Holy bitter beer Batman!

[EricK The Red]

I just poured a homebrew down the drain.

Hopefully it's just a bad bottle, I've had 4 or 5 good bottles from this batch so far. It's a Brewer's Best Irish Stout and I bottled in EZ-Cap bottles. The beer I just poured tasted like I just chewed on a fistfull of aspirin!!!

What could have caused this intense bitterness? I noticed a fairly heavy yeast sediment in this particular bottle.

 

[hopsalot]

did you secondary ferment? But that would not explain the asprin, did you sanitize well?

 

[RichBrewer]

It could be that there was something in that particular bottle. Keep on drinking and if you find more like that you will need to look at your bottling procedures. Let us know.

 

[DeathBrewer]

didn't you just have the flu? maybe your beer caught a bug, too

 

[ArcaneXor]

I just poured a homebrew down the drain.

Hopefully it's just a bad bottle, I've had 4 or 5 good bottles from this batch so far. It's a Brewer's Best Irish Stout and I bottled in EZ-Cap bottles. The beer I just poured tasted like I just chewed on a fistfull of aspirin!!!

What could have caused this intense bitterness? I noticed a fairly heavy yeast sediment in this particular bottle.

That's not unusual for these type of bottles (flip tops). When I used them, I had about 5-10% of them go bad during carbonation, and while many people never have issues with them, you'll find reports of several others who share my/our experience as well.

I now only use 12-oz pop-caps and (for fruit beers and others when I am worried about bottle bombs), PET bottles.

 

[Mayday99]

My dad gave me a whole bunch of ez cap bottles that were years old.

I spent a couple of bucks to get some new gaskets and haven't had a problem. Well worth changing them once in a while as those bottles are very convenient.

 

[EricK The Red]

My dad gave me a whole bunch of ez cap bottles that were years old.

I spent a couple of bucks to get some new gaskets and haven't had a problem. Well worth changing them once in a while as those bottles are very convenient.

These are brand new 1st use bottles. I soaked them in one step with the gaskets off in a separate dish of one step. I'll have to try some more to see if it's just the one bottle.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I won't use my flippie gaskets a 3rd time. Seems the constant pressure wears a ring in the rubber (compresses) that ends up with a weak seal. Too much overpressure will allow the gas to escape and reduce the carbonation effect.

 

[mountainrev]

I've never had a problem with Grolsch/EZ caps after many batches. I have so many that I seldom use the gazillion or so 12 oz. crown cap bottles I have.

My strong suspicion is your bad beer was not due to the bottle, but I certainly could be wrong.

To sanitize, I run them through the dishwasher w/o detergent. The heat kills any bacteria. Just make sure you let them cool (in the closed dishwasher) before filling! Many batches, zero problems.

 

[EricK The Red]

I'm chilling another one right now. I'll let you all know how it is.

 

[Schlenkerla]

You didn't get a good slug of trub did you?

 

[EricK The Red]

You didn't get a good slug of trub did you?

Now that I think of it, my EZ-Caps were the last 12 bottles filled. The racking cane was getting plugged up with "smeg" near the end.

I just tried another and it was a little better, but still pretty nasty. Heavy, smooth sediment at the bottom of the bottle too.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

age them. Strange things happen to beer over time. In a month they may be quite pleasant. RDWHAHB

 

[EricK The Red]

age them. Strange things happen to beer over time. In a month they may be quite pleasant. RDWHAHB

That's what I was thinking. The first few were "green" but in no way bitter like these last two.

I'll put the rest away for a few months and get back to you.

 

[Schlenkerla]

That's what I was thinking. The first few were "green" but in no way bitter like these last two.

I'll put the rest away for a few months and get back to you.

Good Plan. There's no point in drinking so-so beer now when it can be really good in a month or two. Too often you learn this with the last 3 or 4 out of a batch.

Yah gotta keep brewing so you never have to wait...

 

[EricK The Red]

Yah gotta keep brewing so you never have to wait...

I'm brewing as fast as I can!!!

 

[evermuse]

Good Luck! I hope that shelf is stronger than it looks.

I had a whole batch of sour beer a while ago and it didn't seem to be getting any better with age IMHO. I fed it to my roomates and they loved it and drank the rest of the batch that night*shrugs*.

 

[EricK The Red]

Good Luck! I hope that shelf is stronger than it looks.

I had a whole batch of sour beer a while ago and it didn't seem to be getting any better with age IMHO. I fed it to my roomates and they loved it and drank the rest of the batch that night*shrugs*.

Yar! 'Tis a very strong shelf indeed!

 

[mountainrev]

Good Luck! I hope that shelf is stronger than it looks.

My first thought as well. I just had a shelf that looked identical to it collapse after about four years of constant use (no, I didn't have any beer on it). It was anchored into the wall well enough, but the braces buckled, and the whole thing bent at a right angle.

Losing two carboys of fermenting beer would be enough to make a grown man cry.

 

[Dr Vorlauf]

I won't use my flippie gaskets a 3rd time. Seems the constant pressure wears a ring in the rubber (compresses) that ends up with a weak seal. Too much overpressure will allow the gas to escape and reduce the carbonation effect.

+1 on this. I use the gaskets only two times. They are cheap and easy to replace so I don't take the risk.

 

[uglygoat]

hehe he said smeg!

awesome show.

you're racking cane should not be filled with smeg when you're done racking. aim a bit higher, and sometimes you have to let that half gallon go if it's all full of floaties.

 

[EricK The Red]

hehe he said smeg!

awesome show.

you're racking cane should not be filled with smeg when you're done racking. aim a bit higher, and sometimes you have to let that half gallon go if it's all full of floaties.

I ran a search for Smeg hoping for some Red Dwarf images but found this instead:

SMEG refrigerators.

 

[DeathBrewer]

now that is just awesome! lol