So, this is my third batch. Two weeks in the bottle. I checked on it today and there's these little beige colored dots all over a lot of the bottles. Never seen this before. I popped a bottle last week just to check on it, slightly flat, but otherwise tasted fine. Is this yeast, or is my basement just some gross incubator for nasties? Notice that these little dots are, for the most part, clustered around where the beer dripped as i was filling it. I guess i was in a rush and didn't really wipe down the bottles that well. It's the same color as dry yeast and yeast slurry, but I thought yeast were microscopic. Each one of these dots, if I look long and close enough - is moving!
When filling bottles it's inevitable that you get some spillage, so Flyangler's probably right, something crawled onto your bottles and is enjoying the sugar...no problem as long as you wipe them off...they can't get IN the beer..
But just to be on the safe side, maybe you need to send them to me
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so I washed these bottles off, and after I put them back on the shelf I noticed these little buggers everywhere - on some bottles from an older batch in a black garbage bag on the same shelf, on some bottles of the same batch in a cardboard box inside a black garbage bag on the floor, and on some (cleaned) empties just out in the open on the shelf.
grrrr....
I know the beer inside is fine, but the thought is a bit unsettling regardless...
The fact that you are seeing lots of them indicates that you have a food source somewhere that the mites (which are common on all kinds of household surfaces/environments) are so concentrated suggests that there are conditions favorable to their reproduction. Mites are always present- you just never see them unless they congregate in concentration. My guess is the spilled beer (full of sugars and yeast) is the cause of the problem. Wipe up the spilled beer and the mites will lessen.