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Sour taste after bottling
I am new to this, so it may be a basic mistake, but everything seems to go well until we bottle, and then after the beer sits to carbonate, it usually get this sour, bad lemonde taste to it. We even had an amber that actually tasted good after sitting for a couple of weeks, but wasn't fully carbonated. But when we let it sit a few weeks longer, it was carbonated, but had that sourness to it. Any thoughts?
How do you clean and sanitize your bottles and bottling equipment?
I'm not in charge of that, but I think its a one-step cleaning solution dissolved in water and we rinse everything out with it and the utensils.
You have contamination. When you clean your bottles look into them and be sure there is not a film or sediment on the bottom. Also be sure to clean around the opening real good. I just threw out 5 gallons fo an irish red ale I bottled and i taste it after every step to be sure and it went sour inthe bottle.
I use a bottle sprayer I screw onto the sink faucet. I spray every bottle and then I soak the bottles for 2 to 5 minutes in IODOPHOR and water solution. I let them air dry and only had the comtamination issue because I tried using a little less of the iodophor and the solution wasn't strong enough.
I use Five Star sanitizer. It's like iodophor and comes in a squeeze bottle with a one ounce cup on top.It's measured out and you sqeeze the amount (1 oz per 5 gallons of water) into the water and stir. It wil lmake the water a bronze color and you need ot be sure it stays that color. If it clears, add more. I've only had two batches go bad in 3 years and one was me being cheap and trying to use less sanitizer (above brew). The other was bleach and having to rinse out equiptment and recontaminating it.
Live and learn
DC
I'd have to agree with everyone else, sounds like your bottles arent getting sanitized well enough.
If you are sanitizing as recommended on the lable of your one-step, you might also consider your water. if you are on a well, you might have a bacteria in there which is harmless and tasteless until it gets the chance to ferment... and we all know beer is the ultimate chance for bacteria!
If you do have a well, you might try putting just a little more sanitizer in your soak to make certain all the cooties are gone.
What are you doing to carbonate?
... I also got to thinking.. your siphoning equipment might also be dirty/contaminated...
Tubing can also develop contamination problems. Another possible culprit is your bottling wand... make sure you take the thing apart (the ends usually just pull off... careful though, there's a little spring in there) and clean it before you sanitize it.
If you're doing all the things mentioned in this post, maybe it's your hands.. capping is a pain because you have to handle the nice sanitary (slippery, wet) caps by just the edge and I know I have to watch myself to make sure I am not inadvertantly touching the insides...
Hope this helps!
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