Gushers

[ntillemans]

I understand that gushing tends to occur due to a bacterial infection. A few bottles of my beer have turned into gushers after 2-3+ months in the bottle (they were fine for 2+ months). Two beers from the gusher batch (which weren't gushers, themselves) tasted a little like vegetable juice (like V8 juice)...mostly, they tasted a little sour and smelled like vegetable juice.

I switched from One-step to Star-San two months ago.

Hopefully, the change in sanitation chemicals will help.

But let me know if you have any advice.

I could use some.

Thanks.

[seanhagerty]

I wouldn't use one step as a sanitizer, I don't even think it is one. Star San should do you much better in the sanitation dept.

Based on your description, you have found out what unsanitary conditions do to homebrew.

Sean

[BadRock]

Judging by the title I thought we were talking about something else!

One Step should have been fine. I don't think it's the preferred sanitizer for most but it still should have worked.

"Contains no chlorine, which can leave a film on glassware and corrode stainless steel. One Step is an excellent oxygen based cleanser. Requires two minutes of contact time, no rinsing required! Environmentally friendly and non-toxic. Use 1 tablespoon per gallon of water"

I would make sure you are scrubbing everything real well before sanitizing, eliminate any organic load. The sanitizers are not cleaners. Try using PBW on everything before sanitizing. Also make sure you are getting the recommended contact times.

[ntillemans]

Thanks both of you for weighing in on this one. I've narrowed it down to something that went wrong at the bottling stage, since some of the bottles are fine and others aren't.

For the most part, I've been thorough and actually quite slavish with cleaning. Still, I have some hypotheses as to what might have gone wrong. I had some bottlecaps which I noticed came out of the one-step soaking a little dirty (with some rusty specks on them). I did my best to rinse the specks away, though I wasn't as careful as I guess I should have been. Also, I wasn't sanitizing my bottle tree...I figured the sanitizing liquid in the bottles would be enough. Perhaps not.

Guess I'll count my blessings I haven't run into more problems....and I'll be more careful moving forward.

As far as sanitizers go, I do prefer the Star San. It's a little more caustic; and it doesn't leave residue behind.

Thanks again.