Floating mass in bottle

Hi Guys,

Just bottled 3 days ago. Went to take a look at how they were doing and found this in all the bottles:



These were new bottles that were cleaned with pbw and then rinsed with starsan right before bottling. The caps and capper were also sprayed down with starsan. All of my brewing equipment, including tubes and spoons, were cleaned with pbw and then rinsed with starsan. I even used a new sponge. Everything looked fine in primary and secondary (added 3 lbs of canned raspberry puree - can and can opener were also sanitized before opening) but these floating things are a concern.

Any idea what this could be? What should be done?

Thanks

That looks like an infection. That "ropiness" is mainly a sign of acetobactor and I think pediococcus (if I remember correctly).

Check this link out:
http://byo.com/stories/item/1264-preventing-beer-slime--reducing-tannins-but-not-flavor-mr-wizard

I may be misunderstanding you. You say cleaned with pbw then rinsed with starsan. Does that mean you are rinsing the pbw off with starsan solution, or does it mean you are rinsing off the pbw and then rinsing with starsan?

If you are rinsing WITH starsan then you should change that practice. Rinse the pbw with water an then sanitize with starsan, and don't rinse after applying starsan.

I am not a chemist, but I believe PBW is base and starsan is acid, so rinsing the pbw off using a starsan solution would render the starsan acid ineffective.

IL1kebeer: According to that link, I need to better my sanitation practices. Am I missing a step in how I clean and sanitize?

Doongie: I was rinsing with tapwater after using the PBW and then following that up with Starsan. I did not rinse further after spraying/rinsing things with starsan.

Thanks for the responses.

Here's another photo of the spongy-mass that has settled to the bottom:

Could the purée be the culprit?

You mention about using a new sponge? For what exactly?
Sponges are breeding grounds for bacteria.
Equipment should be sprayed down with santizer after proper cleaning and air dryed or shaken out.

Deff looks ropey, i would replace tubing and racking canes before next batch and see if it still happens.

Johnnyhitch1 said:

You mention about using a new sponge? For what exactly? Sponges are breeding grounds for bacteria. Equipment should be sprayed down with santizer after proper cleaning and air dryed or shaken out. Deff looks ropey, i would replace tubing and racking canes before next batch and see if it still happens.

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Good call!

I used the sponge to wash the boiling kettle with pbw. After that i rinsed the kettle with water and then sprayed it down with starsan.

slackervn said:

I used the sponge to wash the boiling kettle with pbw. After that i rinsed the kettle with water and then sprayed it down with starsan.

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No need to sanitize the BK, just like the MT. Its in contact with the wort BEFORE the boil. Boiling the wort in the BK will in essence "sanitize" the kettle.

Should I dump this batch? How do I go about cleaning my equipment at this point? The brew kettle, tubes, buckets, racking canes, hydrometers, carboys, siphon?

Open it up and smell/taste. I wanna see those dudes in a clear glass not in amber, mainly just for scientific purposes....would be cool to get a good look at it.

It smells good - could this just be the puree as someone else suggested?

Taste those little bits on the spoon. If it tastes like @$$, infection. If it has a faint taste of raspberry and beer, it's purée.

Then taste the beer. If it's good, who cares if its infected...

It looked like one giant mass that was flowing together very fluidly while in the bottle. It broke apart while pouring and now seems to have settled to what we see above.

That blob doesnt have any taste to it. However, the beer had kind of a strong alcoholic taste. Very little hint of sour and some sweetness at the end.

Sorry about the number of posts - i'll start editing.

I remember while I was racking to the bottling bucket, I dipped the cane a bit too low and got puree into the bottling bucket.

Any ideas? Is this an infection? Should it be dumped or was this bad filtering on my part and just puree?

slackervn said:

Any ideas? Is this an infection? Should it be dumped or was this bad filtering on my part and just puree?

Click to expand...

It doesn't seem to be an infection, just some puree and yeast.