Beer Forum

Here's a little riddle...

A few months ago, I sanitized a case of 22s using starsan, bottled and capped sterile wort (for use as a starter, which I've done in the past). The case of bottled wort sat in the corner of my basement (consistently stays about 65-69 degrees).

Yesterday, I find broken glass and beer...one of the bottles in the case broke. Worried that other bottles may be under pressure as well, I began to uncap the remainder...beer shot out like goddamn little geysers for each bottle I uncapped.

What the hell could've happened? How did my wort get fermented? These were capped and sanitized bottles, using boiled and chilled wort directly from my kettle. Yet all 12 bottles were under fierce pressure, obviously from some sort of fermentation.

Am I in the twilight zone? Any insights anyone has would be much appreciated.

never forget that sanitized is NOT sterile

how clean were the racking cane and bottle caps? possibly the lip of your kettle was dirty( if you pour from that into another vessel ) it's hard to say

mediumsk wrote:never forget that sanitized is NOT sterile

how clean were the racking cane and bottle caps? possibly the lip of your kettle was dirty( if you pour from that into another vessel ) it's hard to say

Yeah, I mean, something had to have happened on the sanitation side, right. It just sort of freaks me out, since I've brewed dozens of batches of beer with no perceptive wild yeast or bacteria contamination. Maybe I'm just too drunk to pick out off flavors in my contaminated beer.

If you did not pressure can the wort then it is only sanitary, not sterile. There are spores and other nasty things that can survive boiling temperatures quite happily. You need a pressure canner or autoclave that can boil water at 15 psi for 15 minutes, longer if you are above sea level. These reach over 250°F and it's the only way to store wort for starters at room temperature. You can also freeze the wort to good effect, but it must be boiled before use in a starter. You can't transfer the wort after it's been steralized either, it needs to be done in the bottle.

It's a big difference between making a batch of beer. In beer you are overwhelming any contaminates with lots of yeast, so the bad stuff doesn't have a chance to eat any sugar and grow to the point of producing off flavors. If you just have wort, however, even the smallest contamination will eventually spoil the wort, since there is an abundance of fuel available and nothing to outcompete it.

Nyakavt wrote:It's a big difference between making a batch of beer. In beer you are overwhelming any contaminates with lots of yeast, so the bad stuff doesn't have a chance to eat any sugar and grow to the point of producing off flavors. If you just have wort, however, even the smallest contamination will eventually spoil the wort, since there is an abundance of fuel available and nothing to outcompete it.

Not only are you adding yeast, but they are quickly dropping the pH and making alcohol that will inhibit competitors. Bottling "sterile" wort, like you did - is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. Not for the exploding bottles, but because you can get botullism. The toxins produced are odorless and tasteless. The botullism spores are anerobic and wort that contains them is the perfect breeding ground.

The ONLY way to keep any food product that does not already have a low pH - is to pressure cook it for 15 minutes at 250F. Consider yourself lucky that you didn't find out the dead way.


Mylo