The bottles look good , I have always sanitized bottles the same way (in the dishwasher) and every bottle is consistent to the next.
My brew equipment is really simple basic stuff ... brew kettle, auto siphon, glass carboy's , plastic bottling bucket.... I use bleach to sanitize..... Replace my hoses every couple batches....
I know there are many on this board who swear by bleach for sanitizing, but you have to rinse it. I could be wrong, but I'm assuming you don't boil the water you rinse with. The bacteria in your tap water could be a problem.
Switch to star-san.
I just don't trust tap water being the final thing to touch my equipment before it touches my beer.
__________________
Primary 1: Guardrail Pale Ale
Primary 2: Lake Vacation Wit
Primary 3: Air
Secondary:All my secondaries are currently primaries
Bottled/Conditioning: Riesling
Keg 1: Old Yeast
Keg 2: Old Yeast
Bottled & Drinking: Commercial Stuff
On Deck: Nada
I know there are many on this board who swear by bleach for sanitizing, but you have to rinse it. I could be wrong, but I'm assuming you don't boil the water you rinse with. The bacteria in your tap water could be a problem.
Switch to star-san.
I just don't trust tap water being the final thing to touch my equipment before it touches my beer.
I do not boil my rinse water. I use tap water in every step of the process. So, after my partial boil, I top off with water right out of the tap.
I'm brewing this weekend, so I will pick up some star-san tomorrow. I just read up on star san and it sound so much easier to use than my bleach method. I usually sanitize a clean glass carboy for primary and also make 5 gallons of sanitizer for equipment (hoses, funnel, etc). I guess grabbing some bottled water will eliminate a possible source of infection as well.
Any chance this sounds like an under pitched batch or a fermentation that wasn't done when I bottled?
I used to use bleach as well. I had a bout of infected brews. I have become very anal about cleaning and sanitizing afterwards.
Yes, using unboiled rinse water could potentially lead to infection. Also, cleaning bottles in a dishwasher is NOT an infallible method. After time if there are deposits of debris the dishwasher will not remove them. Even if they seem clean they may have deposits.
I no longer bottle regularly but when I did and the occasional time that I do I became SUPER anal! I soak in oxyclean or PBW then scrub with a brush, then rinse, then sanitize with starsan. A lot of work yes. Overkill? Maybe, but it is worth it to me for the assurance of no infections.
A way of spreading out the work is to soak in oxyclean or pbw, scrub, rinse, and dry and then cover each bottle with a piece of aluminum foil when dry. Then sanitize at bottling time. Did I mention I was anal about it?
Wait a minute. Are you saying that this has been in bottles for four months? If so, an infection will usually have blown the bottles by now.
I have a batch right now, down in a dark corner of my basement that is undrinkable because I scorched the extract in the kettle. It tastes a lot like you describe. A lot. Even down to it being ok in smell and on the very first taste. Then the aftertaste is acrid and nasty.
On the other hand that foam is troubling. Could be overpriming, which is my guess, or bacterial.
__________________
On Tap: 1. Kelly R. IPA, 2. Roter Hund Hefeweizen, 3. Bud Killer Blonde, 4. Red Dog Pale, 5. Roter Hund Oktoberfest, 6. Pumpkin Ale, 7. McRed's Stout (with new nitro system and stout tap,) Cream Soda, 8. ESB # 3, & 9. Ordinary Bitter.
Wait a minute. Are you saying that this has been in bottles for four months? If so, an infection will usually have blown the bottles by now.
I have a batch right now, down in a dark corner of my basement that is undrinkable because I scorched the extract in the kettle. It tastes a lot like you describe. A lot. Even down to it being ok in smell and on the very first taste. Then the aftertaste is acrid and nasty.
On the other hand that foam is troubling. Could be overpriming, which is my guess, or bacterial.
Yes, it has been in the bottle for four months... I keep hoping it gets better, but it's not. lol. I'm not sure what scorching would look like if I did it.
Maybe this is a little off-topic, but I always do a small satellite fermentation in a beer bottle next to my main fermentation. I use a clean but not sanitized beer bottle. This not only allows me to take gravity readings etc without disturbing the fermenter, but almost always develops at least a mild infection. This is useful; I can taste this 'known' infected beer and then make a comparison to the main beer. I can usually use this info to deduce what, if any, present off-flavors are due to infection. It also keeps me up to speed on what infected beer tastes like.
With that said, the word "sour" concerns me. From my experience, few beers will be sour without some kind of infection.
__________________
Primary 1: House Ale (yay!)
Primary 2: empty
Primary 3: empty
Primary 4: empty
Bottle Conditioning: Apfelwein
Bottle Conditioning: Apfelwein + Blueberry
Kegged/Drinking: Partigyle Brown Ale
Conditioning: New House Barley Wine
Conditioning: Ghetto canned kit bitter (Surprisingly getting better w/ age)
Just Finished: Edwort's Apfelwein
Up next: More House Ale ?!?
Yes, it has been in the bottle for four months... I keep hoping it gets better, but it's not. lol. I'm not sure what scorching would look like if I did it.
The thing about scorching extract is that it can clean up after itself. What happens is that when you pour the LME into the kettle it drfts immediately to the bottom of the kettle and can scorch if the pot is still on the heat. Then when you stir the pot the scorch gets scraped up and absorbed into solution carrying with it that nasty carbonization.
The batch that I scorched has been in bottle like six months and I also keep hoping. The sad thing is it is a beautiful crystal clear perfectly carbed beer that looks really enticing each time I pour one and then I taste . . .
__________________
On Tap: 1. Kelly R. IPA, 2. Roter Hund Hefeweizen, 3. Bud Killer Blonde, 4. Red Dog Pale, 5. Roter Hund Oktoberfest, 6. Pumpkin Ale, 7. McRed's Stout (with new nitro system and stout tap,) Cream Soda, 8. ESB # 3, & 9. Ordinary Bitter.
Linear Mode
