Re-using Bottles from Lacto Infected Batch?

[Brew_G]

Well...the title pretty much says it all. I have a couple cases of bottles of stout that I'm fairly certain was infected with lacto, and I'm trying to find out if there's anything special I need to do to clean the bottles before reuse. I'm going to let these things mellow for a while song can keep from having to dump them. )

Thanks...

 

[CorporateHippie]

So you have stout in the bottles now and you believe lacto got in?

or

you have bottles that were infected with lacto and you want to reuse them now for a different brew but need to kill the lacto?

 

[Brew_G]

So you have stout in the bottles now and you believe lacto got in?



or



you have bottles that were infected with lacto and you want to reuse them now for a different brew but need to kill the lacto?

More of the second.

I'm pretty new to brewing and made a couple mistakes on my last brew day. Before I bottled, I had a white film with big bubbles on top of the beer in the carboy, and it had a very sharp - almost solvent-like - flavor and aroma to it. Bottling was three weeks ago, and there's now a decent film on top of the beer in the bottles. The beer isn't undrinkable, but it's not very good. Everything I've been reading leads me to think its lacto. Either way, I'm pretty certain it's infected.

 

[CorporateHippie]

The answer is simple... Tuck it away for a year or so and come back to what could be an AMAZING tart stout.

 

[unionrdr]

I had something like that happen once. As the bottles get emptied, soak'em overnight in PBW solution after rinsing out the yeast trub. Then rinse with hot water & soak in Starsan for a minute or two. Then drain/dry on the bottle tree & store in covered boxes.

 

[Sideways]

To be safe you can sterilize them in your oven. As long as the bottles heat to 170 deg Celsius for 30 minutes you should be good.

 

[Brew_G]

Thanks, folks. I figured it shouldn't be an issue, but wanted to be sure. I'll soak in PBW/Oxy and then with Star-San prior to bottling.