Bottle usage / There must be an easier way... Challenge accepted

[Danwood]

Regarding the seals...

I have swing tops and was storing them sealed up in the early days. I had numerous flat bottles and discovered it was due to over compression of the seals during storage between uses.

I now remove the seals, boil for 10mins (this also 'fluffs' them back up) give them a spray with no-rinse and reattach to the sanitized bottle. The swing top is then rested in place but not clamped. 100% carbonation rate since and no infections to date.

 

[donald_trub]

Are you saying the flat bottles are due to the gas escaping out the seals? I'm interested as I always seem to have one or two flat bottles in a batch. I've thought about marking the dud bottle to track it across batches but I always seem to forget.

Or are you saying the seal was carrying an infection?

 

[Airgead]

The barrel of sodium met is beside the outside door of my cellar so fumes will not be an issue. I will keep using that for rinsing as it should keep the water from going rancid and kill anything that falls in!

Not long term. The active ingredients will gas out over time (days or maybe weeks if you are lucky). Even the dry powder only has a shelf life of 6 months.

it works by converting in water to SO2 (sulphur dioxide) which will escape as a gas.

What you have in your barrel after a week or so is... water.

Cheers
Dave

Edit - just found a datasheet that says a met solution in a completely sealed, airtight, impermeable container with no headspace etc etc etc (ie: not a plastic barrel) has a shelf life of 4 months max. What you will get in your situation is much, muck less than that.

 

[Danwood]

No infections, just poor seal.

Mark any suspicious bottles and next time they are full of beer and conditioning, give the area around the seal a spray with no-rinse solution or submerge the whole thing in water...you'll see the C02 escaping.

However, you'll probably find new bottles develope the same problem if stored clamped shut. I did.

Or skip that step and see if the previous advice sorts out the problem. It's better practice to remove seals and sanitize separately anyway.

And btw, no infection would ever decrease carbonation, only increase it...afaik.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Are you saying the flat bottles are due to the gas escaping out the seals? I'm interested as I always seem to have one or two flat bottles in a batch. I've thought about marking the dud bottle to track it across batches but I always seem to forget.

Or are you saying the seal was carrying an infection?

I was occasionally getting a flat one and decided to mark the suspect bottle, which I also put a new seal on and it was still flat. Not sure why, maybe a it was slightly deformed , I got rid of it.

I like to remove the seals after each use, like any part of brewing there is potential for infection around the seal, it takes almost no effort and ensures a more thorough clean.

 

[dibby33]

This is why I love this forum. Full of good information