hoplobster
Well-Known Member
I brewed this weekend after a long hiatus (been busy w/ my new home) and since my last batch of ESB was less than stellar after it was bottled, I went hog wild and double cleaned and sanitized every thing except my bottling gear in preparation of my return to brewing.
I tried a bottle of the ESB today and still, after months in the bottle, it's still a bit icky. It smells OK, has no head retention and tastes not right. I can get hints of the ESB characteristics, but there's a slight sourness that really ruins it... and today it finally clicked that it tasted like the last batch of Apfelwein that I made many months ago. I'm usually very good with cleaning and sanitizing, but I dunno... I could have been rushed the last time I bottled Apfelwein and I didn't use separate gear for beer/Apfelwein.
So, I'm pretty sure that Apfelwein is somehow to blame... Should I just dump my autosiphon, tubing, and bottling bucket or could I just go nuts and soak everything in Oxyclean Free and sanatize, rinse, repeat? It's been a while since I've bottled anything... months even, but the racking gear looks ok, could I reuse it after a huge cleaning?
Thanks.
I tried a bottle of the ESB today and still, after months in the bottle, it's still a bit icky. It smells OK, has no head retention and tastes not right. I can get hints of the ESB characteristics, but there's a slight sourness that really ruins it... and today it finally clicked that it tasted like the last batch of Apfelwein that I made many months ago. I'm usually very good with cleaning and sanitizing, but I dunno... I could have been rushed the last time I bottled Apfelwein and I didn't use separate gear for beer/Apfelwein.
So, I'm pretty sure that Apfelwein is somehow to blame... Should I just dump my autosiphon, tubing, and bottling bucket or could I just go nuts and soak everything in Oxyclean Free and sanatize, rinse, repeat? It's been a while since I've bottled anything... months even, but the racking gear looks ok, could I reuse it after a huge cleaning?
Thanks.