Should I worry?

[BartJY]

Hi Folks,

I was cleaning up after bottling my latest attempt at beer, and I noticed that the clear plastic tubing used for siphoning the beer to the bottling bucket, and for the filling of the bottles had dirty patches inside if them. Clearly they were not clean. Two question: 1. I ran sanitizer through them before they were used, will that take care of any potential contamination problem of the beer? 2. How do you clean the inside of clear plastic tubing?

Thanks
Bart

 

[Rob2010SS]

So, couple of points to make here...

1. You cannot sanitize something that is dirty. You need to clean and get all the residue/dirt/grime off and only then can you sanitize. There's a good chance you may get infections, depending on how much residue was left in there, the ABV of the beer you bottled, etc. I would keep an eye on those bottles and keep them in some sort of rubbermaid container or something to protect anyone in the vicinity, should you have bottle bombs.

2. For cleaning tubes you have a couple of options. The method I use is immediately after use, I run 140*F water (from the faucet) through the line for a solid minute. This will rinse out any beer left in the line. I then sanitize immediately after and hang up to drip dry. This keeps from having any left over beer dry out in there and get moldy.

In the event that you have dried dirty spots, a nice hot PBW/Oxyclean soak should get rid of it. Soak it for a half hour, rinse thoroughly with water, and then sanitize.

If it were me and I had the dried dirty spots, I'd just replace the lines all together. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

[BartJY]

I understand all your points except one. Why would contamination make the bottle explode? I know if too much priming sugar is used it will explode, but contamination?

Thanks for the response.
Bart

 

[DVCNick]

You may have something in there that can eat sugars that the intended yeast can't, and if that's the case you will over carbonate and possibly have a bottle bomb.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Chances are you'll be fine, but it's a bit of a game of Russian roulette. Chuck those plastic tubes away (or use them for hotside only) and buy new ones. Keep the new ones clean. It's been said but I'll say it again, you can only sanitise what's already clean.

 

[tmurph6]

Worrying won’t fix anything.

 

[new_one]

thanx.

 

[BJYount]

Is there a type or brand of plastic tubing that is recommended for brewing? Is there such a thing as food grade flexible plastic tubing?

Thanks

 

[BJYount]

Upon further inspection, I think the white dirt is the dried calcium from hard water that was used with the Star San sanitizer. I think I'm okay after all. But in two weeks I will know for sure.

Thanks everybody.
Bart

 

[ncbrewer]

Is there a type or brand of plastic tubing that is recommended for brewing? Is there such a thing as food grade flexible plastic tubing?

Thanks

I like silicone tubing. It's more flexible than vinyl, so it lays down in the bottom of the bottling bucket, minimizing splashing

Upon further inspection, I think the white dirt is the dried calcium from hard water that was used with the Star San sanitizer. I think I'm okay after all. But in two weeks I will know for sure.

Thanks everybody.
Bart

You still need to get the dried calcium out for the next batch - it gives bacteria a place to hide. You can use distilled water for Star San to eliminate this problem.

 

[Mutant]

I have my own worrying today. I started a 5 liter flask of WLP830 for a 1.091 Doppelbock before going to bed last night. This morning it was looking good, but upon coming home from work the aluminum foil cap on the flask had gotten blown off. Not sure how long it was off from yeast expansion, as I was away for about 9 hours. Only a slight amount of liquid or solids came out. The yeast looks strong, but my worrying involves a concern of an infection or related. I think I should be fine, given the intense strength of the yeast, but that might just be optimism

 

[tmurph6]

Happens to me all the time. Don’t worry about it, no big deal.

 

[Mutant]

Happens to me all the time. Don’t worry about it, no big deal.

Thanks. I'll go back to drinking beer. Pitching the yeast tomorrow.