thasnazzle
Well-Known Member
So, the last two batches I've done have been lost to acetobacter infections. I thought I had taken care of the problem, but ended up finding rice grain like things in some bottles while bottling the last batch - apparently fruit flies were breeding in my bottles. I'm pretty sure this happened during my last move in May, we transported some bottles we thought were clean that actually had some gunk in them, then left them like that till bottling time. Thankfully I've moved again and don't have a fruit fly problem at the new place.
I'm trying to do everything I can to ensure that this doesn't happen again - I feel like I'm finally starting to understand brewing and how to improve my methods, but it's frustrating to lose two batches that I think would have been among my best yet. So I have a few questions:
- What do I need to do to make absolutely sure my bottles are clean? I dunk them in star San for 30 seconds or so before bottling and make sure not to use visibly dirty bottles. Apparently this isn't enough. Should I just be chunking bottles that yield infected beer?
- Is there a best practice for storing empty bottles? Currently I rinse after emptying and store upside down in sixers in my closet.
- the batches that I lost were also unnecessarily transferred to secondary, since I only have one fermenter that fits in my ferment fridge. One of them had fruit flies in the airlock when transferring. I'm definitely switching to vodka in my airlocks (though I'll have to buy something a tad less delicious than the Tito's I keep stocked). Is it possible that this played a role? Should I stop these transfers to a secondary? I suppose it wouldn't be difficult to switch to all buckets.
- Any tips for controlling fruit flies or eliminating them once they show up? I'll admit to being a bit of a slob about doing dishes.
I'm trying to do everything I can to ensure that this doesn't happen again - I feel like I'm finally starting to understand brewing and how to improve my methods, but it's frustrating to lose two batches that I think would have been among my best yet. So I have a few questions:
- What do I need to do to make absolutely sure my bottles are clean? I dunk them in star San for 30 seconds or so before bottling and make sure not to use visibly dirty bottles. Apparently this isn't enough. Should I just be chunking bottles that yield infected beer?
- Is there a best practice for storing empty bottles? Currently I rinse after emptying and store upside down in sixers in my closet.
- the batches that I lost were also unnecessarily transferred to secondary, since I only have one fermenter that fits in my ferment fridge. One of them had fruit flies in the airlock when transferring. I'm definitely switching to vodka in my airlocks (though I'll have to buy something a tad less delicious than the Tito's I keep stocked). Is it possible that this played a role? Should I stop these transfers to a secondary? I suppose it wouldn't be difficult to switch to all buckets.
- Any tips for controlling fruit flies or eliminating them once they show up? I'll admit to being a bit of a slob about doing dishes.