techprof

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This beer was bottled almost a week ago and before bottling I had sampled and aroma/flavor was what I was expecting. Last night to test the bottle carbonation, I popped one open and got a CO2 hiss and smoke. But the aroma was off, smelled like malted vinegar/sherry. The flavor was likewise.

I am thinking that it got infected with acetobactor, and the only thing that I changed for this bottling day was I had used re-used star san solution from last brew day, about 6 weeks ago to sanitize the bucket/siphon/bottling wand and caps. The bottles were sanitized in my dishwasher as usual.

The solution of recycled star-san was stored in a glass 1gal jug with a tight cap and was cloudy.

Any thoughts if this beer can ride it out be drinkable or should I dump and clean/sanitize the hell out of the bottles/bucket etc.?

ericd

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Sounds like you got an acetobacter infection at least in that bottle....the other ones might still be good.

weirdboy

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If it's cloudy you shouldn't be re-using it.

If you want your star san to keep longer, use RO or distilled water when you mix up the solution. For an even better solution, go to a dollar store and buy one or two of those plastic spray bottles and put the solution made from distilled/RO water in there. It will keep for months, and you end up using MUCH less star san by spraying it than you do filling up your containers.

For brew/bottling days I usually mix up about a gallon of star san solution for throwing various pieces of equipment in, or for siphoning through my transfer hoses before I do any transfers. A bottle of star san mixed up a gallon at a time lasts a very long time...no need to penny pinch when you could be dumping a $30+ batch of beer for not using it properly.

techprof

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I also tried a second bottle with same result. Forgot to mention that.

inhousebrew

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I think that is mostly a myth. The minerals in the water cause it to go cloudy if your using normal tap water. Mine goes cloudy almost instantly. If anything you should be checking pH.

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techprof

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I do have very hard tap water, thanks for the RO tip. I take it the beer is pretty much ruined at this point.

techprof

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What should the ph of a star san solution be?

Gavagai

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<3.5

beertroll

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I lost a case of really good oatmeal stout to the same type of infection. It took longer to really wind up than yours did (first case was fine, but after about 2 months, it started turning on me), but the end result was the same: tons of foam and a sherry smell. I suspect mine got infected in the bottling bucket. It took me much longer to transfer from the carboy to the bucket than usual, so I think the extra time in the bucket increased the opportunity for a stray cat hair to land in the beer. It sucks to lose great beer that far along in the process.

Hermit

Recipes 

So now you have malt vinegar for your fries. Not a total loss.