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I've been brewing extract batches for a couple of months, and have never lost a batch to poor sanitation. I lost my first all grain batch of beer, and I think that I am sanitizing my brew kettle and fermenter well. Any advice when sanitizing mad tuns, and any tips for all grain sanitation in general?

Thanks

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  • you don't really need to explicitly sanitize the boil kettle, since the boil will take care of that. How are you sanitizing the fermentor?
    – mdma
    Mar 25, 2013 at 2:31
  • In what way did the batch fail? Are you sure it was a sanitation issue?
    – npskirk
    Mar 25, 2013 at 16:12
  • I opened the fermenter and it was full of mold (and smelled like death). i usually just soak everything in starsan for 5 or 10 minutes.
    – will
    Mar 26, 2013 at 0:21
  • How long did you boil for?
    – mdma
    Mar 26, 2013 at 0:29
  • About 65-70 minutes
    – will
    Apr 1, 2013 at 16:50

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The mash tun simply needs to be cleaned - no need to sanitize - any microbes are wiped out in the boil.

If you are getting contamination issues specifically with all-grain, then it has to be post-boil - I can only think that it may be because of your chiller, assuming you weren't using that when doing an extract brew.

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  • I didn't use a wort chiller, although I will try one with the next batch.
    – will
    Mar 26, 2013 at 0:20
  • If you didn't use a wort chiller, then you either waited a long time to pitch your yeast, allowing wild yeast to infect the batch, or you pitched when it was too hot and killed off your yeast. The biggest advantage of a wort chiller is to allow you to quickly pitch your yeast before anything else can get a foothold. We cannot brew under sterilized conditions, so there will always be some bacteria or wild yeast present that would love to take over your beer. Pitching a large quantity of active yeast crowds everything else out.
    – jalynn2
    May 16, 2013 at 12:01
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There's no need to worry about pre-boil sanitation other than just generally use a clean mash tun etc.. contamination would have to occur post boil of your wort.

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