Bottle infection?

[BamaPhil]

Hey folks,

I'm afraid I have my first infection. This is a bottle (I know, it's clear, cut me some slack) from my batch of blackberry wheat I bottled on 5/5. I had it in primary for 18 days and secondary for 10 with pasteurized fresh black berries. I had the berries in 180*+ water for several minutes, cooled them, and then racked on top of them. Fermentation definitely took off again but it looked similar to the raspberry I had done before.

I know I've heard before that a ring around the neck of the bottle at the surface of the beer is a bad sign. That, combined with the floating stuff and streaks down the bottle, have me pretty worried.

Thoughts?

 

[Pappers_]

How does it taste? Is it excessively carbonated? Those are the two signs I would be most mindful of. Stuff floating on top isn't good, though.

 

[BamaPhil]

I opened it last night and it definitely foamed more than it should have. It had only been in the bottle for 10 days and the fridge for 1. As far as taste, since it's a blackberry it's hard (for me at least) to say if it's tart or soured. I guess a little time will tell.

Now I'm paranoid about my other beers. I have a brown that's been foaming a little bit and a couple I opened this morning (to inspect, not drink) were definitely off. I'm hoping its limited to these 2 batches. I feel pretty good about my sanitation practices so I'm not sure where the problem is. I've used plastic water jugs as secondaries a couple times but I'm not sure which one (if any) were used on these batches.


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[Pappers_]

The basics of sanitation is clean immediately after use (with soap, oxyclean, or PBS) and sanitize immediately before using (with iodophor or star san).

When I had an infection, I was pretty sure it was a scratched up plastic fermenter (better bottle). I tossed it and any plastic tubing and bleached bombed everything else.

If you are reusing bottles, obviously toss the ones you think are infected. Going forward, rinse out the bottle immediately after you pour the beer.

Hope this helps, sorry about your batch.

 

[BamaPhil]

Thanks Pappers.

All of that I do. I rinse my bottles immediately but not everybody I give beer to does. Those that don't get an Oxyclean soak and scrub.

The other potential culprit (beside the plastic secondary) may be my star San. I've been cheap and re used a few batches of it. Next trip to the LHBS I'm getting some ph strips so I can test it for effectiveness before using it.


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[rmyurick]

1. I always bottle one or two in clear bottles--then you can tell when it's clear!

2. Can you judge the effectiveness of StarSan by pH? I know they say it's effective as long as it's not cloudy, but mine seems to get cloudy almost immediately.

 

[BamaPhil]

I've heard the same thing about the cloudiness. That's why I've reused it, I've been using distilled water and it's stayed perfectly clear.

I believe if the ph is 3 or lower then it's effective as a sanitizer.


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[ph0ngwh0ng]

I've heard the same thing about the cloudiness. That's why I've reused it, I've been using distilled water and it's stayed perfectly clear.

I believe if the ph is 3 or lower then it's effective as a sanitizer.

According to this guy, cloudiness is only the DBFA (dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid) coming out of solution (due to mineral content), but not affecting the sanitizing power of the solution. So, the only way to know if your diluted starsan solution is still good is by knowing the pH is 3.5 or lower.

Water alkalinity can be a factor, though. But unless you have very alkaline water, I wouldn't bother diluting with distilled or RO water.