Help eliminating bottle infections

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markstache

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First, a question: several recent batches have developed little rings in the bottle at the liquid line. A few have developed white film on top of the liquid. Am I right in assuming that this is evidence of bottle infections? I'm not 100% sure, but the carbonation for these batches seems high. For the white film bottles, they were 1 gallon batches and I tried to drink them super fast. More recent batches haven't been around long enough for me to be sure that they are getting more carbonated.

Next, how to eliminate and stop this issue for ever.

My current cold side process is to ferment (primary only) in plastic PET carboys. Take a gravity reading using a plastic turkey baster. Rack with a plastic autosiphon into a bottling bucket. Boil sugar in water and add. Stir with sanitized spoon. Bottles soaked in Star-San and set up right in dish washer door. Dispense with plastic bottling wand. Caps sit in star-san until needed.

I use star-san throughout. Freshly made for each bottling batch.

I haven't seen any evidence of infections in the PET fermenters, so I'm going to keep those. I'm going to toss all other plastic. My questions are what to use to replace.

To take samples, I'm going to get a stainless theif/baster. I'll boil it before using it.

To rack, I have a stainless cane that's been sitting idle. I'm planning to replace the autosiphon with a sterile siphon starter (HEPA filter and plastic cap).

Question: Should I get new vinyl tubing for racking or should I get some silicon? I could boil the silicon each time.

To bottle, I'm thinking of using my 8 gallon kettle. I can boil water it in before using to heat sanitize.

To get from the kettle to the bottles, I'm thinking about using silicon again. Bottling wands are pretty cheap and I'm not seeing a stainless options. I might just buy a box and call it good.

For my bottles, I think I will heat sanitize for the next few batches. If the bottle infections ceases, I'll probably just continue with my brush and rinse after use, oxyclean soak, and star-san soak.

Thoughts on this plan?
 
Is the infection in just certain bottle or every bottle in the batch?

If it is just certain bottles, then it is a bottle issue. If it is every bottle in the batch, then it is getting infected somewhere along the line. I would definitely check the spigot of your bottling bucket. Have you ever taken that apart and cleaned it? Then look at getting a new auto siphon, hoses, and wand. That should do it.
 
I agree with @beergolf.

If it is only some bottles, it's definitely a bottle infection. The likely cause is sediment that you aren't getting cleaned out of the bottle between brews. The best remedy is replacing the bottles.

The easy check for bottles is to hold them upside down and look. If they aren't visibly clean after rinsing, toss them.

If it is every bottle, then it's a process issue and you should look at everything from when you pitch the yeast through bottling.

Hoses are cheap and easy to replace. Another potential source when bottling is the wand itself. Have you ever pulled the top off and checked it?
 
Is the infection in just certain bottle or every bottle in the batch?

If it is just certain bottles, then it is a bottle issue. If it is every bottle in the batch, then it is getting infected somewhere along the line. I would definitely check the spigot of your bottling bucket. Have you ever taken that apart and cleaned it? Then look at getting a new auto siphon, hoses, and wand. That should do it.

This. Too few homebrewers go through that step. Many little cracks and crevices inside a bottling bucket spigot where bag guys can hide.
 
+1 on spigot and wand tip. Take it all apart and clean religiously, then sanitize religiously. That cleared up my own infection issues, along with being aware of bottling around breezes, open windows, etc--now I cover bottling bucket during bottling with star san'd foil.
 
I've found some scary gunk growing in my bottling wand tip. I'll echo the advice to disassemble, inspect, and clean everything that touches the wort post boil.
 
Clean the gasket of your auto siphon also. The cup shape can hold debris. Oxy or PBW soak for a couple of hours then a soft tooth brush or Q-tip. Visually inspect the flap valve of the outer tube, under a strong light, for debris after a soak and rinse. (Do not push a brush into the end of the tube. It is very difficult to get the flap reset in place.)
 
Thanks for all the input. I'm going to switch to an orange cap and stainless racking came. I've ordered new tubing and bottling wand. And a new spigot.

Going all stainless and latex was temping, expensive. Brew hardware has a camlock that can be soldered to a stainless racking cane. It was pretty temping...
 
As others have said check the bucket spigot and also when I finish a beer I rinse it in hot water and hold it up to light to make sure all the sediment is off the bottom of the bottle, it should be crystal clear if it's clean. Some yeast I've noticed leave a small film on the bottom even after a hot water rinse and that has to go so I'll just put a touch of pbw in those bottles and let me soak then rinse after a couple hours or overnight and their crystal clear. The infection is prob somewhere going from the bucket to the bottle so your on it but just a thorough cleaning and inspection of the bottling wand and tip, auto siphon and tubing and cleaning the spigot should do trick.
 
It's hard to say exactly, but as others have said if it's only in some bottles of the batch, it's a bottle issue. I've been using the same bottling bucket and spigot for over five years without problem, but I clean all of those parts well after each use. Sometimes the hot water rinse doesn't get bottles as clean as people think it does, and even though most of them will be fine, if you get a few gushers in a batch when the rest is fine, you know where your problem lies.
 
If there is bacteria in the bottle, and you fill it and it touches the wand, you could be spreading it so some bottles are infected but those done before weren't. I'd really check those bottles and soak them in Oxyclean first to clean, then Star San next to kill anything. Also check the bottoms, sometimes beer sites there and molds, and even a good soak does not remove that. I made a PEX bottle sprayer to wash 12 at a time, and it seems to do a decent job at it.
 
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