What happened to my beer

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
O

OHIOSTEVE

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
3,546
Reaction score
80
Location
SIDNEY
Opened a couple of the centenniel blonds tonight. A week ago they were great. These were gross. A very nasty skunk piss after taste.
 
Yea I think it could either have been sanitation problems with the bottles that you said were bad or like Domminigan said the temperature that you had been storing them at for that period. Once its sealed in a bottle there is a very limited amount of things that could happen to the beer to effect it. temp and light are probably your biggest worries.
 
Centenniel blond. Stored at room temp but all the same. Pretty careful with sanitation. This even smells off. I am not well versed enough to describe it.
 
I remember the very first beer I made, I cracked one open a little early and finished it. wasnt the best but it wasnt bad, but didnt really want another one.

but the more I opened, the worse it got. I ended up dumping the batch. it did seem to get worse and worse as it went on, it really was strange.

Hasnt happened to me since. I dont know exactly how infections in beer works, but it seemed like it was the infection hurting the beer more and more.

Not saying you have an infection, just personal experience with something similar
 
Most likely an infection. Skunky is a very specific odor, as it is the exact same chemical as skunk spray and is caused by UV changing the bittering chemicals.
 
david_42 said:
Most likely an infection. Skunky is a very specific odor, as it is the exact same chemical as skunk spray and is caused by UV changing the bittering chemicals.
Click to expand...

this is prety bad to me...smells awful and the taste is worse...I opened two of them last night. One from the used extremely filthy bottles that I cleaned, and one from a sam adams bottle that I opened drank then rinsed and cleaned. I was very careful with sanitation and they have been stored in a cardboard box upstairs in my house...temp would be too cold rather than too hot so Thats not the issue....anyway it is rank. I will try another tonight...thing is it is well over half gone and just now tasting bad which makes me think infection also BUT no excess foaming.
 
Interesting to see this happen to other people as well. This happened to my first batch. It was true brew IPA. Tasted great after 3 weeks in the bottle. Still good at 4 weeks but not quite as good as a i remembered, drank about a case with friends. Figured i'd let them condition a little longer before i opened another one. Opened several of them with the same group of friends last weekend (10weeks in bottle) and everyone agrees. They taste like crap now. They were in my basement, in the dark at 66-70 degrees.
 
UnNatural said:
Interesting to see this happen to other people as well. This happened to my first batch. It was true brew IPA. Tasted great after 3 weeks in the bottle. Still good at 4 weeks but not quite as good as a i remembered, drank about a case with friends. Figured i'd let them condition a little longer before i opened another one. Opened several of them with the same group of friends last weekend (10weeks in bottle) and everyone agrees. They taste like crap now. They were in my basement, in the dark at 66-70 degrees.
Click to expand...
I took 6 of these to a buddy last weekend.. he loved em..this weekend they suck...thats pretty fast. hopefully I just grabbed a couple of bad bottles. I will find out soon enough.
 
ISLAGI said:
Did you sanitize the bottles right before you filled them?
Click to expand...

yes... I set up like revvy suggested in his bottling thread.....I wash and store all of my bottles in a covered rubbermaid container......when I am ready to bottle I set them up on my right side next to the vinator....I shoot them full of one step sanitizer twice....drian the sanitizer fill the bottle ( still wet from the sanitizer) and lay the cap on...then set em to the left until I have a case.. then I cap em starting with the first one filled ...NOW something I found since last night.. I took the vinator apart and it had mold or something up in the workings of it. I had to completely disassemble it to find this.............MAYBE I got a speck of that in the bottles last night because I JUST opened and poured one and it is fine!
 
Is the vinator what you're using to bottle? If so, I can say with almost certainty the mold/crud is the source of your problems. You can have an infection that does not cause excess foaming, excess foaming is just one sign of infection. I had this happen to me due to (I'm pretty sure) some crud on the tip of my beer gun. I hadn't taken the little rubber stopper off and cleaned inside it. After I went searching in my POed state when the beer started to go off I located the crud. It was the only thing I can point to as we are very careful in our sanitation and storage methods. Beer was fantastic going in and for 2 months after (good enough to place at the state fair) by month 4 post bottling all the remaining bottles had turned off. Sometimes you get just enough ick in the process somewhere that it will slowly work its evil in the bottles. Drink 'em fast and hope you get a few more good ones.
 
KellyK said:
Is the vinator what you're using to bottle? If so, I can say with almost certainty the mold/crud is the source of your problems. You can have an infection that does not cause excess foaming, excess foaming is just one sign of infection. I had this happen to me due to (I'm pretty sure) some crud on the tip of my beer gun. I hadn't taken the little rubber stopper off and cleaned inside it. After I went searching in my POed state when the beer started to go off I located the crud. It was the only thing I can point to as we are very careful in our sanitation and storage methods. Beer was fantastic going in and for 2 months after (good enough to place at the state fair) by month 4 post bottling all the remaining bottles had turned off. Sometimes you get just enough ick in the process somewhere that it will slowly work its evil in the bottles. Drink 'em fast and hope you get a few more good ones.
Click to expand...

yes the vinator is the thing that squirts the sanitizer into the bottles. Unless I am spelling it wrong which is a distinct possibility!
 
I'm only on my 2nd batch, so I'm not really sure how to diagnose problems that people have. I'm wondering, though, could oxidation in some of the bottles cause the OP's original problem?
 
And to add MORE misery to my tale... I have bottled 2 batches SINCE the CB without completely disassembling the vinator.
 
if you're using one Step I'd switch to starsan or iodophor.

+10 for educating me to the possibility of vintator being contaminated.
 
dracus said:
if you're using one Step I'd switch to starsan or iodophor.

+10 for educating me to the possibility of vintator being contaminated.
Click to expand...
I will definitely be switching to starsan, and will COMPLETELY disassemble and clean EVERYTHING prior to use from now on...I wonder if all of the connectors and hoses and everything else is pulled apart and cleaned by everyone? I cleaned everything even disassembling my siphon...never gave the vinator any thought due to it being filled with one step. Hopefully I don't have issues with the rest of the batches.
 
BTW how do you guys CLEAN THE INSIDES of your hoses or do you replace them every few batches?
 
I just ran to the garage and disassembled my Vinator after reading this thread. It still had a little iodophor in there. You know, I thought about taking it apart after its last use but dismissed the idea because I thought its sanitizer so it should be fine. Better to let it completely dry out though.

For hoses I soak them in PBW or Oxy Clean for a few mins then run hot water through them and let them air dry. If they become too discolored or I feel that they are not cleaned well enough I usually just replace them.
 
I have an auto shiphon. I use it to siphon then I stick the end in the gallon of one step/oxyclean and pump it thru multiple times. I then disassemble the auto siphon and attach the hose to my jetwasher which is hooked to super hot water. After that I throw the tubing and everything back is the starsan filled bucket for a while.

Blow of tubes I can't ever seem to get clean so I typically replace more than clean.

Bottles regardless of origin, I jetwash, bottle brush with one step then I starsan them with vintator. If I do end up with extra bottles I'll store them upside down in box. I'm a bit anal I'll still bottle brush them anyway.
 
I have drank a couple more of these and all were fine. My son swears it is because I drank a VERY dark beer prior then poured these in the same glass. I don't think so.
 

Similar threads

W
Brand new brewer with bottle problem
Replies
5
Views
685
Beernik
Beernik
C
Beer came out wrong
Replies
29
Views
1K
FloppyKnockers
FloppyKnockers
Hoochin'Fool
made my first lousy beer
Replies
22
Views
2K
lumbergh
L
ILMSTMF
Sanitation anxiety
Replies
6
Views
468
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
sixstring
Hello, lurker with a first post - Just bottled my first brew
Replies
17
Views
417
mac_1103
mac_1103
wps-hbt2

Latest posts

Back
Top