I'm Not Relaxing

Well - after 18 straight drinkable batches I'm a little worried about this one.

After I was done bottling I took the bottling bucket totally apart and noticed some black gunk on the inside of the spout - CRAP.. I did soak in One Step but . . . . . . I'm a little worried for this nut brown.

Lesson learned - it's the INSIDE of things that need to be looked at.

this is off-topic , but can you fill me in on your spotted cow recipe? I've been trying to figure that one out myself.....

I found it on this site - do a search in the Recipe forum - I think it;s where I got it. - - - -wait
here it is right here LOL

Mini Mash Recipe
2.4lb Light DME
2.olb Pale Malt
1.5 lb Flaked Corn
1.25lb Maris Otter
10.7oz Flaked Barley
8oz Crystal 20L

1oz Crystal 60 min
0.5oz Crystral 15 min

American Ale Wyeast 1056 (or what ever your default yeast is - I'm going to use Pacman.)

I have 1.049 OG
1.012 FG
16.2IBU
Color 5.2

OH, that's really not good grinder. Black mold = nasty. I'd clean out your bottling bucket and give everything a bleach holocaust bath.

Soaking as we speak.

Disassemble the spigot; things can hide in there.

I always run some sanitizer through the spigot before and after use... when cleaning too.

but I should also do the look test as well, to ensure nothings there I didn't expect.

good catch and I hope the beer turns out fine.

I always rinse and run sanitizer before doing anything but had not taking the spigot apart for a while.

Crossing my fingers - the last few batches went through with no probs.

OOOOO! Glad you posted this 'cause I never thought of full disassembly!

I always run the sanatizer, too, but now I think I should step it up. Is it safe/easy to take the spigot portion apart or could that compromise the seal or something?

-Tripod

Tripod said:

OOOOO! Glad you posted this 'cause I never thought of full disassembly!

I always run the sanatizer, too, but now I think I should step it up. Is it safe/easy to take the spigot portion apart or could that compromise the seal or something?

-Tripod

Click to expand...

If you have a standard bottling bucket, it should be just rubber gaskets and you should be able to take it apart by hand in a matter of seconds....shouldn't be problematic, at any rate.

Grinder - the good news is that you had already made beer -- so the little black thingy's probably won't affect you. Just the other day I took apart my bottling wand and went "holy crap! look at all the mold in there on the spring!" (And I haven't had a spoiled batch).

Good luck on this one Grinder. Sounds ominous but you never know. There's still a good chance the beer will take care of itself and reward you with a kick-A brew.

When I thought something was amiss with the spigot on my bottling bucket, I just replaced the spigot. They're only a couple of bucks, and I thought that was well worth not having to deal with my own second-guessing about cleaning funk out of it. In the spirit of homebrewing always surprising us, I'm betting this will be one of your best beers.

Cleaning the spigot IS problematic as some of the black is in spots I'm not getting at. Q-tips are useless here so I'm just soaking in QXY (also not getting int ring of death).

What a horrible design for a spigot - obviously by someone that does not make beer,

You could be ok, but I'd clean it up good anyway. If you've run sanitizer through the spigot, it is likely clean enough to give good beer. But if you saw some black stuff, that means you need to clean your spigot better than you used to!

I wonder how often you can take one apart before it starts to leak...