Usings Straight-A and residue on bottles?

[syd138]

So no matter how much I rinse my bottles after I let them soak, once they are dry, they keep getting white residue on them.

Anyone else have this problem? Is there anything I can do about it?

 

[WBC]

Hard water will cause white deposits. Do you get the same on your glassware when washing dishes? It will not cause problems in the bottled beer if that is what it is.

 

[Revvy]

A lot of people have the same issues with harder water and oxyclean...soaking the bottles after in a weak acidic solution like STARSAN and water or vinegar and water works for dissolving the scale...

 

[syd138]

Yeah Im not sure about my water.. I live in Chicago so its from Lake Michigan..

but is it really a big deal if theres a bit of white residue on my bottles? Will I get sick from it? Will it ruin my beer?

 

[Revvy]

You won't get sick, but if it's a soapy residue it may cause poor head retention and or a soapy flavor in you beer....so a quick vinegar soak followed by a rinse and then sanitizing, or starsan soak, isn't that hard to do...

 

[Bigrig]

Soak em in vinegar. It will take the scale right off. I have the same problem whenever I leave any item for too long in oxygen based cleaners like Straight A or Oxyclean because of my hard water. No amount of scrubbing will take the scale off, but a weak acid like vinegar will easily remove it. Also, you can usually avoid the deposits in the first place by not leaving the items to soak in the Straight A any longer than necessary. Mine usually start to scale up after 2-3 days submerged in the cleaner. As long as I only soak them for a day or so, I don't have the problem. However, being the "never do today what you can put off til tomorrow" type, I often find myself needing lots of vinegar!!

 

[syd138]

so.. just put a bottle of vinegar in about a gallon of water.. soak the bottle in that.. then rinse with cold water?

 

[Surly]

I use Oxyclean and at times leave bottles soaking for too many days and they get teh white residue on them.


What I do is this. I keep my Star San in a bucket or two depending on how much I have been working in my brewery. I cycle all rinsed and empty bottles through those buckets before storing them away.

My two bottles of beer I drank last night were rinsed well as soon as empty. This morning I placed them in a bucket of Star San. Tomorrow I will drain them and store for my next bottle project when I will again sanitize them before filling.

I have a cooler full of bottles soaking right now. I will strap the labels off, wash the bottles, rinse and then soak them over night in my used Star San.

It is a way for me to reuse the stuff and give my equipment an extra sanitation cycle.

 

[Revvy]

so.. just put a bottle of vinegar in about a gallon of water.. soak the bottle in that.. then rinse with cold water?

I have a double sink, so I fill one side with water and about a tablespoon of weak acid (starsan or vinegar) dip them in that, and then rinse in the other sink...