Bizarre Stuff on my bottles...

On Sunday I was going to bottle some beer out of my kegs so I threw a bunch of bottles in a tub with some hot water and Starsan (mixed 1oz per 5 gal). Long story short I wasn't able to bottle so the they've been sitting in the tub since Sunday. When I got home yesterday, I noticed that there was a bizarre stuff all over the bottles that are completely submerged... See pics below:



And this is what happens when you pull them out of the solution.



Any ideas what this might be?

Not that I know anything about this stuff directly but I think you left them in their solution a little too long. Read over this link and see if you understand the same thing I am: Not Exactly Sterile

Are those bottles etched?

Sweet zombie Jeebus, how much starsan did you use?!?

But seriously, did you go by the directions or did you use extra? Also, how hard/soft is your tap water?

First thought is the silver color from the tub is transferring to your bottles...like copper plating...very odd.

Acid etching, really how much did you use?
Maybe it did just start eating out the coloring of the container, but thanks for posting that. Good not to myself not to leave stuff sitting for a week with the cleaner / sanitizer sitting in it. (Note to self, empty out the carboy that still is sitting with oxyclean in it for the last 4 days).

Starsan at it's normal dillution can take the paint off Stone and Redstripe bottles. Undilluted starsan has been known to ruin countertops.

Starsan is an acid if you don't know...a weak acid in most cases, when dilluted properly, like vinegar and water. or lemon juice and water...but still an acid nonetheless.

What concentration DID you use???

They're not etched. When you lift them out of the water, whatever it is runs right off the bottle with the dripping water.

I'm fairly sure I mixed it right... I mixed it up at 1 oz per 5 gallons of water. There is 15 gallons of water in there, so 3 oz of Starsan.

My first thought was that the acid was eating away at the tub and the stuff was just settling out on the bottles. That's weird though because I keep some Starsan mixed up in a spray bottle, and that stays in there pretty much all of the time.

The only thing that I'm sure of is that it's probably going to be a pain in the arse to get all of that crap off and out of those bottles...

Revvy said:

Starsan at it's normal dillution can take the paint off Stone and Redstripe bottles. Undilluted starsan has been known to ruin countertops.

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I soaked one Stone bottle, one Rogue and one Red Stripe in a 5x strength solution of Star-San once. After the first day, the Stone bottle was clean, I was able to wash the paint off with running water. After 2 weeks, the Rogue bottle was starting to come off with a wire brush, if I scrubbed hard. The Red Stripe paint never came off, even after a month soaking.

gambleb said:

The only thing that I'm sure of is that it's probably going to be a pain in the arse to get all of that crap off and out of those bottles...

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I would suggest getting a jet-style bottle washer that you can attach to your sink. That should rinse out most of it, unless it has a good grip on the glass. I have this one, does two bottles at once:

If the tub is not a food grade plastic, I would think its the color leaching out into the solution, just my .02 cents.

hexmonkey said:

I soaked one Stone bottle, one Rogue and one Red Stripe in a 5x strength solution of Star-San once. After the first day, the Stone bottle was clean, I was able to wash the paint off with running water. After 2 weeks, the Rogue bottle was starting to come off with a wire brush, if I scrubbed hard. The Red Stripe paint never came off, even after a month soaking.

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I think at some point in the last 5 years Red Stripe changed their paint supplier. I had six bottles under my sink that were about six years old, and last summer I snagged another empty sixer from my neighbor. Now not knowing really which was which, I soaked them with stone bottles for a week. 6 of the Red Stripe came off beautifully, while the other 6 didn't. So I figure, especially based on your experience, that the paint has changed.

I have NEVER had any luck with Rogue bottles, even applying undiluted with a sponge brush doesn't do crap.

gambleb said:

They're not etched. When you lift them out of the water, whatever it is runs right off the bottle with the dripping water.

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Just today I emptied an open bucket of starsan solution containing some tubing. The tubing was covered with a white slime, that washed off pretty easily with oxyclean. Sounds like the same thing. Kind of weird.

It's because of hard water, that's all I really know. It happens all the time to me since I use well water. Rinse it and re-sanitize and it'll be fine.

I have 2 (glass) carboys that have been sitting for a month with star-san in them and the cloudy solution has totally separated. It started with separating into a white cloud on the bottom then it started to join together a bit and now there's some solid calcium-like flakes in the bottom.

Same thing happens if i leave stuff in Oxy too long... except that stuff I need to remove it all so I don't get that in the beer.... thanks for reminding me. ;/