Late bitterness in bottles after a couple months - cleaning?

[trustyrusty]

Hi Guys, just curious.. (kit and kilo BTW)

A few batches, not all, I have noticed the early tastes of the batch have been ok, but after while there is some off flavours, background of bitterness...
I was wondering if the bottles are not 'surgically' clean...

When I finish drinking, rinse and spray a sanitizer in to store...
Then when going to use I spray sanitizer (soduim metabisulphite), let stand for a bit and rinse. I fill after rinsing...
I dont sanitize bottle caps, (is that necessary?). I was speaking to someone the other day and he uses iodine solution...and says he a makes better beer... re I am thinking that there could be micro organisms or some sort of bacteria that is not killing the beer but changing characteristic / bitterness. The bitterness I mean is not pleasant beer bitterness but sourness / off flavours..

I know people talking about starsan which I will get as soon as I can..

The question I ask is there a stand out way to sanitize bottles etc that will leave no doubt that are clean for bottling.

Is there anything that I have done that could be an issue? Caps?

Do you let your bottles dry before filling. I feel the more time exposed to air the more chance of airborne bacteria.



Thanks

 

[growler]

My System ,


Drinking Day,

Rinse yeast from bottles
Soak overnight in Napisan.... Who wants to wash up after 1 or 3......
Next day... Rinse Napisan .. 3 or 4 times to be sure and drain/dry in shed ( ambient + 15C)
When dry, cover with alfoil caps and store.

Bottling day,

Remove alfoil caps (resuse next time)
Spray bottles with Starsan ( inside + outside ) I use 2lt pump garden sprayer. Can afford the 3ml Starsan used
Drain on bottle tree whist setting up for bottling ( 20 min max)
Bottle.


G (Works for me!) :chug:

 

[DU99]

soduim metabisulphite
"This chemical is well known in the wine world, and is commonly used to sanitize all wine making equipment, including bottles and corks. It works well for sanitizing brewing equipment, but it must be fully rinsed off, or else some off flavors will be found in your beer and wine. Some people are sensitive to sulfates, so care should be taken to fully rinse off this chemical"i would be using either starsan or Iodophor both can be reused.

 

[verysupple]

I'm not sure what you have is an infection, but your cleaning and sanitizing regime could use some improvement.

Firstly, as you know, sodium metabisulfite is a sanitizer, not a cleaner. Your bottles need to be clean before you can sanitize them. They might look clean, but there will be a thin film or a spec of crud in there that could ruin everything. You need to clean them. I find soaking them in sodium percarbonate is easiest, similarly to what growler wrote. I used to just rinse and sanitize and never got an infection, but that thin film was ruining my head retention. So, I was luck not to get an infection as there was clearly crud in there. Now I soak, my beer is much better.

Secondly, sodium metabisulfite is a rubbish sanitizer. If you can, get something like Starsan or some other phosphoric acid based no-rinse sanitizer. Use as per the instructions because the concentration is critical. More isn't always better.

Thirdly, while I didn't used to sanitise my caps and never got an infection (that I knew of), it's so easy to do that you may as well do it for a bit of extra insurance and almost zero extrac cost or time.

Happy brewing.

 

[Grott]

Don't use a sanitiser that you have to rinse unless you know the water is of the highest quality as with a rinse off sanitiser the quality of sanitisation is only as good as the water use. Also sanitise every thing that your beer is going to touch, including the caps. If using a bottle tree after sanitisation, sanitise the prongs as they touch the inside of the bottle.
cheers

 

[michaeld16]

Using starsan or iodine will greatly improve your beer i used sod metabisulphite when i first started brewing and noticed residual flavour in bottled beer but as mentioned already sanitizing is useless unless you have properly cleaned first.

 

[Brew Forky]

I've read so many times about people not caring to sanitise their caps. All the time, care, cost and worry it takes to make a nice beer and then chucking on a piece of steel fresh from a factory environment on top doesn't make sense. It takes no time to count out the caps, chuck'em in a container and pour over some Starsan for piece of mind.