Travestian
Well-Known Member
This may be a little long so please bear with me. I've had an issue with infections showing up AFTER I bottle lately.
I got my first bottle bomb from a Belgian Double that was given to me in a carboy. It had been bottled for nearly 4 months when the first one went off. I never noticed any off flavors with any of the ones I drank before the first bottle bomb. But after the bottle bomb I popped caps off the rest and they are foamed like mad. No pellicle in the bottle or anything.
About 6 batches go by with no problems. I still have some of the beers from some of these batches and they show no problems.
4 batches ago I had a sweet stout that I had to mix the lactose into after it finished primary fermentation. I sanitized and used my wort stir wand (all plastic) to mix it well. The other issue with that batch was the lack of an airlock. I used sanitized aluminum foil over the neck of the carboy. I bottled with no signs of any infection. Taste was normal. No pellicle (due to no oxygen yet I suppose). It was about a week later when I checked on one of the bottles that I noticed the white pellicle in the bottle. I dumped the batch.
So it looks like we have our smoking gun right? Well, before I did any other bottling I changed my bottling bucket, hoses, autosiphon, and bottling wand. I haven't used the wort stirrer since then either.
I bottled 2 batches just over a week ago and I noticed the same pellicle in each one in the bottle. Pictures are below. One was taken with the flash. One was without.
I can't think of anything that is common with the batches before and after bottling equipment replacement. I've got two batches fermenting right now that have plans for a competition coming up. Any ideas on what I should be doing differently?
I got my first bottle bomb from a Belgian Double that was given to me in a carboy. It had been bottled for nearly 4 months when the first one went off. I never noticed any off flavors with any of the ones I drank before the first bottle bomb. But after the bottle bomb I popped caps off the rest and they are foamed like mad. No pellicle in the bottle or anything.
About 6 batches go by with no problems. I still have some of the beers from some of these batches and they show no problems.
4 batches ago I had a sweet stout that I had to mix the lactose into after it finished primary fermentation. I sanitized and used my wort stir wand (all plastic) to mix it well. The other issue with that batch was the lack of an airlock. I used sanitized aluminum foil over the neck of the carboy. I bottled with no signs of any infection. Taste was normal. No pellicle (due to no oxygen yet I suppose). It was about a week later when I checked on one of the bottles that I noticed the white pellicle in the bottle. I dumped the batch.
So it looks like we have our smoking gun right? Well, before I did any other bottling I changed my bottling bucket, hoses, autosiphon, and bottling wand. I haven't used the wort stirrer since then either.
I bottled 2 batches just over a week ago and I noticed the same pellicle in each one in the bottle. Pictures are below. One was taken with the flash. One was without.
I can't think of anything that is common with the batches before and after bottling equipment replacement. I've got two batches fermenting right now that have plans for a competition coming up. Any ideas on what I should be doing differently?