Infections?

[gottleofgeer]

Hi all,

Finally logged in this time. I made a post as guest a week or so ago in the "Continual Infections Thread"....ie

Posted: Thursday May 26, 2005 1:50 pm Post subject:

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My latest brew is a Morgans old, which I bottled today. It was meant to end at 1014, but after checking and re-checking it seemed to now want to go lower than 1016.

After bottling I noticed a bit of white in top of the fermenter and in one of the clear bottles (though that could have been sugar). Not nearly as bad as the wheat beer and maybe I was seeing things?
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Well, looking in the clear bottles now, I can see the evil white film in the bottles that killed my wheat beer some time back. I've got a couple of questions that hopefully someone can answer:
1) Assuming the beer doesn't fountain out of the bottle like the wheat beer did, and it tastes ok, I'm guessing it should be drinkable.

2) What could be the source? This brew took ages (3 weeks or so) and i seemed to slightly fluctuating SG readings near the end. The weather was turning cold and it never seemed to complete brewing (well it got within a couple of points). I'm sure I saw some infection on top of the brew after bottling, but it was hard to tell.

The other cause perhaps was the bottle stand I bought. It was a pre-loved one that had some grease on it, which I suspect was from whomever owned it before touching it with greasy hands. I cleaned that all off in 2 troughs of hot water and washing powder some weeks before I did the bottles. And washed it thouroughly in Neo-Pink before the bottles got on it.

Due to the odd SG readings I cleaned the bottles at the same time as the bottle tree and they were left sitting on the tree for a day or so before bottling. I'm thinking perhaps I should have washed them again. All the bottles on the tree seemed to be bone dry when I did the bottling?

Any advice?

Thanks

Byron

[Guest]

I did some digging (and searching and I gather the white scum is not uncommon and may or may not kill your beer.

I read on one site about pasteurising your beer to kill it? But no instructions on how to do it?

On the bottle front is it a bad idea to leave the bottles on the tree to dry and then bottle. Or should I clean them again before bottling? Makes we wonder what the point of the tree is?

Thanks

Byron

[Oliver]

I did some digging (and searching and I gather the white scum is not uncommon and may or may not kill your beer.

I read on one site about pasteurising your beer to kill it? But no instructions on how to do it?

On the bottle front is it a bad idea to leave the bottles on the tree to dry and then bottle. Or should I clean them again before bottling? Makes we wonder what the point of the tree is?

I've had white scum in a couple of beers (dark ones only, from memory), with no ill effects.

I'm thinking that pasteurising beer at home is something that wouldn't easily be done.

Isn't the idea of the bottle tree to dry and store bottles, and drain them after sanitising? (i.e. you'd rinse after drinking and put on the bottle tree, then when bottling sanitise and drain on the tree.)

Oliver