Wednesday I ended up scrubbing all of my bottles with hot bleach solution and a bottle brush even though they didn’t have any visible residue. Rinsed them with hot water with my jet bottle washer. Then with cold water.
Tonight I ran them in the dishwasher with 1oz of PBW in the detergent in the tray with a heated dry. Tomorrow I’m going to pick up some distilled water to mix the star san with to see if that gets rid of my off flavor.
I’m going to give my auto siphon, bottling bucket, spigot and hardware a deep clean in some PBW. My tubing is pretty new I also have a roll of fresh stuff. Any thoughts/ good tips?
Bottling the Sierra Madre pale ale. It’s been in the primary for 5 weeks and some days it would be 6 weeks on Monday. This is the longest time I’ve left anything on the yeast cake. Tasted great at 4 weeks when I took my first gravity reading. That was the only time I messed with it.
Your cleaning approach sounds quite good. Better/ more thorough than most. I’m still thinking it could be a water/ pH/chemistry/ chlorine/ chloramine thing from your earlier thread. Infections are thankfully not that common with even cursory attention to detail.
Good luck!
I have my doubts that a dish washer is really that great at removing soap residue especially when the item has a narrow mouth like bottles. The other items you are cleaning with PBW will also need a good rinse with untreated water. Might be best to rinse with RO, distilled, or bottled drinking water just too make sure cleaning compounds or tap water is not part of the problem.
I agree with @flars. There is no way that a dishwasher is getting enough water in the narrow openings/necks to clean and/or rinse them. I think I read recently in BYO that a dishwasher isn’t suitable for cleaning bottles.
It’s strange everything tastes great before bottling. I think I’m doing everything right and then I crack open a bottle and it’s subpar. No matter how long it ages. Maybe the chlorine in my tap and star san at bottling time. More surface area with star san left behind in a smaller concentration of beer??
I’m not really trying to clean them in the dishwasher. I scrubbed them and rinsed well already. Just an extra step for precaution. I’ve read plenty of people use the heat dry/ sanitize setting for bottling instead of star san.
Do you guys think a star san with distilled water will rinse if there is indeed any residue left over? Or should I like pre rinse them in distilled water then use the star san distilled water mix?
I would rinse with untreated water then sanitize with the Star San solution. This would definitely rule out water as a problem if a brew doesn’t turn out well.
Hey if I pay you can you come clean my house with that same technique!?! Sounds awesome man. And yes I have the same issue… I taste the sample before bottling and it’s amazing… bottle… shit changes
I’m CONFIDENT that bottling in and of itself is the issue. I’m not sure on any efficient way to bottle without mixing your beer with some form of oxygen. I know there is ways, but let’s face it… in the kitchen or in the garage; it isn’t happening with a bottling wand
I used to use the dishwasher as an extra step on the sanitize setting with no soap. No longer do that. If needed I soak in PBW, thoroughly rinse and right before bottling starsan. Have not had any issues since not using the dishwasher and it seems it was just a waste of time.
I agree with what @flars said in your earlier thread - the taste you’re getting could be from chlorine in your water. I started removing it from my tap water only for the beer water and that made a huge difference. I consistently got that sharp finish/ finger nail polish flavor in all my beers before removing chlorine. Campden tablets are $4 through our host.
See THATS what I’ve thought too. I was wishing some one would make a gizmo you could hook up to a paint ball CO2 cylinder, and with a short length of hose and an air nozzel attached to it. When bottling you’d be able to blow CO2 into the bottles, maybe not eliminating O2, but displace as much as possible… Simple little gadget… Sneezles61
Started rinsing the bottles this morning. 2 gallons of distilled water and rinsed all 54 bottles. This is was remained in the water. I have a TDS meter from a water filter pitcher and it was 000 ppm and raised to 001 ppm. The edges aren’t residue just the bottom of the plastic tote.
My cold tap water has 247 ppm. Might be different if I let it run for a few minutes. I know the Ward Labs water report says to run water for x amount and then take the sample.
I just don’t go through all that trouble anymore. Most of the time my bottles are just rinsed real good after using and then stored upside down in a drying rack and then stored upside down in cases. If they had been sitting for awhile I will then soak in PBW and rinse before sanitizing. They all get sanitized with starsan right before bottling. I have never had a problem. Probably just jinxed myself but this has worked for me. I use the Vinator bottle rinser with starsan to sanitize. I used to dunk each bottle in starsan but this is a lot quicker and not as messy. After the bottles are all rinsed and back in the rack I take the center out and throw the bottle caps in to sanitize and I’m ready to go.
Agree. Campden tabs. And all bottles get Oxyclean soak day of or before bottling, rinsed with tap water, then dunked in starsan also made with straight tap water just before bottling and never had a problem. Plenty of foam. No discernible after tastes.
Seems like many of you guys/gals are doing to much work. Probably the reason for all the kegging is better suggestions. Rinse/clean with tap water after pouring. Rinse with bottled water after this if your tap water is treated. (Not sure if the bottled water rinse is necessary for chloramines in the treated water.) Dry upside down and then store upside down until sanitizing just before filling.
Friends that come over to drink your beer and refuse to rinse should be refused refills.
This isn’t my normal process. Just trying to fix an issue going overboard for sure. Normally just rinse bottle after pouring put it in the fast rack and wait til bottling day. Rinse again, sanitize and put them in the fast rack until I flip them over and fill.
