Half batch spoiled

[remnarctrebor]

Hi all,

Recently brewed a Czech pilsner, brew day and fermentation all went well. Bottled and shelved in the spare room like usual. When it comes to drinking it half the bottles are fine and half have a bad smell and off taste. Not an exaggeration, actually 1 in 2 bottles are bad. Anyone have a similar experience or any ideas as to why this would happen?

Thanks in advance

 

[Budgie]

Were all of your bottles stored in the same place? is it possible that something (infection etc) could have gotten into some of your bottles but not others?

 

[remnarctrebor]

All bottles were stored in the same place and cleaned in the same way. Rinsed and sanitised with vwp

 

[Hoppyland]

Well it does sound as though the bottles weren't as clean as you thought. If the problem isn't the bottles, then I can't immediately see why the beer in all of them hasn't turned out the same, since it was the same when it went in there.
My only other thought is re-using caps. If you did this, they may not have been sterile, or possibly leaked.

I'd bet on the bottles. Dark-glass bottles are good for beer shelf-life, because they exclude light, but it can be tricky to see if they are spotlessly clean. This can matter a lot. Say you don't wash all your bottles thoroughly within a short time of pouring. This can result in fungi & bacteria growing in the bottle, feeding on the residual beer. Once they've got going - and it needn't take long - you can get solid encrustations on the glass, and spore formation. At this stage, cleaning is difficult - especially since it's tricky to see inside the bottle. If its not clean, then sterilisation is even more difficult. The spores are not easy to kill and can infect the next brew.

Try bleaching your bottles. Supermarket "thin" bleach is what I use. Here's what I do: don't dilute the bleach, but pour about 300ml into a jug. Line up your bottles (which should be fairly dry inside), and pour all the bleach into the first one. Give it a swirl, then pour the bleach into the second bottle - a smallish funnel helps. Don't be too quick & thorough - leave a discernible amount of the bleach behind, where any beer residue will have been. Keep doing this until all the bottles have been treated. Leave them for several hours, and they should be sterile enough to protect your beer from spoilage. Obviously, rinse well before bottling.
For me, the most important thing, though, is to thoroughly rinse the bottles asap after pouring (use a cleaner/steriliser if you want), so that there is no build-up of spoilage organisms. Remember that several repeated rinses, using a small volume of water each time, is far more effective than one or two rinses using lots of water.
Hope this helps - it's a method that has served me well :)

 

[Sandimas]

I've had batches where only some of the bottles were infected. Give them a real good clean next time around, VWP on its own may not get rid of all nasties.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Here's my bottle cleaning routine.

1. Straight after pouring* I rinse my bottles out then keep them full with tap water to stop any missed deposits drying & hardening.

2. Then i put them in the dishwasher just before it's due to go on - rather than leave them in the dishwasher for hours (drying out) waiting for a full load.

3. after dishwashing a visual inspection held up to kitchen light - if anything visible in bottle I rinse and dishwash again. If it still isn't spotless the bottle goes in the recycling bin :-(

4. If bottle deposit free I rinse them out twice to made sure there's no detergent left from the dishwasher.

5. Then into the oven they go.

6. Once cooled I put a foil cap on and store.

7. On bottling day they get a dip in starsan.

this routine has only given me 1 gusher in over 1000 bottles. :thumb:

* - donated bottles I cant do that however they generally tend not to be bottle conditioned so I can usually make use of most of them. Although once when it was mentioned the bottles had been down the shed for 3 months I recycled them all. (I know the mouldy, spider & slug infested shed in question - so no way was my ocd going to let me use those.)