The Most Frustrating Problem Ever...I want to shoot myself.

[grimstuff]

Originally Posted by yooji
diversol
baking soda
vinegar

Take all this crap out off your bottle cleaning procedure.

+1

I use a light bleach-water bath to clean my bottles, then rinse, then run in the dishwasher for another rinse and heat cycle. Nothing else.

 

[1Mainebrew]

I like B-brite to clean, then rinse then star San for sanitizing.

 

[yooji]

Thanks again for all the responses!

I won't have a chance to put all of your recommendations in to place for a number of weeks until I get back home to my brew kit, but will post up when I get the next batch finalized.

To address some of the suggestions from the other posters.

1. Probably a poor choice of words for 'cold crashing' my beer once it's bottled. I've been doing the chilling my beer after a week for a couple of days thing as sort of a ritual as I've found something of a taste improvement. Maybe my imagination. But doing this has never impeded any carbonation. Moreover, I've always had sufficient carbonation by day 6...I dip into my beers all through the brewing process just to see how things are coming along. I've also had bottles both in the refrigerator and out of the refrigerator while in storage, also to no avail.

2. I am 'mostly' positive its dextrose because it looks like dextrose, tastes like dextrose and some brew store guy told me its dextrose.

3. I am using your regular ol' joe blow wyeast pale ale yeast...not cheap. Wyeast comes as a starter, no?

4. I'll try the bleach solution next time.

So to conclude....here's how I'll do things different when I get around to the next batch.

A. Use a bleach solution to sanitize my equipment and be very careful in doing so.
B. Use only a secondary glass carboy for all fermentation to reduce probability of infection and redundancies
C. Repitch some champagne or brewer's yeast before bottling.
D. Pass overthe 'cold conditioning' portion of my brewing process
E. Use an assorted variety of bottles to ensure that bottle seal is not the problem in the carbonation process
F. Monitor the beers over a 3 week period to ensure an adequate time has been given for carbonation.
G. Take gravity readings at all steps.

I'll report back in a number of weeks with my results...hopefully good.

Thanks again for all the replies!

 

[1Mainebrew]

Chlorine based cleaners like bleach taste like crap in the finished product. Make sure it's rinsed really well and dried prior to filling. Beware of bleach!

 

[fifthcircle]

Get rid of your brewing partner. Kegging rules

I filled a growler tonight to take with me so I could share my punkin ale. Best feeling ever!