Sanitizer question

I have a situation where my wife was helping me clean my bottles for my last batch of beer.

I washed the bottles with hot water, then ran them through the dishwasher (without the drying cycle) Then I sanitized them using Five Star sanitizer.

I filled my five gallon bottling bag thing with water and added 1oz. of sanitizer per instructions and filled each bottle with the sanitzer while my wife poured them out a few minutes later. I noticed she was letting it glug out of the bottles causing the sanitizer water to get sudsy inside the bottles so I told her to pour it out slow to avoid all the suds. She had only done this to 5 or 6 bottles.

Then I drained out the bottling bag thing and noticed there were suds in it too (not much though) so I went against the sanitizer instructions and rinsed it out enough to get the suds out.

My problem now is I have been "sampling" a bottle here and there as they are conditioning. I had two last night the first one was great, this is probably my best batch yet (it's a McMenamin's Hammerhead Ale Clone (Lotsa Cascade Hops)). But the second one had a different taste to it and was a bit foamy. I think that I must have gotten one of the 5 or 6 bottles that had sanitizer residue in it, which doesn't make sense to me because we let them dry before I filled them and it says on the sanitizer bottle not to rinse. I knew that those few bottles had the suds in them but just assumed that since you are not supposed to rinse, it would have evaporated or something.

I am alive and well today to tell the story but I don't want to make anybody sick or wonder why 1 beer is foamy and the next is not. We make this stuff to share right? :)

I don't plan on doing much more bottling, I want to switch to kegs but I would like to know if this is something I did wrong or just crappy sanitizer?

And should I try and weed out those foamy brews? or maybe even scrap the whole batch? (I don't know if I could bring myself to do that.)

Thanks,

Luke McAllister

Reply to
Luke
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I swirl my bottles and carboys to help drain them without glugging, but I generally don't worry about the foam. The main ingredient in Star San is phosphoric acid, which is found in a lot of soda products on the market, so I don't worry about ingesting a tiny amount. Now, I'm not saying you should rack or bottle into a carboy or bottle thats FULL of foam, but a little won't hurt. That foam is what I love and what I hate about Star San, but it is my sanitizer of choice.

Reply to
Xiejol

Reply to
Liz Boyd

Where did you get the McMenamin's Hammerhead Ale Clone? Sounds interesting... I too like seriously hopped beer... lemme know if it was a kit or a recipe.

Thanks,

Reply to
Yagottawundah

It was a recipe, I got it @ above the rest homebrewing in Tigard, OR (don't have the number handy) I can type up the recipe for you when I get home (yes, I'm busted- reading brewing newsgroups on the clock)

Reply to
Luke

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