sterilize?

[derrabe]

Should you sterilize the bottle caps before capping the brew? I just bottled my very first batch of hard cider and it turned out good but I have noticed that the brew taste different with each bottle I have had to drink (never a bad taste just slightly different). Maybe it is all in my head but I didn't think about it till noticing this and I sterilized everything except the bottle caps that I just got of of the bag

 

[sandyeggoxj]

First, it sanitize. Not sterilize.

Second, I dump all the caps into a small bowl of star san and then pull them out and cap. Works great for me and holds up over the years.

 

[derrabe]

Thank you for the correction on the terminology. But do you think this is cause the taste difference between bottles?

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Could be. Also could be the bottle or how they are handled. Are they nice and clean before you sanitize?

 

[jtratcliff]

How long ago did you bottle? Did you add sugar to carbonate or is it still?

Could just be "green" and yet to come into its own... When I make Apfelwein, it continues to improve in the bottle for several months.

 

[derrabe]

Could be. Also could be the bottle or how they are handled. Are they nice and clean before you sanitize?

The bottles were recycled from friends who bougth craft beer. I spend 4-5 hours delabeling with oxyclean and then on the residual glue I used awesome.

I used a pressurized bottle cleaner to clean the inside and soapy water. Let dry and when it was time to bottle I filled and let the bottles soak in the sanition solution for 1-2 minutes before emptying and then filling. I didn't not rinse after sanitizing because i would told that would make them unsanitized again with tap water if i rinsed them

How long ago did you bottle? Did you add sugar to carbonate or is it still?

I tried to carbonate the bottle add 1/4 teaspoon of corn sugar to each bottle right before capping, but that seems to have nill affect in carbonating them. I also read that if I do decide to carbonate I need to pasteurize the bottles at 160 degrees for 10 minutes 4-5 days after bottling to prevent over fermentation and possible bottle explosion. Bottles where capped about 10 days ago and the pasteurization took place 5 days ago.

This is my notes from the batch if you are interested I tried to document as much as possible

Batch One (traditional Hard Apple Cider): ( 6/13/2015 started ,7/22/2015 finished)
6 -96 oz of 100% Walmart Brand Apple Juice
1 – 64oz of 100% Walmart Apple Juice
1 - White Labs WLP775 English Cider Yeast
4 cups brown sugar (approx.)
1st - 5 gallon Carboy (2 weeks left to ferment)
2nd – 5 gallon carboy (3 weeks left to sit and finish)
Bottled added ¼ teaspoon of corn sugar to carbonate
Left for 4 days then pasteurized to bottles to stop carbination
Produced 52 bottles and 2 glasses for Quality control

Adjustments for Taste between first and second carboy
2 Cups – Splenda
½ Cup Acid blend
Approx. Alcohol: Level 6-8% (was not tested with hydrometer)

Notes:
1. Next time use about 24-36 oz less in carboy farmentaion bubbled over
2. Only added ¾ cup of brown sugar initially then realized I read directions wrong and add as much brown sugar as I could fit in the carboy on day 2 of fermentation
3. Carbonation is nill to nonexsistant
4. Sanatize bottle caps in future batches (each bottle seems to have a slightly different taste this may be the cause)

 

[lhommedieu]

It's possible that by not "sanitizing" the bottle caps, you allowed microbes on the bottle caps to provide an off-flavor to your cider. On the other hand, if your flavors were not "off" but merely different from batch to batch, the differences in flavors could be due to yeast type and viability, concentrations in sugar in your must, fermentation temperatures, different clearing and settling schedules, etc.

I make the mistake of saying "sterilize" instead of "sanitize" all the time - even though I know the difference in meaning between the terms. You would think that in this era of hand sanitizer I would begin to speak as if I know the difference.

The bottom line is to make sure that there are the least number of microbes on your bottle caps, bottles, etc. - and anything that touches them as well - so that the very small amount that may get into our fermenter are overwhelmed by other factors, such as competition from yeast, for example.

Soaking bottle caps in StarSan is a good way of sanitizing them. So is picking them up wearing sanitzed latex gloves, etc.

 

[derrabe]

It's possible that by not "sanitizing" the bottle caps, you allowed microbes on the bottle caps to provide an off-flavor to your cider. On the other hand, if your flavors were not "off" but merely different from batch to batch, the differences in flavors could be due to yeast type and viability, concentrations in sugar in your must, fermentation temperatures, different clearing and settling schedules, etc.

I make the mistake of saying "sterilize" instead of "sanitize" all the time - even though I know the difference in meaning between the terms. You would think that in this era of hand sanitizer I would begin to speak as if I know the difference.

The bottom line is to make sure that there are the least number of microbes on your bottle caps, bottles, etc. - and anything that touches them as well - so that the very small amount that may get into our fermenter are overwhelmed by other factors, such as competition from yeast, for example.

Soaking bottle caps in StarSan is a good way of sanitizing them. So is picking them up wearing sanitzed latex gloves, etc.

Thank you for the insight, I will be sanitizing the caps in the future. I have only created one batch so far (all the way through) so they are all the same batch just slightly different flavor in each bottle I have tried so far (about 5) none have been bad tasting but they did definitely have a slight difference in taste to me but could be me over thinking or having outside influences like the food I am eating while drinking it or something else I guess.

 

[NickTheGreat]

You should sanitize the caps, but I really don't think that's what you're getting.

I'm guessing it's an outside influence, like your food. If you're pasteurized, you're done with the yeast, but things would probably still mellow out, or change in some way, right? I know beer will change a lot after a few weeks in. Not sure on cider