So my 2nd brew (Midwest Cherry wheat extract kit) hit the magic 3 week mark in the bottles and I wanted to put a few in the fridge to try out (especially since I'm starting to run low on my first brew). This batch was my first time trying a secondary and first time reusing old beer bottles (not purchased from a LHBS). Unfortunately, I think I may have inadvertently infected my recipe...
Floaties on the top as well as many floating through the beer
Yeast cake in the bottle looks like it has something growing on it
The bottles weren't shaken or moved for the past 24 hours and all of them show the same level of floaties. Is this something I want to toss in the fridge and try to drink ASAP? I know it can't hurt to give it a shot, but I'm looking for suggestions. The pictures are of a clear bottle since I had to use 4 of them as I ran out of brown bottles and because it gives better detail.
Here's my procedure once I deviated from the recipe that Midwest provided:
The beer was split into 4.25 and 0.75 gal before going into separate secondary carboys. It was racked onto R.W. Knudsen Tart Cherry (2 qt w/ 4.25 gal) and Black Cherry (3 cups w/ 0,75 gal) following this thread. Both beers sat in their sceondary for 3.5 weeks before I bottled. No growth or apparent issues came up during secondary.
The bottles were soaked in Oxyclean "Free" for ~48 hours, soaked in clean water for ~48 hours, thoroughly rinsed with 145 degree water (hottest the tap will do), and dried. Before using the bottles I used my sulfiter w/ star san for 15 pumps per bottle and I soaked the ends of the bottle (1/2 way up the neck) in star san for ~30 seconds. Caps were soaked in star san (in the sulfiter) then each beer was capped after I filled all of the bottles.
Bottling wand and hose attachment were also soaked in star san along with the bottling bucket's spigot. The bottling bucket was sprayed down with star san before being racked into. I used my autosiphon and siphoning hose to move my pre-made star san from a spare carboy to an intermediary holding bucket for soaking (they also got sprayed down prior to being used).
If this is an infection, I can't think of what I missed when cleaning them... The bottles weren't that new, but they were all clean enough before I started the Oxyclean treatment. I can't think of a piece of equipment that I missed cleaning/sanitizing prior to racking the beer, but when looking at the beer, my black cherry doesn't have floating bits or weird yeast cake growth. The black cherry was bottled a couple of days after the tart cherry and into new bottles from my LHBS, so I think it's something I missed while bottling the tart cherry.
Hoping I haven't messed up something simple since I've got 5 gal of cider, 5 gal of spiced holiday ale, and 5 gal of black ale waiting to be bottled in the next month and I don't want to lose any!
Floaties on the top as well as many floating through the beer
Yeast cake in the bottle looks like it has something growing on it
The bottles weren't shaken or moved for the past 24 hours and all of them show the same level of floaties. Is this something I want to toss in the fridge and try to drink ASAP? I know it can't hurt to give it a shot, but I'm looking for suggestions. The pictures are of a clear bottle since I had to use 4 of them as I ran out of brown bottles and because it gives better detail.
Here's my procedure once I deviated from the recipe that Midwest provided:
The beer was split into 4.25 and 0.75 gal before going into separate secondary carboys. It was racked onto R.W. Knudsen Tart Cherry (2 qt w/ 4.25 gal) and Black Cherry (3 cups w/ 0,75 gal) following this thread. Both beers sat in their sceondary for 3.5 weeks before I bottled. No growth or apparent issues came up during secondary.
The bottles were soaked in Oxyclean "Free" for ~48 hours, soaked in clean water for ~48 hours, thoroughly rinsed with 145 degree water (hottest the tap will do), and dried. Before using the bottles I used my sulfiter w/ star san for 15 pumps per bottle and I soaked the ends of the bottle (1/2 way up the neck) in star san for ~30 seconds. Caps were soaked in star san (in the sulfiter) then each beer was capped after I filled all of the bottles.
Bottling wand and hose attachment were also soaked in star san along with the bottling bucket's spigot. The bottling bucket was sprayed down with star san before being racked into. I used my autosiphon and siphoning hose to move my pre-made star san from a spare carboy to an intermediary holding bucket for soaking (they also got sprayed down prior to being used).
If this is an infection, I can't think of what I missed when cleaning them... The bottles weren't that new, but they were all clean enough before I started the Oxyclean treatment. I can't think of a piece of equipment that I missed cleaning/sanitizing prior to racking the beer, but when looking at the beer, my black cherry doesn't have floating bits or weird yeast cake growth. The black cherry was bottled a couple of days after the tart cherry and into new bottles from my LHBS, so I think it's something I missed while bottling the tart cherry.
Hoping I haven't messed up something simple since I've got 5 gal of cider, 5 gal of spiced holiday ale, and 5 gal of black ale waiting to be bottled in the next month and I don't want to lose any!
