Can I still use my better bottle that had a spoiled batch?

[trderr]

I have a better bottle that is about 3 years old and has been used 6 times or so. My last batch was a harvest ale that actually spoiled. Ammonia smell signs of bacterial growth. I cleaned it out and filled with Starsan overnight. I can't smell anything inside.

My question is, should I still use it? I have a beer that I need to rack to secondary.

Would appreciate any thoughts!

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

If it is clean, and has no smell, it should be fine.

 

[audger]

its up to you to determine how effective your sanitizing is, and to determine where the infection came from in the first place. its impossible for me to tell you these things over the internet.

if the bucket is sanitary, then you can use it. if its not, then you shouldnt.

 

[trderr]

Thanks for the replies. This is a better bottle, so there are some logistic challenges to cleaning it out (as opposed to a bucket).

The reason it spoiled was a good lesson learned for me. I made a harvest ale that I fermented in a glass carboy. Getting 5 gallons of wort in a glass carboy didn't work too well and I had to deal with the whole hops clogging up first my funnel and then my strainer. I am convinced that's where I lost it.

When I racked to secondary (another lesson learned for me with a harvest so that I don't lose so much beer with the hops at bottling), it didn't quite taste right. When I went to bottle, I knew it was lost.

My concern with the better bottle is whether it could have small abraisions from the past few years and whether those could harbor bacteria despite the best sanitization methods. I'm sure other folks are wondering if they had a bad batch if they should dump the carboy as well.

I am going to rack another whole hop recipe into the better bottle today (it doesn't smell bad) and I will post my results in a week in case anyone has this type of question again.

Thanks!

 

[whitehause]

I would think that soaking in Star-san for a while would kill most nastys.

 

[eastoak]

if you decide you don't want it send it to me!

 

[HomebrewMTB]

First of all, are you sure you need to secondary?

Next, I haven't had much luck with trying to filter hops in a funnel or even pouring into the bucket with 5 gallon paint strainer. I think if you want to do this right, use a hop spider or similar and pull it out right after boil to avoid any chance of contamination while straining. This will also minimize your wort losses.

Then a proper ball valve with dip tube on the kettle makes racking to carboy very simple.

Also, be sure to check on the Better Bottle website for best practices on cleaning and sanitizing. Their website looks like it hasn't been updated since 1995 and they provide TMI but the info is there.

http://www.better-bottle.com/technical.html?=b-b_cleaning_right.html

I usually rinse mine well, soak overnight with hot tap water and oxyclean, rinse thoroughly, and soak in SanStar while I'm brewing (couple hours tops). Since you had an infection, I would pay the extra for PBW for the cleaning instead of oxyclean.