Sigh....Bottling question that I wish didn't have to be asked.

I bottled my first brew, an American Lager 2 days ago. I sanitized all of my equipment with a no rinse sanitizer, all the way down to the bottle caps. I kept a small bowl with a shot of vodka in it to dunk my spigot and siphon head in, mostly for the siphon head which I set down and (tried to avoid but) made contact with a *clean* kitchen surface a couple of times during bottling mishaps. Turns out, one of my a**hole roommates drank my 375ml of vodka and replaced it with tap water, I just found this out right now. How likely is it my beer will be contaminated during my bottling process since the only thing I 'sanitized' my spigot and siphon head with is tap water? I'm very angry and hope the answers I get are the ones that don't mean 50 or so beers are ruined

First, i am almost positive your beer will be fine. Since it is already alcohol, it should be fine. Also, if you keep your bottle caps ion a sealed container you dont have to sanitize them. Breweries dont sanitize the caps.

Time to throat punch your roommates!

Austinhomebrew said:

First, i am almost positive your beer will be fine. Since it is already alcohol, it should be fine. Also, if you keep your bottle caps ion a sealed container you dont have to sanitize them. Breweries dont sanitize the caps.

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Thanks for the info on the caps, I was just trying to be better safe than sorry. They were straight from the bag from the LHBS and I soaked them in sanitizer before bottling. I didn't want to mess up my first brew.

I always sanatize the caps. Who knows what schmoe was rubbing his crotch while he was filling the bag with caps at the LHBS.

AKbrewer said:

I always sanatize the caps. Who knows what schmoe was rubbing his crotch while he was filling the bag with caps at the LHBS.

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I lol'd at this. I agree. Also, I sanitized too many and left some out to dry, came back and there was a bit of rust. What is the effect of bottlecap rust on conditioning beer? Should I discard them or name my next brew "Lockjaw Ale"?

Yea rust and beer don't mix, I`d toss the rusty ones for sure.

Back to the OP's concern...

RDWHAHB

You are fine. Your beer is fine. Take a deep breath, drink a beer, and repeat. Beer is really hard to screw up

super-glue roomates eyelids shut one night. just sayin...

You should piss in your next bottle of vodka.

Brasco20 said:

You should piss in your next bottle of vodka.

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+1

Cleaning and Sanitizing is most important with equipment unfermented beer will be touching. You'll probably be ok, it's possible your beer was bad before you even bottled it though . I've bottled a couple of batches without cleaning the bottle caps but after I read that I should be I've done it ever since, it doesn't take that much extra effort. Put the bottle caps in a strainer and submerge it in the sanitizer for a little while.

Let us know how it goes

PS: Did your room mate think you wouldn't notice you were taking shots of water?!? A good room mate will drink your half bottle of vodka and replace it with a full one the next day....

soGGy said:

PS: Did your room mate think you wouldn't notice you were taking shots of water?!? A good room mate will drink your half bottle of vodka and replace it with a full one the next day....

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That's the thing. My padre came over and found the bottle of vodka, never heard of the brand (aristocrat:rockin and took a spoonful to taste and then proceeded to ask if he could mix a drink. After he took his spoonful he called to me and said "Hey, take a big swig of your vodka" which I did, confusingly and realized it wasn't disgusting aristocrat but plain ol water. To which I immediately interrogated my roomate who sat there and watched me 'sanitize' some of my gear with the 'vodka' apparently a couple days prior.

My biggest concern was ruining the batch of beer. I don't care that he didn't fess up, although he said he'd replaced my 375ml with a 750ml. Apparently he drank it 2 weeks ago (a few days after I bought it to begin with) and was going to replace it, but "forgot" everytime he went into town. Whatever. If my beers okay and I'm getting 2x the vodka out of it, I'll live

I'd dump the roommate ASAP. If he'll screw you about something small like the vodka, sooner or later he'll screw you about something big.

DeafSmith said:

I'd dump the roommate ASAP. If he'll screw you about something small like the vodka, sooner or later he'll screw you about something big.

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I'll deal with that on my own. My question was about the beer, not the roommate.

I think the beer will be fine.

However Deafsmith was just giving you friendly advice on the roommate. I'd say he's right.

are you anti star san or ezclean? Just curious....

+1 throat punch

Don't mess with my SWMBO, don't mess with my family, and IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, don't mess with my homebrew.

A little tangent, but don't keep your bottling wand at the end of a long hose. Just attach it to the spigot with a very short (~2inch) piece of hose so it's always hanging straight down from the bottling bucket. Put the bucket on a chair or something high on your table so you can work at a comfortable level. That way you're not putting the bottling wand on any surface at all between tasks. (I think that tip originally came from Revvy)

I sanitize my bottlecaps and haven't had any rust.

Captain Damage said:

I sanitize my bottlecaps and haven't had any rust.

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I have, and it sucked. I was so proud of my homebrew, sharing it with a friend... and it tasted like blood, or sucking on an I-beam. Nasty. Soooo not worth it. Now I count them out, and only sanitize the ones I'm going to use. If I don't use them all, I pitch the ones that got wet. Caps are too cheap to risk rust-mouth.

Hopefully your beer turns out fine. But, I have to agree about the room mate thing. Long, long time ago, I had a room mate that would "borrow" things occasionally. And, forget to give them back. Pretty soon that room mate borrowed about 400 collector's albums I had from a radio station, a hand made Brazilian guitar (#130 of only 600), my mom's car. The list keeps going before I was able to get rid of him. Personally, I'll kill that guy next time I see him. But, in your case, I might leave a special six pack for your roomie, recycled beer, freshly bottled, if you know what I mean. If it ain't yours, keep your freakin' hands off it without permission. That's something most people learn in kindergarten.

Sanitize the caps. You can boil them or just use whatver sanitizing solution you have on hand. I always add 5 or 6 more than needed. They are usually discarded after I'm done.

I tried using a few caps that had just a little rust on them. One of them was flat beer when I opened it. I blame the rust on the cap. From now on, any rust and out they go.

If you have to set something down my recommendation would be to get a spray bottle and fill it with star san solution. Spray down the surface of a plate, icecream bucket lid(that's what I use) or some other flat item with star san solution. Then you have a sanitized surface for setting things on. Spray down the surface then the item and set it down. A spray bottle filled with star san solution mixed with distilled water is great to have around.

Beer probably will be fine. Too late now to do anything about it, so just let it go and give a follow up report in a couple of weeks.

As for the Vodka........when our daughter was going through high school, we kept all of the bottled liquor in the freezer. If they swap it for water, you know pretty quick.