Oxyclean residue
- Thread starter OHIOSTEVE
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dantodd
Well-Known Member
probably just a bad tasting beer. If you can't taste it there is not going to be enough in there to hurt you.
Head loss if anything. Use a little vinegar in your rinse water next time and it will eliminate any residues from cleaning products without adding any flavor to your equipment. I add 2 oz to my 15 gallon boil kettle and kegs to remove the film in my brewery.
yeoldebrewer
Well-Known Member
I've had similar issues with most of the standard powdered cleaners. Even thorough rinsing tends to leave a thin coating of white scale that ranges from easily removed to incredibly stubborn. My tap water chemistry is no doubt a major factor.
Re the bottles-- try using a solution of 'pickling' vinegar--stronger than the standard stuff--to soak out the residue. Mine will actually yield a foaming reaction when shaken with the vinegar. If the scale persists, you may want to combine vinegar with a bottle brush.
Similar residues may form on the insides of fermenters and other equipment. It's just harder to see.
Re the bottles-- try using a solution of 'pickling' vinegar--stronger than the standard stuff--to soak out the residue. Mine will actually yield a foaming reaction when shaken with the vinegar. If the scale persists, you may want to combine vinegar with a bottle brush.
Similar residues may form on the insides of fermenters and other equipment. It's just harder to see.
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IMO the best way to prep bottles is to rinse them with water two or three times after you pour them. Then you only need a no-rinse sanitizer (star san or iodophor) on bottling day. that's the way I do it. 3+ years and infection free....
northernlad
Well-Known Member
I stopped sanitizing in the dishwasher and started soaking in a tub of Iodophor. I got a dishrack from work that will hold 49 bottles upside down. A few mminutes in the soak, then a drip dry before filling.
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yep - either a bottle tree or a dishwasher rack + a tub full of properly diluted iodopher = win!
yeoldebrewer
Well-Known Member
How do you handle each bottle just after rinsing? Do you have some kind of drying rack to place them on? Just wondering.
Here's how I do it cause I'm super picky about sanitation, I don't use vinegar but... I take my oxyclean bottles rinse them 3-4 times and place them on my bottle tree, when it's time to brew I place all my bottles in the dish washer on sanitize setting/high heat with no soap, I then make a solution of starsan in my bottling bucket. Once the bottles are done inthe washer I re rinse them all and put them in my starsan bucket. I let them soak and while they soak I spray my bottling tree with star San, then let them dry. No oxyclean residue and sanitized!
dzlater
Well-Known Member
I am not sure but it seems to me
that rinsing with the same temp water
as the water you soaked them in helps with the residue
that rinsing with the same temp water
as the water you soaked them in helps with the residue
To get rid of the "scale" the residue from oxyclean, you use a weak acid solution, Starsan works great, but you can also use a dillution of either vinegar or lemon juice is water.
WHen I am processing my bottles I fill one sink with whatever weak acid I use, soak my bottles inside and out with them for a couple minutes and re-rines.
If you use starsan in this way, it DOESN"T COUNT as a sanitization step....at tleast I don't think of it that way, I sanitize them on bottling day.
WHen I am processing my bottles I fill one sink with whatever weak acid I use, soak my bottles inside and out with them for a couple minutes and re-rines.
If you use starsan in this way, it DOESN"T COUNT as a sanitization step....at tleast I don't think of it that way, I sanitize them on bottling day.
Is an oxyclean wash of the bottles necessary? I give all my bottles a really good rinse as soon as I'm done with them, then another hot rinse on bottling day, followed by a long sanitizer soak, then a 3rd rinse.
Haven't had any spoiled bottles so far, but I'm also pretty new at this.
Haven't had any spoiled bottles so far, but I'm also pretty new at this.
dantodd
Well-Known Member
For bottles treated that way oxyclean/pbw isn't really necessary. We aren't always so lucky as to be using bottles treated so well.
Yep, exactly what dantodd said. If your bottles are already clean, no need to clean them again. I rinse mine well after using, and of course never, ever, ever drink out of the bottle. They're easier to rinse right away, too, before you let that yeast sediment dry up on the bottom. If they are well rinsed immediately upon pouring, and just placed in a dishrack by the kitchen sink, they will dry and not grow mold. The worst thing for me to do is to wash/soak/clean dirty and moldy bottles, so I never let them get that away.
A nice hot water rinse (I use the "jet washer" for dusty or slightly dirty bottles), a visual inspection, and cleaning if needed is all I do before sanitizing on bottling day.
OHIOSTEVE
Well-Known Member
These are still part of the gruhgulous bunch I bought used...nasty did not begin to describe them. I have just a few more to go and they are all clean as a whistle. The new ones I buy and drink, get rinsed and cleaned immediately and put in the big bottle bin.
yeoldebrewer
Well-Known Member
Seems like the makers of PBW give similar advice. PBW (don't know about other cleaners) contains chelating agents designed keep mineral scales from forming after rinse. Unfortunately, it seems they don't work with all water chemistry.
mrgstiffler
Well-Known Member
That's the same thing I do, but I use Iodophor instead of Starsan. Oxyclean->Dishwasher->Iodophor
