Quote:
Originally Posted by twd000
Most batches sit in the fermenter for 3-6 weeks. The bottles are anywhere from 4 weeks to 3 months old. The problem seems to get worse with time (post-bottling).
|
Personally I would look to your bottling equipment instead of the actual bottles. Take a look at empty bottles you have cleaned but not refilled. How dirty are they? If they are very dirty your bottles might be the problem or just part of the problem.
Bottling equipment is easily a cause of infections. You have all the soft plastic, the spigot and autosiphon (if you're using one) that are potential breeding grounds for bacteria and wild yeast. Just a few cells in the bottle will start a slow growth process that over time will give you tremendous amounts of carbonation. Starting from a few cells will take a while before fermentation gets going and the fewer cells that go in the longer it takes, so you can get some variation in amount of over-carbonation. It's also possible that as the beer goes through the equipment the bacteria/wild yeast are going in the bottles until the beer washes the majority of it out and then you're getting cleaner bottles.
I would encourage a long (several days) soak of all your racking and bottling equipment in oxyclean/PBW, rinse, then soak in a strong sanitizer solution.
Linear Mode
