what went wrong with my skeeter pee?

[wolfshado]

Ok, i tried making my first skeeter pee and i followed all instructions as best i could. While it did take FOREVER for fermentation to begin, it did finally take off and finished at around 10% which is right where i wanted it.

The ONLY deviation i made to the recipe was the addition of 1 dram of lemon extract.

Heres where it went wrong.... Bottling. I reused corona bottles that were given to me by a friend. After i de-limed them, i put them in a bucket of bleach water mixture, boiled them, washed them out with dish soap and hot water, then sanitized with one step sanitizer solution. ( yeah, i might have gone overboard)

After filling them with my cleaned and boiled tubing, i capped them and let them sit for 2 weeks. When we finally got round to popping some open, we noticed a faint, but definite windex type flavor in the after taste.

Did i go too far in sanitation or not far enough? Could the residual flavor be because of the soap? Did i not rinse them well enough? Or could it be something i did wrong? i will try again when it warms up, but for now i will just have to drink them out and use an industrial dish washer to clean these bottles again for further use.

 

[weavka32]

I use dishsoap right after drinking then I run my bottles through the dishwasher on a sanitize cycle with no soap and have not had that issue, yet at least. It does sound like soap, but post your temps.

 

[mike_in_ak]

Deleted double post.

 

[mike_in_ak]

My money would be on the dish soap. IMO it's pretty hard to rinse off completely.

The bleach solution should have sanitized more than either of the other two.

One step is technically a cleanser, but lots of us use it as a sanitizer.

Also, most brewers are using brown bottles for light filtering reasons, rather than clear bottles.

If it is the dish soap, maybe it will be in some bottles and not others.

 

[BansheeRider]

I read that dish soap is not good to use because it will always leave a slight film on whatever you are cleaning. It is better to use hand soap or a product like Oxi Clean or some other type of cleanser.

 

[grem135]

Get one of these if you have a faucet you can connect it too Bottle washer
If you rinse out your bottles after drinking you dont need all that dish soap, bleach or other stuff that messes up your beer.
I do keep a bucket under my slop sink full of a weak oxy mix for when the bottles have labels that need removed or I got lazy and didn't rinse them.

 

[looneybomber]

I made a batch of skeeter pee and coincidently used Corona bottles too. I washed with soap and have not had the problems you describe. I used normal lemon juice though and not extract.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Bottle cleaning doesn't need to be a particular chore. Obviously if you have a batch of bottles with nasty lime wedges in them, there's a chance of harboring bacteria and they need a thorough cleaning and sanitizing initially to prevent infections.

Here's what I do, and FYI most of the bottles I use came to me by way of a liquor store purchase. I made.

1. Empty full beer bottle into your mouth. Swallow.
2. Draw 1/4 cup fresh tap water into the empty bottle. Cover with your finger, shake several times, pour water out
3. Repeat step 2 unto water is clear ( i find twice works well)
4. Place the clean, wet bottle upside down in the dishwasher 24 hours, or until it is dry. Bacteria needs moisture to propogate. By storing them perfectly dry, any bacteria that falls in during storage cannot propogate.
4. Place clean, dry bottles in the frige until a 6 pack rack is full.
5. Place the bottles in storage in a place where they are not likely to collect dust or debris. I usually put them back in the cardboard cases.

6. Day before bottling: pull out the bottles, place them upside down in the dishwasher. Run them through a cleaning cycle with no soap, no rinse agents, and with sanitize cycle on.
7. Brew day: squirt each bottle with starsan from a vintator. Dottle, cap, condition, return to step 1.

 

[wolfshado]

i get all my corona bottles from a friend who's pretty wife drinks corona. He brings me the empties and i de lime them, soak in oxy clean for a few days then wash. I am starting to think i might have accidentally grabbed the oxyclean with perfume instead of my oxy free. When i was making laundry soap i smelled the oxy clean with perfume and the similarity is way too much for it to be a coincidence. I am fearing there was still oxyclean residue in the bottles that didnt get all the way out.