Imperial Stout was PERFECT before bottling

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techprof

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This beer was bottled almost a week ago and before bottling I had sampled and aroma/flavor was what I was expecting. Last night to test the bottle carbonation, I popped one open and got a CO2 hiss and smoke. But the aroma was off, smelled like malted vinegar/sherry. The flavor was likewise.

I am thinking that it got infected with acetobactor, and the only thing that I changed for this bottling day was I had used re-used star san solution from last brew day, about 6 weeks ago to sanitize the bucket/siphon/bottling wand and caps. The bottles were sanitized in my dishwasher as usual.

The solution of recycled star-san was stored in a glass 1gal jug with a tight cap and was cloudy.

Any thoughts if this beer can ride it out be drinkable or should I dump and clean/sanitize the hell out of the bottles/bucket etc.?
 
Sounds like you got an acetobacter infection at least in that bottle....the other ones might still be good.
 
If it's cloudy you shouldn't be re-using it.

If you want your star san to keep longer, use RO or distilled water when you mix up the solution. For an even better solution, go to a dollar store and buy one or two of those plastic spray bottles and put the solution made from distilled/RO water in there. It will keep for months, and you end up using MUCH less star san by spraying it than you do filling up your containers.

For brew/bottling days I usually mix up about a gallon of star san solution for throwing various pieces of equipment in, or for siphoning through my transfer hoses before I do any transfers. A bottle of star san mixed up a gallon at a time lasts a very long time...no need to penny pinch when you could be dumping a $30+ batch of beer for not using it properly.
 
If it's cloudy you shouldn't be re-using it.

I think that is mostly a myth. The minerals in the water cause it to go cloudy if your using normal tap water. Mine goes cloudy almost instantly. If anything you should be checking pH.
 
I do have very hard tap water, thanks for the RO tip. I take it the beer is pretty much ruined at this point.
 
I lost a case of really good oatmeal stout to the same type of infection. It took longer to really wind up than yours did (first case was fine, but after about 2 months, it started turning on me), but the end result was the same: tons of foam and a sherry smell. I suspect mine got infected in the bottling bucket. It took me much longer to transfer from the carboy to the bucket than usual, so I think the extra time in the bucket increased the opportunity for a stray cat hair to land in the beer. It sucks to lose great beer that far along in the process.
 
If it's cloudy you shouldn't be re-using it.

If you want your star san to keep longer, use RO or distilled water when you mix up the solution. For an even better solution, go to a dollar store and buy one or two of those plastic spray bottles and put the solution made from distilled/RO water in there. It will keep for months, and you end up using MUCH less star san by spraying it than you do filling up your containers.

For brew/bottling days I usually mix up about a gallon of star san solution for throwing various pieces of equipment in, or for siphoning through my transfer hoses before I do any transfers. A bottle of star san mixed up a gallon at a time lasts a very long time...no need to penny pinch when you could be dumping a $30+ batch of beer for not using it properly.

that's mostly a myth. I've re-used star san with tap water WEEKS after it was mixed. using hard tap water it goes cloudy within an hour or two.
 
that's mostly a myth. I've re-used star san with tap water WEEKS after it was mixed. using hard tap water it goes cloudy within an hour or two.

Myth or not, I am going by what the guy from 5 Star Chemicals said about it. Granted, they have a motivation to sell more of the stuff, but your anecdotal experience doesn't mean you're using it properly. Did you test the pH before using it?



And again I will reiterate that this penny-pinching behavior of trying to save your bucket of star san is insane. I think the expression is "penny wise and pound foolish." First off, if you are mixing up 5 gallons at a time, stop doing that because a gallon or less will accomplish the same as 5 gallons of it. You just need to get all the surfaces coated with the solution to sanitize; filling up a bunch of empty space isn't sanitizing your equipment any better. Doing that, a single bottle of star san lasts me so long that I can barely remember the last time I bought one. So, maybe it costs slightly more to mix up a new gallon every time instead of trying to save it and re-use it. Then again, I have piece of mind knowing that my sanitation practices are sound.
 
Myth or not, I am going by what the guy from 5 Star Chemicals said about it. Granted, they have a motivation to sell more of the stuff, but your anecdotal experience doesn't mean you're using it properly. Did you test the pH before using it?

yup, still sitting under 3.5 and I've had this batch for over a month. hard minerals will turn the water instantly for a LOT of people on here, yet it works fine. If I had had to use my Starsan BEFORE it went cloudy I'd never even get through a brew day
 
Wait - you're tasting an imperial stout a week after bottling? How long was it in fermenter/secondary? My last RIS tasted like crap until about 6 months in the bottle. I think it's WAY too early to be thinking about dumping anything.
 
One other thing...malted vinegar and sherry smell very different from one another, and those aromas in a beer stem from very different causes usually. Sherry-like aromas are usually a result of oxidation, whereas vinegar is typically acetobacter.
 
one other thing...malted vinegar and sherry smell very different from one another, and those aromas in a beer stem from very different causes usually. Sherry-like aromas are usually a result of oxidation, whereas vinegar is typically acetobacter.

+1
 
Let it sit. You could just be tasting yeast that got all stirred up while it's fermenting the priming sugar.
 
Wait - you're tasting an imperial stout a week after bottling? How long was it in fermenter/secondary? My last RIS tasted like crap until about 6 months in the bottle. I think it's WAY too early to be thinking about dumping anything.

Definitely. Regardless of how much time it was in secondary 1 week in the bottle is just not enough. At this moment I'm drinking a dubbel that I had in secondary for three months because I was gone, and it's been in the bottle for 3 weeks. This is my test bottle and it's still green, even after 1 week primary, 3 months secondary, and 3 weeks in the bottle.

Maybe your beer is bad, but give it -at least- another month I would say before making that call.
 
Just an update, the brew is not lost as the aroma and flavor is cleaning up nicely. Waiting is the hardest part, like Homer waiting for his handgun.
 
Nice! I bet it'll only get better from here. Hide a sixer and try to forget about it until December, 2013. You'll be amazed at how good it is then.
 
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