Help what is going on in my bottles

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jimmywit

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So i bottled a pale ale 4 weeks ago. The beer tasted great at 2 and 3 weeks now at the 4th it taste sour as hell. My temp has been at 68 the entire time. What is going on....It is not just 1 bottle I opened 3 all tatse the same
 
What about your bottling bucket? what's that setup like? is it possible an infection could be coming from there?

I fill it up with the star san solution then bottle just like I would if beer was in the bucket. I don't understand why it was fine las week now tastes like ****.
 
So you fill your bottling bucket with starsan, then transfer that to your bottles, then empty everything out, then repeat with beer, is that correct? If so, that sounds very thorough. How about your caps, are they sanitized?
 
Yes caps sit in a bowl of star san solution until I use them, and yes the process you explained is what I do. I just can't figure this one out.
 
What about your auto siphon and or hose for transferring to the bottling bucket? Were those sanitized too?
 
Do you soak/scrub all of your bottles before filling?
My first batch had 4 of 5 bottles that came out overcarbed and had very little taste compared to the rest. I did not scrub all my bottles thoroughly for that batch but since then, I do scrub and all is well!!
After scrubbing I look into each bottle behind a bright light, sometimes I find little transluscent circles(mold).
Just a thought!
 
my auto siphon and all hoses were sanitized, I rinse each bottle out after a pour them then on bre day run them in the dishwasher no soap, then fill them all with star san solution.
 
This is just a shot in the dark, but I'm thinking some of your bottles may not have been totally clean when you went to sanitize them. Running them in the dishwasher doesn't always get the last little bits of crud out because its hard for water to get up the skinny necks. If there were some solids left in the bottle, then star san wouldn't have killed them.

That wouldn't explain why the taste turned from last week to this week, though. Maybe you just got unlucky this week and picked the few bad bottles.
 
well I hope it's just a few bad bottles. Could this be anything else other then a sanitation issue? I why would it change so quick, It was great last week and now is crummy
 
Infections can take awhile to become symptomatic.

As others have said, the dishwasher may not be enough. Sanitizers need a clean surface in order to be effective. Soak all your equipment and bottles in OxiClean Free (or some other perfume free sodium percarbonate cleaner) and hot water for at least an hour before sanitizing.

The infection could also be taking hold earlier in your brewing process. Everything after the boil is suspect.
 
I'd suggest adding a swipe or two to each bottle with a bottle brush next time to be sure you knock any remaining ever so small solids off the sides, then do the sanitizing rinses. you can never be too carefull there.
 
I'm such a new guy I really don"t have the right to reply but, it seems as though time wounds all heels!
By that I mean, the one thing that I've gathered from reading is that a lot of times, just waiting for a while "heals" a lot of bad tastes, smells and just about everything else that can go wrong.
From my personal experience, it seems as, you really have to make a concerted effort to screw your beer up.
If you clean/sanitize with the thoroughness of a woman (they can be relentless) you will be fine.
All of that said, wait for a while...try another, wait for a while longer...try another. After that, maybe you should give up on that batch. Me????...I'd try another wait and try another one.
Greydog
 
I'm such a new guy I really don"t have the right to reply but, it seems as though time wounds all heels!
By that I mean, the one thing that I've gathered from reading is that a lot of times, just waiting for a while "heals" a lot of bad tastes, smells and just about everything else that can go wrong.
From my personal experience, it seems as, you really have to make a concerted effort to screw your beer up.
If you clean/sanitize with the thoroughness of a woman (they can be relentless) you will be fine.
All of that said, wait for a while...try another, wait for a while longer...try another. After that, maybe you should give up on that batch. Me????...I'd try another wait and try another one.
Greydog

time won't heal an infected batch, in fact it only gets worse. Time can turn infected bottles into little sour beer filled grenades...

that is to say if it is indeed infected. But sampling several bottles and they all taste sour is not a good sign for the rest of them.

I'll say what was said before about soak in oxyclean, then take a bottle brush to them, rinse, then let them soak in sanitizer before bottling.
 
Check all your equipment. Do they have some scratches? The hose your using, is it perfectly scratchless? And the bottling bucket?

Otherwise, maybe the infection were there before you bottled. Do you see an opportunity where an infection could've occured before bottling? From your hydrometer readings?

Did you boil the priming sugar accordingly?
 
My equipment all looks good, and I boiled the priming sugar for 10 min in 2 cups of water before I added it. I am usually very anal when it comes to sanitation, so I have no idea what happened hear and I am pissed. I just hope That using the oxi clean and the sanitizer will work so I don't have this problem again. I don't know of any other time the beer could have been infected. I did everything I usually do. I have been racking my brain all day and can not figure this one out.
 
The other thing is... some times things like this happen. You know you did everything right like you always do. You cleaned and sanitized and, you lose a batch. It has happened to the best of us. The first time I lost a batch I couldn't put my finger on what went wrong either. Everything pointed to sanitation. Ever since then I'm anal about my yeast starters and that equipment. My carboys, my bottles, my kegs and all of my transferring equipment. Just keep this in mind in the future.
 
I always make sure i thoroughly rinse my bottles after I drink one. At bottling I usually boil them and then bake them in the oven. I have never had a problem since I started doing this. I also totally disassemble my bottling bucket and sanitize all washers and spigots and anything else associated. Also, if you have a bottling wand, make sure that gets taken apart and sanitized, there's a little spring in there that can be a trap for gunk.
 
Open a 4th and 5th, and report back

Well I have some good news for a change on this one...I just cracked another from the back of the pack and it tasted just fine. So it must have been in the bottles, I will change my cleaning and sanitizing process for my bottles and hopefully that will fix any further problems...Thanks to all for your help and advice
 
I always make sure i thoroughly rinse my bottles after I drink one. At bottling I usually boil them and then bake them in the oven. I have never had a problem since I started doing this. I also totally disassemble my bottling bucket and sanitize all washers and spigots and anything else associated. Also, if you have a bottling wand, make sure that gets taken apart and sanitized, there's a little spring in there that can be a trap for gunk.

Great advice, I took my wand apart and found all kinds of gunk I would have never looked for, Thanks.
 
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