anywhere but in the same area as the brewhouse. The dust will end up in spaces, rafters, and places you won't ever find. But you need to look in eveery nook and cranny to clean this up. Good luck.

[CasselBrewery]

Thanks for your reply GarySped!

We just started brewing in this location and already with are using a dust collector. We will, for next batch, relocate the mill along with the dust collector in an adjacent room to our rented space.

[ChesterBrew]

Mario,

I'd definitely double/triple/quadruple your cleaning/sanitation time, if only to make sure you nuke from orbit whatever baddies are possibly in there. Adding an hour or two for a single fermenter clean is cheaper than dumping a batch. Good luck!

[CasselBrewery]

Thanks Chester!

My logic was Saniclean or Starsan requires 30 seconds contact time to kill a bacteria, 15 mins seemed a whole lot more, I don't mind running it an hour either.

[DBrewer]

Since plastic can be a tough medium to clean properly, especially after an infection, I would suggest trying to culture a swab from the inside of the fermentation tank after cleaning to see if your cleaning procedures are adequate for that specific tank before adding more beer. As was already said, it is much cheaper to be overly cautious than to dump a batch.

If possible for the future, it would be good to try and segregate the mill. Even though they are in the same room, if you can build some sort of mini-room (cheap 2x4 and plywood) around it to prevent grain dust from straying, it will help you in the long run. Best of luck.

[CasselBrewery]

Since plastic can be a tough medium to clean properly, especially after an infection, I would suggest trying to culture a swab from the inside of the fermentation tank after cleaning to see if your cleaning procedures are adequate for that specific tank before adding more beer. As was already said, it is much cheaper to be overly cautious than to dump a batch.

If possible for the future, it would be good to try and segregate the mill. Even though they are in the same room, if you can build some sort of mini-room (cheap 2x4 and plywood) around it to prevent grain dust from straying, it will help you in the long run. Best of luck.

Thanks DBrewer!

We soaked the fermenter in a bleach solution for 48 hours, a biochemist friend of mine said that I most certainly killed everything.

As for the mill, we have been milling outside cause it warm and in the meantime built a box that we will attach a dust collector to it as well as the hopper and weight station.