What happened to the beer in the bottle?

[Simonpyman]

Hi Everyone,
I recently bottled my recent brew (Vanilla Porter) from the tap and for some reason some of the bottles the beer was cloudy. The bottles I used were recently drank from and I cleaned them out with dawn followed by multiple rinses followed by diluted star san. My theory is that perhaps there was still soap residue and it reacted with the beer. The beer from the tap is fine so its not the keg so I am puzzled as to what happened. I could understand if the bottles I used were dirty and/or if I forgot to add star san but neither happened.

 

[Craigerrr]

Hi Everyone,
I recently bottled my recent brew (Vanilla Porter) from the tap and for some reason some of the bottles the beer was cloudy. The bottles I used were recently drank from and I cleaned them out with dawn followed by multiple rinses followed by diluted star san. My theory is that perhaps there was still soap residue and it reacted with the beer. The beer from the tap is fine so its not the keg so I am puzzled as to what happened. I could understand if the bottles I used were dirty and/or if I forgot to add star san but neither happened.

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How does it taste, are they different?

 

[Simonpyman]

How does it taste, are they different?

yes, the bad one is a little sour from what I remember

 

[Over The Cliff Brewing]

Hi Everyone,
I recently bottled my recent brew (Vanilla Porter) from the tap and for some reason some of the bottles the beer was cloudy. The bottles I used were recently drank from and I cleaned them out with dawn followed by multiple rinses followed by diluted star san. My theory is that perhaps there was still soap residue and it reacted with the beer. The beer from the tap is fine so its not the keg so I am puzzled as to what happened. I could understand if the bottles I used were dirty and/or if I forgot to add star san but neither happened.

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Were the bottles the first pulls from the keg? You may have picked up yeast and sediment in the bottles.

 

[Craigerrr]

I would have to say that you had an issue with your bottles.
Dawn is not a good choice for cleaning bottles, better to soak in a hot unscented oxy-clean, or PBW solution.
Good idea to invest in a bottle rinser as well, the example below attach to a laundry faucet.
Very important to rinse bottles thoroughly after pouring a pint as well.
Do you have a bottle sanitizer sprayer thingy (further below), some go on top of bottle trees, mine just sits on the counter?

 

[Craigerrr]

Were the bottles the first pulls from the keg? You may have picked up yeast and sediment in the bottles.

good point

 

[Simonpyman]

Were the bottles the first pulls from the keg? You may have picked up yeast and sediment in the bottles.

Nope, I probably had pulled at least 10 pints so far from the keg

 

[Simonpyman]

I would have to say that you had an issue with your bottles.
Dawn is not a good choice for cleaning bottles, better to soak in a hot unscented oxy-clean, or PBW solution.
Good idea to invest in a bottle rinser as well, the example below attach to a laundry faucet.
Very important to rinse bottles thoroughly after pouring a pint as well.
Do you have a bottle sanitizer sprayer thingy (further below), some go on top of bottle trees, mine just sits on the counter?

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View attachment 28356

yeah I definitely need to invest in both of those. Just got a bunch of PBW so will use that in the future.

 

[Minbari]

I used nothing but pbw to wash and then sanitized with star san. 7 years of bottling and never had an Issue.

Those bottles definitely had something in them. Sour = infection

I made this, works really well

 

[Simonpyman]

I used nothing but pbw to wash and then sanitized with star san. 7 years of bottling and never had an Issue.

Those bottles definitely had something in them. Sour = infection

I made this, works really well

That's a neat bottle washer!

The odd thing is the cloudy appearance happened during the bottle fill and not something that developed due to an infection. I filled a 64 oz clear bottle around the same time i filled the other bottles and it was cloudy as well. It would have seemed like I was picking up something at the bottom of the keg during the bottle fill but don't imagine there to be much sediment at the bottom.

 

[Minbari]

That's a neat bottle washer!

The odd thing is the cloudy appearance happened during the bottle fill and not something that developed due to an infection. I filled a 64 oz clear bottle around the same time i filled the other bottles and it was cloudy as well. It would have seemed like I was picking up something at the bottom of the keg during the bottle fill but don't imagine there to be much sediment at the bottom.

Was it only the first few that did it? You might be surprised how much stuff collects, even after a cold crash.

Entirely possible that something in the soap reacted. Don't know. Not sure I would drink them if they taste sour.

 

[Simonpyman]

Was it only the first few that did it? You might be surprised how much stuff collects, even after a cold crash.

Entirely possible that something in the soap reacted. Don't know. Not sure I would drink them if they taste sour.

1 out 7 bottles had it, dumped all the bad bottles, fortunately my friends had it from the keg previously and really liked it. The beer from the keg before and after bottling was fine. I have bottled before using the same cleaning routine without issue. I guess I will use PBW instead of dawn and rinse better.

 

[Craigerrr]

the cloudy appearance happened during the bottle fill and not something that developed due to an infection

curious how you know this
maybe one out of 7 bottles were cleaned and rinsed well, or just didn't have the wild funk hanging around in them

 

[Simonpyman]

curious how you know this
maybe one out of 7 bottles were cleaned and rinsed well, or just didn't have the wild funk hanging around in them

As I was filling the bottles I could see that the beer was cloudy but thought maybe it was due to the color of the green bottles. Good but unfortunate learning experience!

 

[Craigerrr]

As I was filling the bottles I could see that the beer was cloudy but thought maybe it was due to the color of the green bottles. Good but unfortunate learning experience!

If you never do anything wrong, you will never learn... anything!