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Sour Beer

prj28

Master Brewer
Joined
Jun 5, 2014
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Location
Boise, Idaho USA
I made a Flanders Red Ale this weekend and I wondering if after it's finished am I going to be able to put it in a keg, run it through beer lines in a kegerator, and use it with my Beergun without the Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus contaminating the equipment? Is there a point in the fermentation when it stops being infectious?
 
You would probably need to keep separate equipment for sour beers.  I have a friend that brews clean and sour beers, but doesn't keep separate equipment.  He uses bleach to sterilize and hasn't had a cross contamination yet.  However, I don't recommend that.  Bleach that isn't rinsed off well enough will ruin a batch just as quickly as a sour beer can ruin a clean batch.

If it's plastic, don't share.  If it's metal or glass, you can share.  Just clean and sanitize really well after using it and before using it again.

So the list is....

Share glass carboys, stainless carboy and kegs.

Don't share plastics of any kind or gaskets or o-rings. 

For your kegator beer supply line, have a separate line between your shank and keg, that you can pop off and exchange out.  Just have a dedicated beer supply line.
 
those bugs mentioned have active temperature ranges. If your kegs and beer gun only deal with cold beer then you wouldn't have problems either way.
 
I also use bleach to sanitize.  I am a chef and have used bleach for that purpose my whole life.  The most important thing to remember when using bleach.  Is to keep your concentration correct.  When you have the concentration right, bleach is is a no rinse sanitizer.  I get the test strips at work, or any restaurant supply company.  The most common error is to use to much bleach.  Not only will you taste the bleach.  At the higher concentrations, bleach is toxic.  If you are not familiar, or uncomfortable, with using bleach as a sanitizer.  I highly recommend that you do not use bleach.  Use one the sanitizers you can from a brewing supplier.

However I do keep separate plastics for sours.  Stainless & glass can be sanitized.  The tubing I use for kegging is also separate.  That is the only way I know of not to risk cross contamination.       
 
You hear about cross contamination often in relation to those brett/lacto/pedo yeast blends. Your home equipment probably isn't as complex as a larger brewery with all the little places for brett and friends to hide. But, those yeasts live everywhere anyways, in different strains of course.
If you haven't ever had an infected beer, then your sanitation skills are good and you have nothing to worry about. Really.
 
Scott Ickes said:
If it's plastic, don't share. 

I've made exactly one sour, and it is sitting in primary now, so zero post-cleaning experience, and this separation of equipment is certainly easiest/best practice.  However, undesired strains are everywhere, and so we deep clean and sanitize using our trusted methods for each batch. 

So why is it that everyone thinks that store-bought bugs are the Vermicious Knids of the microbe universe?  Does everyone keep their Belgian Witbier and Tripel strains entirely separate from their lager equipment?  Are hefeweizens banished to the other side of the garage as well?  If a brewer's cleaning/sanitation regimen prevents those cross-tam problems, why would the same process fail on the Roselare blend? 

 
Like its say, you can use any glass carboys or kegs for both as long as you give a good cleaning. Anything plastic or rubber I have a set for each. I have separate lines and tip for the beer gun however not for my kegerator beer lines, just be diligent in cleaning the beer line after using a sour beer.

Cheers!
 
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