Ugh, I have infections.

[Evan B]

How are you chilling your beer down to pitching temps? Immersion chiller, counterflow (could easily be dirty inside)? Do you chill with the lid on or off? Just trying to get to the bottom of this as I am sure you are too! If your DIIPA came out good, then maybe your bugs don't like the preservative qualities of the hops = brew more extra hopped beers!

It's an immersion chiller.

My last batch that got infected was my Scottish 80 that I dumped last week. I'm 99% certain that one was from fruit flies. I took one last wine thief sample before I dumped it, and a fruit fly ended up in my sample glass somehow. So when I did my next brew, I babysat everything to make sure no fruit flies made it in to anything. Guess we'll see how that goes.

[brewinhard]

Fruit flies are notorious for carrying acetobacter which can produce acetic acid flavors/aromas (think vinegar) in the presence of oxygen. Sometimes in the peak of summer, I get fruitflies in the house. I think they mostly come from fresh produce that my wife and I buy at our local farmers market. They kind of just get brought into the house. Nothing you can do about it. Here is how I tackle the onslaught of those critters with regards to brew days:

A few days before I brew, I fill a short, small glass with some apple cider vinegar and a few drops of liquid dish detergent. After swirling to mix, I place the glass near my fresh produce/fruit or even in my fruit basket and watch those stupid flies get caught right in the mix. After one night, you will see 10's of little fruit fly bodies floating in the vinegar and dying from their pure gluttony! You of course can use red wine, or even stale beer, but the dish detergent is key to act as a surfactant to trap the little bastards. Give this a try and see how quickly it works to diminish their populations. Brew strong, Brew smart, Brew often! Now, go and set up your battlefield and mark down the casualties! Go BN ARMY!!

-Brewinhard

[Evan B]

fruit flies are assholes