I bottled a pale ale and an IRA within a couple of days of each other, and both had bottles from my Belgian IPA (wlp500) batch. I cleaned them the same as I always do: an overnight soak in PBW and a sturdy rinse with StarSan. Now both batches are popping up with random belgian influence. Not a happy camper on this one. Any insights on this?
If anything, it’s that “rinse.” I’m thinking a rinse is great if you’re pretty sure the bottles are sanitized, and you want to make sure.
My wife once did a study on sanitization procedures for the pharmaceutical company where she worked. Scrubbing and contact time make a HUGE difference. They rinsed surfaces with bleach; (more concentrated than laundry bleach) and were still able to grow cultures from the surface after. Just a little elbow grease, and the surface is actually sterilized.
When we bottle, she insists on the full 2-minute submersion in starsan, so each bottle gets proper contact time. Some will argue that’s taking it too far, but really there’s no such thing as “over sanitized”
Are only certain bottles exhibiting the Belgian character?
Yeah.
[quote=“JMcK”]If anything, it’s that “rinse.” I’m thinking a rinse is great if you’re pretty sure the bottles are sanitized, and you want to make sure.
My wife once did a study on sanitization procedures for the pharmaceutical company where she worked. Scrubbing and contact time make a HUGE difference. They rinsed surfaces with bleach; (more concentrated than laundry bleach) and were still able to grow cultures from the surface after. Just a little elbow grease, and the surface is actually sterilized.
When we bottle, she insists on the full 2-minute submersion in starsan, so each bottle gets proper contact time. Some will argue that’s taking it too far, but really there’s no such thing as “over sanitized”[/quote]
In a podcast with Charlie Tally, he states that bleach is a poor sanitizer. The ph is to high. mixing 1oz to 5 gallons, then adding 1oz of vinegar drops the ph to make it a excellent sanitizer. A no rinse one like StarSan is.
He also states that you only need a 30sec contact time. The bottle of StarSan states 2 minutes because that is the length of time the FDA test is. So they are required to label it that way.
I also remember him saying something about the surfactants in StarSan will clean a little bit of the soils that may be present. Allowing them to be sanitized. I agree with you though, start with a clean surface.
March 29, 2007 podcast.
http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?p ... radio-2007K. Well here’s hoping there’s not something worse afoot than me simply not sanitizing long enough.
