Ring around the bottle neck

8string · 01-24-2007, 02:18 AM

Most of my homebrews end up with a "yeasty" ring around the bottle neck. I've read that in competitions, judges view that as possible contamination. Is this a rule of thumb, or are there other reasons for the rings? I'm going to try the oxygen-absorbing caps for bottling aged beers (like barleywine). Would these caps also help with preserving hop aroma?

I recently had a batch (one of my last extract brews) that im sure is contaminated. It has a mediciney chloroseptic taste and odor. It was also my first try at reusing yeast, so im sure it must have been an unsanitary starter. Anyone else had this sort of taste/odor?

Back to the bottleneck rings, I use one step and did not rinse the bottles. I just drain them on my recently finished running dish washer rack before bottling. Now I have a bottle washer and spray out each bottle after removing it from the onestep solution. Im also obsessive about cleanliness of bottles, I use a bottle brush and rinse them thoroughly. Just concerned about the rings.

Sampling my Dead Guy with pacman right now. I think its right on!

Genghis77 · 01-24-2007, 02:23 AM

I find a ring around the bottle neck is more often a contamination and contains lots of hops particles. Most of us are brewing ales and those are bottom fermentators. That is the yeast sinks to the bottom.

8string · 01-26-2007, 01:20 AM

So its not a yeasty ring, probably hop particles? Even my recent beers that taste excellent have a slight ring. Is it the one step? Im sure others have had this same problem. I'd like to find the source, especially if could be contamination that im not aware of.

brewhead · 01-26-2007, 01:31 AM

i have seen this before

i have had ring around the bottle with no real decernable taste problems. if you rotate the bottle 360 and refrigerate to 40 degrees it seems to disappear in my experience.

i have also experienced ring around the bottle when carbing with dme.

Flyin' Lion · 01-26-2007, 02:24 AM

[quote=8string] Now I have a bottle washer and spray out each bottle after removing it from the onestep solution. quote]

You don't need to rinse the bottles after using one step solution, I actually fill my primary up with one step(clean it first) after racking to the bottling bucket and use this to fill each bottle with a little solution, swirl it around, and then fill from the bottling bucket.

One step is an oxygenated cleaner so rinsing it is counter-productive.

**Lil' Sparky** · 01-26-2007, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Genghis77

I find a ring around the bottle neck is more often a contamination and contains lots of hops particles. Most of us are brewing ales and those are bottom fermentators. That is the yeast sinks to the bottom.

Actually, ales are top-fermenting but then floccolate on the bottom when finished. Lager yeast is bottom-fermenting. I would think that most hop particles would fall out during primary/secondary. The ring could very well be yeast - maybe a little rising to the top as it's carbonating the bottles?

**Yooper** · 01-26-2007, 12:00 PM

I've never had a ring around my bottle necks- do you do a secondary fermentation? There isn't really any fermentation going on in the bottle, just the carbonation, so I'd be surprised to see a ring. I'm wondering if everything was completely fermented? Sounds like you got a mini krausen.

Lorena

8string · 01-26-2007, 04:26 PM

Yeah secondary for 1.5 to 2 weeks. The continued fermentation/mini-krausen could be a possibility, in my first bunch of extract brews, im sure I bottled too early and the F.G was around 1.020. Some were over-carbonated.

Since going AG, my F. G. are getting below 1.010 and they still have rings. Like I said, these beers taste great and no off-flavors that I can tell. It's just a faint ring, visible when you tilt the bottle. Some will also have visible condensation inside the headspace.

I have used nothing but DME and more recently leftover wort for priming. Maybe using corn sugar would fix it. I'll have to try it next bottling. Thanks for the input.