Found fruit flies in my bottling buket

[bigplunkett]

Like it says im just about to bottle can i clean it enough or should i wait? I guess i could sacrafice a fermenter. Ther was 3 in the bottom in about a half inch of star san.

 

[doomy86]

You can clean it up, the fruit flies were attracted by the sourness of the starsan mixture.

 

[bigplunkett]

I soaked it in bleach and oxi clean should be ok i think and ill use star san again

 

[MaryB]

StarSan sanitized the fruit flies, you are fine.

 

[Queequeg]

Just make sure you rinse enough after the bleach.

Starsan is not a silver bullet

 

[BisonHeadBrewery]

Sheesh! People have been making beer for thousands of years in company with fruit flies. It's all part of the natural process. The flies just gave you their highest compliment. It means you're making good beer. RDWHAHB

 

[JimRausch]

Sheesh! People have been making beer for thousands of years in company with fruit flies. It's all part of the natural process. The flies just gave you their highest compliment. It means you're making good beer. RDWHAHB

Yes, they just wanted to make vinegar out of your beer!
ie. Fruit flies are also known as Vinegar flies. Well known to be carriers of acetobacter.
I would be more worried about the rest of the brood flying around while I was bottling, getting in my bucket full of beer.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Over the years, the only infections I ever had (3 of them} were all acetobacter infections caused by fruit flies in my bottling bucket. Clean it, sanitize it and place a lid over the bottling bucket while bottling. Aceto turns your beer into gushing vinegar. Another trick if you have a lot of fruit flies around is to put a few drops of dish liquid in a bowl of cider vinegar and keep it on the other side of the room. The vinegar attracts them and the dish liquid traps them. It only takes one fruit fly to infect an entire batch.