Infection in Bottle - Now what?

[JeffersonJ]

Well, roughly 15 batches into my homebrew career I officially have my first infection. This is not a "is my beer infected" thread. I am absolutely sure that it's infected. I bottled an ESB at the end of April. Three weeks later I threw a homebrew party and got a lot of good comments on it from casual craft beer drinkers. At the time, I noticed a slight tartness to it, but just figured it was still a bit green. Carbonation was still good at that point. I hadn't drank it again until just yesterday and I had a gusher and the beer was sour. Also, gravity dropped from 1.018 at bottling to 1.012. Hoping it was isolated, I popped open three more bottles and they were all the same.

I'm pretty sure it got introduced at bottling time. This was a primary-only beer and it was seemingly flawless. My primary culprit is the valve on my bottling bucket. It's been a while since I've taken it out and thoroughly cleaned it, besides just running OxiClean and then StarSan through it.

I sanitize my bottles by running it through the steam cycle on my nearly new, mid-range dishwasher. I used to also spray StarSan into the bottles before filling, but I've been skipping that step lately. I just bottled another batch of beer two weeks ago and I haven't detected any signs of infection yet, but it took a while on the previous batch so I'll keep an eye out.

So what now?

I'm planning on replacing all of my siphon/bottling tubing. Unrelated to this, I just bought a new bottling wand (lost the spring inside of my old one). Should I bleach my bottling bucket, valve, and auto-siphon? I was planning to boil the valve by itself.

 

[amandabab]

So what now?

I'm planning on replacing all of my siphon/bottling tubing. Unrelated to this, I just bought a new bottling wand (lost the spring inside of my old one). Should I bleach my bottling bucket, valve, and auto-siphon? I was planning to boil the valve by itself.

None of this will hurt. I bleach all of my equipment at some point. not every batch but I cycle it through. I think the biggest culprit is not sanitizing the bottles anymore and relying on the dishwasher to do it.

 

[Tiber_Brew]

I would pry the caps off of the remaining infected bottles to avoid bombs. When you are bottling, do you keep the bucket covered? I would disassemble your bucket valve and soak it and your bucket in a hot PBW solution overnight, then rinse and soak in StarSan or Iodophor.

Do you know what kind of infection it is? Lacto, pedio, etc.? Does it taste phenolic, or just a clean sour tartness?

 

[JeffersonJ]

I would pry the caps off of the remaining infected bottles to avoid bombs. When you are bottling, do you keep the bucket covered? I would disassemble your bucket valve and soak it and your bucket in a hot PBW solution overnight, then rinse and soak in StarSan or Iodophor.

Do you know what kind of infection it is? Lacto, pedio, etc.? Does it taste phenolic, or just a clean sour tartness?

Yep, I cover the bucket while bottling.

No idea what kind of infection it is. I was hoping someone could help in that regard. What exactly do you mean by phenolic? Esters? If so, no, I'd describe it is a clean sour tartness.

On that note, there's a pretty good chance that my previous batch was also infected. It was a belgian pale ale, so the tartness somewhat fit the style and was less noticeable. I had a few gushers but at the time attributed it to fermentation issues (I had a hell of a time with stuck, and then revived, fermentation using WLP515 while in primary).

 

[gospurs]

Have you considered the possibility of the dishwasher spreading some type of mold into the bottles? A lot of bugs get in there every time you do the dishes. Just a thought...

I generally sanitize my bottles by washing them out well in advance of brew day, letting them dry completely, and then doing a total submerge of all bottles in starsan. I then fill with beer right after emptying out the starsan, usually with a couple of seconds exposure time at most.

 

[passedpawn]

Tart is probably lactobacillus. It's everywhere. I doubt it's from the belgian pale ale since belgian beers get their funk from brett.

 

[Tiber_Brew]

Yep, I cover the bucket while bottling.

No idea what kind of infection it is. I was hoping someone could help in that regard. What exactly do you mean by phenolic? Esters? If so, no, I'd describe it is a clean sour tartness.

I meant a phenolic infection, like rubber bands or bain-aid like flavors, sometimes accompanied by solvent-like aromas and flavor. If it's just a clean sour tartness, then I would agree with passedpawn that it's a lactobacillus infection.

 

[amandabab]

Have you considered the possibility of the dishwasher spreading some type of mold into the bottles? A lot of bugs get in there every time you do the dishes. Just a thought...

I generally sanitize my bottles by washing them out well in advance of brew day, letting them dry completely, and then doing a total submerge of all bottles in starsan. I then fill with beer right after emptying out the starsan, usually with a couple of seconds exposure time at most.

+1
the dishwasher may be sanitizing them during the cycle, but as soon as they are below 145f they are vulnerable even if it didn't spread mold.
A wet contact sanitizer (soak,spray, vinator) is the only way to be sure.

 

[JeffersonJ]

Roger that! Thanks for all the replies.

I'm going to go back to spraying Star San in all of the bottles prior to filling. I ran an experiment while bottling a few batches - I ran them all through the sanitize cycle of the dishwasher, but still sprayed StarSan through them except for a select few (which I marked). None of those had any issues, but I guess I'll be extra safe for now on.