Bottle Sanitation Issues

[ExpeditionBrewing]

I have a very simple problem, my beer tastes bad. The beer tastes great going from the fermenter into the bottle, but coming out of the bottle it tastes absolutely terrible, as such I've narrowed it down to a sanitation issue with the bottle.

I currently use either sanibrite (chlorine based sanitizer) which requires soaking the equipment for 20 minutes then rinsing thoroughly, or Iodophor. After sanitizing the bottles I then place them on a sanitized bottle tree to dry, and then proceed with my bottling.

Caps are sanitized by boiling them for longer than 1 minute.

I make sure all the bottles are thoroughly rinsed before they go into the sanitizer, using very hot water from the bottle washer on my sink.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[shanecb]

Boiling the caps is a bad idea, you could warp the seal. Just sanitize them as you would the bottles.

 

[Snowhere]

I used to soak my bottles in a iodine mix for 2 minutes and then bottle washed and hung to dry. That worked well but was water intensive and took a long time. So I recently switched to starsan. Now I use a vinerator with 1/8 tsp of starsan and two cups of water to sterilize my bottles. Takes alot less time and once sprayed and hanging on my bottle tree, they stay protected from bacteria until they get filled and capped.

 

[Diver165]

Sounds like you're not getting the chlorine rinsed off. Chlorine is a pain in the ass to get off compared to so many other sanitizers. I used to use a lot of Starsan on my bottles. After chatting with a few people on here, now I don't even do that. I clean them thoroughly with Oxyclean Free and rinse well. They get placed in the dishwasher and washed on Pots and Pans cycle with heated dry (no detergent used). I put the bottle caps in a bowl and pour enough Starsan on them to cover them. +1 on not boiling the bottle caps. Like someone before said, that could very well distort the seal in the cap making them not seal up well. Does your beer carb up? If it carbs up then it is likely not your caps.

I don't have infection issues. My beer tastes great and I don't use anything more than hot water, Oxyclean and a little Starsan. StarSan is great because it is no rinse and cheap. My SWMBO used to travel all across the east coast opening restaurants and training the new employees. She keeps me inline when it comes to sanitation. LOL

Get some Oxyclean Free and clean those bottles again. Wash the bottling bucket (no scrub brushings), spigot and fill wand too.

 

[McNulty]

Try StarSan on bottles n caps. Sounds like your chlorine based soak is causing it if not the warped seals from boiling, like shanecb says. Do you have any weakly carbed or flat beers? Band-aid flavors? How is your brewing water?

 

[ExpeditionBrewing]

Do you have any weakly carbed or flat beers? Band-aid flavors? How is your brewing water?

Last academic year (I'm still in college, so that's how things are measure for me ) I had serious issues with weakly carbonated or completely flat beers, this year, my beers are carbonating as I would expect them to.

Regarding the water, that's a dangerous question, I have lots of information on my water, either that I have tested myself in my university's geochemistry lab (I'm a geology student), or that I have attained from the government's water analysis publications, such as: http://www.crd.bc.ca/water/waterquality/documents/2009AnnualWQOverviewExecSummary.pdf

Iodophor states on the bottle that it needs to completely air dry. Does that time the bottles sit exposed on the sanitized bottle tree allow for lots of airborne nasties to get into the bottles? Or can I rinse the Iodophor solution and bottle straight away after soaking the bottles in that? I haven't found StarSan at my homebrew store, but I can start looking for it.

Wash the bottling bucket (no scrub brushings), spigot and fill wand too.

I sanitize the bottling bucket, fill wand, racking cane, etc in the same sort of chlorine solution I do for the bottles.

 

[Forddog]

Sounds u really need to pop for the star San mixed with de ionized water it last for months I keep mine in 5 gallon bucket covered. I also go to the dollar store and get some some spray bottles always come in handy for spraying inside of bottles just a couple of quick squirts and a swirl and let hang on tree

 

[skyebrewing]

As soon as I pour from a bottle, I rinse it to get rid leftover trub and yeast. Oxyclean bath, rack em dry then into cardboard boxes till ready to use again. On bottle day, I put all my bottles into a big bucket of starsan making sure all the bottles and full and submerged. I leave them in while I rack and set up. I place my bottlecaps out and spray them with starsan too right before. Then just drain each bottle, fill and cap. No rinsing needed and after 40 or 50 batches, no infection or off flavors.

 

[VegasBrew]

starsan is a must, use a vinator to rinse the bottles, bottles on bottle tree, use a spray bottle to spray the caps before you drop em on the filled beers, fill a bottle and drop on cap, fill 5 or 6 and then go back and crimp the caps on a few....continue....brink beer!

VB