Is this an infection?

[pipsyboy]

Hi guys.

This is happening to some of my beers. It's my first batch and therefor the first time I've ever used a bench capper. Some of the bottles didn't feel as if they'd been capped as good as others if you know what I mean. Some just felt right and others didn't.

They are a week in the bottles now. As you can see, some look ok and some not.

 

[mrsupraboy]

did u sanatise and clean the crap out of the bottle s

 

[Yob]

Doesn't look great..

Pass em off to the freeloaders as incentive to bring their fair share next time

 

[SimoB]

yeah that looks bad. need to be more sanitary. freeloaders special that one - Yob hit on the head.

 

[jaypes]

To be safe I would open the affected bottles and ditch the contents and avoid any bottle bombs

 

[Blitzer]

I was about to say, your infected bottles will continue to ferment.. please be careful and open them asap! Please wear protective gear just in case any go off, safety first.

*EDIT*
Also always best to use brown bottles, as clear will skunk. But then you may have never noticed the infection.. which could have been an issue. PET bottles is always an option if you look at coopers or other homebrew shops, not preaching just advice as they will be harder to make into bombs.

 

[SimoB]

didnt even think of that. Yeah maybe not wait for a freeloader!

 

[unionrdr]

It looks to me like some or all of those bottles are twist offs,judging from the ridges spiraling around the crimped area of the caps. Many if not all of us up here gave up on trying to cap twisties. The glass is thinner & they're hard to consistently cap tightly with a home crown capper. I stick with brown pop top bottles & cap with my Super Agata bench capper.

 

[pipsyboy]

Yeah. All bottles cleaned and sanitized in the same way.

I'm gutted.

 

[pipsyboy]

And yeah, all of the clear bottles are twisties.

 

[scmgre]

i definitely wouldn't use twistys but I do like clear bottles because I can see which beer it is as i often forget to label but i keep them in a dark cupboard so the uv can't get to them.

 

[Mickcr250]

How much priming sugar did you use? I have had mini krausens in some of my beers that I have primed highly although I use pets so I wasn't worried about bottle bombs.

Sent from my HTC Velocity 4G using Tapatalk

 

[pipsyboy]

Each stubbie was primed with 1 carb drop.

Ok guys, so thinking back and moving forward.

Is it possible the beer was infected before it hit the bottles (looks like they all might be bad) or is it likely to have happened at the bottling stage? It only started to show after about 5-6 days.

Bottles were rinsed twice when first emptied and this was "proper" beer not home brew so no sediment. They were then left in the garage upright for a couple of weeks. on bottling day I washed them with stuff from a LHBS and rinsed twice. Then almost immediately sanitized and bottled. Sanitizing was done by filling first bottle with solution and passing on to every subsequent bottle.

My thoughts are the dispenser thing that you fit onto the tap for bottling. I cleaned and sanitized it but didn't know it came apart so it was probably not cleaned as thoroughly as it could have been.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. I have 2 brews on the go so let's hope they are ok.

 

[jaypes]

I have always wondered about carb drops, easy to use but how sanitary are they?

Its possible that the drops may be your culprit, was it a brand new pack or sone that had been previously opened?

If you are using a lot of different bottle sizes then I would suggest bulk priming - you can boil the sugar/dextrose with a around 500ml of water to sanitise it before adding to the brew

 

[wereprawn]

Happened fairly regularly when i bottled more often. Was never an infection. Try one. If it tastes sour or funky, ditch them.

 

[Camo6]

I used carb drops for years and never had an infection. Always dropped em in by hand, washed of course. Not saying it wasn't the cause but my bet would be that it happened earlier in the process if all bottles are bad.
Did you taste it before bottling and was the FG steady over a few days?
At the very least this will help you be more thorough in your sanitising process.

 

[sponge]

Or if those bottles are highly carbonated, re-cap them and keep an eye on them.

Try one with the 'krausen' and one without and see if there's a difference in taste and carbonation.

Bottle bombs are nasty things.

 

[pcmfisher]

It's a dodgy looking krausen if you ask me.

Carefully open that one on the left (ie with leather gloves on and while hugging a tree). I would be surprised if its drinkable.

Do Not give any away to even freeloaders. If it doesn't take their eye out, I am sure you don't want them telling all and sundry how not good your beer is.
Homebrew in general is still getting over this reputation.

Don't suppose you tasted it before you bottled?

 

[pipsyboy]

Carb drops added by well cleaned and sanitized hand. Had caps in jug of sanitizer so hand that handled the drops was well clean.

Fg was steady as it was in fermenter for two weeks. I tasted it when taking a reading and both me and the mrs thought it tasted ok. I tasted one of the krausen ones yesterday and it tasted ok too. It looks like they are all going the way of krausen so won't have a 'good' one to compare it with.

I'm thinking I just bin the lot and as you say, just learn from it.

Got 2 on the go and just bought another so it hasn't dampened my enthusiasm too much.

 

[pipsyboy]

'Bad' one on the left.

Obviously more carbed but other than that doesn't taste any different.