How likely is a "bottle day" infection?

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Brewsday

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On a closely related note...How likely is a "bottle day" infection? I read all over these forums of additions in secondaries and bottling buckets that have never been "properly sanitized...raw/wild hops, cold brewed coffee, all kinds of fruit/purees/rinds even honey and sugars...etc..etc...etc.

Now I am a reasonably meticulous cleaner (oxy) and sanitizer (starsan)...but isn't a high degree of the fermentable sugar gone...(except for that added to carbonate naturally)?


I'd be interested in peoples' thoughts. Thanks.
 
I don't really get what you're asking? Just like everything else, if you sanitize properly, the risk of infection is tiny. I think oxidation is a much bigger concern than infection during bottling.
 
I'd say with normal sanitation you can still expect 5% of your batches to be infected. Yes, I know many have never had a bad batch, but then others have had numerous, even with great effort to avoid it.

Of those 5%, what percentage were infected in the bottle? I'd guess not many. It seems to me that the sweet unfermented wort in the carboy is a much more beneficial media for bacteria and wild yeast. Once it gets to the bottle, the ABV helps protect from most critters. Plus, most of the fermentable sugars are gone.

Bacteria and some yeasts (Brett) can definitely ferment sugars that Saccharomyces cannot, so that is a way they can get a foothold in a fully fermented beer.
 
I'd say with normal sanitation you can still expect 5% of your batches to be infected. Yes, I know many have never had a bad batch, but then others have had numerous, even with great effort to avoid it.

This probably has a lot to do with location and time of year. I try to keep generous billows of starsan foam coming out the top of everything, to keep the nasties from falling inside.

If I leave a glass of beer out, it will begin spontaneous fermentation within a couple days. It just so happens that whatever lives here tastes good for wild ales.
 
I have often wondered this myself. My preliminary results seem to indicate that the chance of infection at/during bottling time are very unlikely. On more than one occasion I have failed to sanitize enough bottles and caps and in my haste, usualy after a few too many i have just grabbed unsanitized bottles and filled 'em up. I have also gone so far as to refill a bottle that I had just emptied while bottling. I have seen no ill effects. I should also metion that I am very diligent about rinsing and drying my bottles after consumption of contents so this my explain my good luck with avoiding infections at bottling time but I still feel strongly that infections at bottling time are very unlikely.
 
Unless a lambic or wild brew is being made, shouldn't a few campden tablets(less than five in a five gallon batch, less than one per gallon)
help insure against infection?
 
Unless a lambic or wild brew is being made, shouldn't a few campden tablets(less than five in a five gallon batch, less than one per gallon)
help insure against infection?

That would kill the yeast needed to carbonate the beer in the bottle.
 
The yeast will live fine if lees than one tablet per gallon of wort is used.
 
The yeast will live fine if less than one tablet per gallon of wort is used.
 
I have never heard much of people using cambden in the beer brewing world besides treating chloramine. The more alcohol in the beer the safer you are I would say. There isn't much that will infect a 12% barleywine at bottling time. Yeah I would say its less likely but as you brought up some people have had trouble adding things into secondary without sanitizing in some way.
 
I have only had a few bottles that seemed to be infected. Similarly to Captwalt I've had to fill a couple not properly sanitized bottles and have had little problems from those. Does this question come from a few experiences of of infected brews or simply curiosity?
 
I think most of the time it's a single piece of equipment that causes all the problems. The hard part is finding it.

So far I've had 2 infections. I traced both back to my bottling bucket. I think my spigot was infected. I cleaned everything pretty well after the first time, but my next batch was infected as well. I tossed the bucket and haven't had any problems since.
 
It's been in the back of my mind since I've started making coffee porters by adding cold brewed coffee to the bottling bucket. I boil and chill the water (to sanitize and remove oxygen) before adding the ground coffee...but I'm guessing fresh ground coffee isn't very friendly to beasties (you can leave the stuff unrefrigerated for months and no mold ever develops in my experience) much like hops and hops pellets are sanitized for dry hopping. I also was worried when I dry hopped a growler full using totally wild hops my brother found on a farm in Maine (it turned out great!).
Now I'm planning a Summer Citra Wheat (jaybird's recipe?)and want to save skins from Clementines to go with lemon zest...probably add to secondary. All these late-added and not boiled things made me nervous so I thought I'd ask here. 5% infection rate even with decent practices sounds scary high. I think I'm beating those odds...just lucky I guess! Please, keep the comments rolling!
 
My current situation: I had a wild batch. Bottles got coated with yeast particulate that didn't rinse out. So, I put these to the side to wash with a brush.... predictably my wife cleaned up for company and now they are mixed in with all my others. No problem I said, I'll look for the particulate. Turns out that when it dries, it's really, really hard to see. I rise all my bottles so I don't have to scrub, but looks like i'll be scrubbing all of them now.
 
Just a suggestion....soak everything in a strong bleach solution (like 1/2 cup per 5 gallons...maybe stronger). Wear gloves (love my Blichmann brewers gloves). Others will probably say PBW...but I've never used it. Bleach will eventually eat through almost anything.
 
I have often wondered this myself. My preliminary results seem to indicate that the chance of infection at/during bottling time are very unlikely. On more than one occasion I have failed to sanitize enough bottles and caps and in my haste, usualy after a few too many i have just grabbed unsanitized bottles and filled 'em up. I have also gone so far as to refill a bottle that I had just emptied while bottling. I have seen no ill effects. I should also metion that I am very diligent about rinsing and drying my bottles after consumption of contents so this my explain my good luck with avoiding infections at bottling time but I still feel strongly that infections at bottling time are very unlikely.

I have to add, I totally agree. I wash my bottles the second I am done emptying them into my mouth :ban:
 
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