slow gushers / house bug?

[Nateo]

I've been reading a bunch of old threads and listened to the bleach/vinegar brewcast with charlie talley. I have some ideas for how to proceed, but I thought I'd ask if anyone else has some insight.

The problem: Slow forming gushers. No bottle bombs or anything, but after about 3-4 weeks the carbonation gets really high (I have to pour bottles into a 24oz glass), and after about 6 weeks the beer gets pretty dry and I need to use two 24oz glasses to hold all the foam. No sourness, so for the first two batches this happened to, I thought I just got my carbonation sugar amount wrong.

I thought my sanitation was pretty good. I used starsan on everything all the time. I've had a few years of brewing without any (noticeable) infections, so I thought my sanitation was fine. I just discovered that cloudy starsan MAY indicate that it's outside it's ideal pH range. I have never checked the pH on my starsan bucket, but I do use the same bucket of starsan for a month or so before changing it. It gets cloudy after a few days, but I didn't think anything of it.

My plan from here on out is to alternate sanitizers when bottling/racking. I may pick up iodophor, but I have plenty of bleach and vinegar sitting around I'll try to use first.

Should I just change my general regimen, or should I do anything more drastic? Bleach all my racking/bottling equipment? Replace bottling valve/autosiphon?

 

[wilserbrewer]

rather than trying to keep star san around for months...i just mix up a quart or two when needed.

 

[passedpawn]

Go to Lowes or HD and buy an empty spray bottle. Mix your starsan in that. I use that thing for everything from spoons to the carboys to the bottling bucket. Stays good indefinably in there.

Make sure your fermentation is complete. 2 weeks at recommended temps for yeast should do it. Some belgian yeasts will ferment far, far longer, but then a little over-carb on those is desirable.

 

[Nateo]

Now that I think about it, I used to make a fresh batch of starsan for every "sanitizing event" and had no infection/over-carb issues. A few months ago I read that some people make up a big batch of starsan and reuse it, so I started doing that, without thinking about what that may do to pH.

I'll try the spray-bottle with distilled water, and check the pH from time to time.

 

[pkincaid]

Nateo, hope you don't mind me inserting a question of my own into your post. *bats eyelashes* I've been using starsan as needed, but for the spray bottle application, what's the ratio starsan to distilled water?

 

[Nateo]

pkincaid - the ratio is the same as with any water. The distilled is so the surfactant doesn't react with minerals in your water to raise the pH. This is why it gets cloudy over time and loses it's effectiveness. Some people say the cloudiness isn't an issue if you have the proper pH, but Charlie Talley (the dude that made starsan) makes a point not to use it if it's cloudy, even if the pH is good.