Reusing better bottle after infection?

[Reelale]

I finally got my first infection. I know where it came from. I used a cracked autosyphon tube as a wine thief. There was a nice pellicle on top of my roggenbier after a couple of weeks. I *might* have left it in the primary a little long, going on six weeks. I'd take a picture, but it broke apart when I moved the better bottle. The beer actually tastes darn good, and I think I'll try to salvage and keg it.

My question concerns the hardware. I plan to replace all the tubing that I use to rack with. Possibly the stopper and airlock as well. I really hate to get rid of the Better Bottle if I can save it. Those things are expensive! What's the consensus on reusing better bottles after an infection? Would a bleach cleaning/disinfection work? Or should I just bite the bullet and get a new one?

 

[passedpawn]

I'd re-use it all. I'd do a quick boil on the stopper. The better bottle would get bleach. Shake, wait a day, shake again.

I don't believe in the "throw it all away" philosophy. Things can be sanitized.

 

[morticaixavier]

sounds like the worse case scenerio is you have two batches of yummy sour beer!

 

[jgerard]

I'd re-use it all. I'd do a quick boil on the stopper. The better bottle would get bleach. Shake, wait a day, shake again.

I don't believe in the "throw it all away" philosophy. Things can be sanitized.

I had a fliptop bottle with half a cm of black mold stuck on the bottle and for the heck of it I filled it with bleachwater and capped it. The black stuff turned white, flaked off the bottom and completely dissolved afte a week or two. I don't think anything can survive bleach.

 

[Reelale]

I've never used anything other than oxiclean on the Better Bottle, so I know the inside is not messed up. I'm thinking the bleach thing would work fine. Thanks for the responses.

 

[kh54s10]

Bleach it, and Starsan. Then make a brew with as inexpensive ingredients as you can. Then you'll know and not loose a very expensive brew.

 

[Calder]

Put a few ounces of bleach in the bottle and fill with cold water and leave it for a week. Then rinse with hot water a few times to get rid of the bleach film. Rinsing need only be a little hot water and swirling it around to get all the surfaces. Cold water does not get rid of bleach film.

I would leave it a week rather than just a rinse with bleach because any contamination may be in the pores of the bottle, and you need to give the bleach time to get in there too.

 

[DeafSmith]

If you use the bleach, don't forget to add some vinegar to keep the pH low enough for the bleach to be effective. I recall that the ratio for a no-rinse sanitizer is 1 oz (2 Tbs) bleach and 1 oz. vinegar in 5 gallons of water. You could go stronger because you're not trying for a no-rinse solution - just be sure you don't mix the vinegar and bleach together - add one to the water and mix thoroughly, then add the other one.

 

[step]

If you use the bleach, don't forget to add some vinegar to keep the pH low enough for the bleach to be effective. I recall that the ratio for a no-rinse sanitizer is 1 oz (2 Tbs) bleach and 1 oz. vinegar in 5 gallons of water. You could go stronger because you're not trying for a no-rinse solution - just be sure you don't mix the vinegar and bleach together - add one to the water and mix thoroughly, then add the other one.

Why on earth would you add vinegar (pH ~2.7) to bleach (pH ~12.7) in order to make the bleach "effective"?

Caustic and acidic cleaners/sanitizers are used separately for a reason

 

[DeafSmith]

Why on earth would you add vinegar (pH ~2.7) to bleach (pH ~12.7) in order to make the bleach "effective"?

Caustic and acidic cleaners/sanitizers are used separately for a reason

This was something that Charley Talley of 5-Star (makers of StarSan) said in this podcast:

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/archive/search.php?story=charlie+talley&dosearch=yes

As I recall, he spent as much time talking about bleach as he did about StarSan - one thing he said was that if the pH is over about 8.0, bleach loses its effectiveness at killing bacteria. A very interesting podcast - well worth listening to.

EDIT: the link above, which I copied from another thread on HBT is apparently bad. Try this one:
http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=basic-brewing-radio-2007
Scroll down to the March 29, 2007 podcast and take your choice of iTunes or streaming MP3 format.

 

[MaynardX]

Bleach will kill everything. Use a tablespoon per gallon and u should be fine. Let that soak overnight and rinse the hell outta it.