Oxyclean, hard water in bottles

[Beerbeard]

Hi,

In my eagerness to finally bottle my barleywine (that's been bulk aging for 6 months ><) I think I made another stupid beginner mistake.

Slightly more than half the bottles I used to bottle it I let soak in oxyclean for what was originally just going to be 12 hours or so, but ended up being about a whole day. I noticed these bottles were kind of crusty on the outside, but didn't think anything of it. There was no visible film (either that or I'm blind), and I didn't worry too much about it because I reasoned that my usual bottle treatment after the oxyclean rinse would handle it.

After I rinse with oxyclean, I rinse each bottle out with warm water a good 3-4 times, and then right before I bottle I submerge each bottle in room temperature Starsan for at least 3 minutes.

I think the water and starsan rinse helped a little, but couldn't help but feel like the glass texture on these bottles was still... different. Nevertheless, I proceeded to bottle the barleywine anyway. Some of the bottles used I prepared in a previous Oxyclean rinse, and didn't have the 'crusty' feel.

Upon later reflection and internet research, I've come to the realization that I could have had hard water deposits on the outside (& inside!!!) of my bottles, and that I may not have adequately rinsed my crusty bottles!

Apparently a good vinegar or starsan rinse would help rinse away these deposits, but I doubt my 3 minute coldish starsan rinse did enough to help.

Is my goose cooked? Will the hard water deposits, if they're actually still there, make my 11% abv barleywine salty/metallicy? (no I haven't tasted it).

Either way, lesson learned, and luckily not all of the bottles were affected!

 

[spark_plug]

Guess you'll have to wait and see how its going to turn out. I would guess its going to be fine, sounds like you were pretty anal about your sanitation. I've had starsan drop in the fermenter before and didn't ruin it, didn't seem to affect it at all.

 

[rodwha]

What I do to remove the labels with Oxyclean, because I have hard water too, and know what you're talking about, I fill the bottles with water and stand them upright in a bucket so only the exterior gets jacked up. Before that I had to soak them for a little while in a vinegar solution.

If this was a bottle cleaning regiment, and not a label removing ordeal, I've heard many state they don't really need to be cleaned if they were properly rinsed once emptied. I've seen rings in the bottom of some of my bottles, and have also had stubborn yeast/trub deposits that just won't rinse off. These I use Oxyclean and a bottle brush to scrub, as well as an unused nylon pistol cleaning brush that I bent to help clean also. These get rinsed right away so there's no build up possible. But I've acquired so many bottles now that I just tossed the ones that didn't look nice to me.

I'm not certain, but I don't think Star San will remove these deposits. Whether or not it'll hurt your beer I do not know, but I'd have to assume it would change it somewhat. But it's done now...

 

[SATTAG]

1scoop of oxi clean and I boiled the bottles for 30 min. No residue no film just super clean bottles. Right after 30 min I did rinse the outside of the bottles an give them a little scrub scrub

 

[rodwha]

If you use soft water I don't think there's a problem.

I have very hard water, and if left to sit for a while it will build up a white film, which is the calcium and lime from what I understand.

I use OxyClean to remove the labels, and so I fill the bottles with tap water so they'll stand upright in the OxyClean solution. No concerns for me...