foam and little white balls in the bottles

Normballs

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Hi,
I'm new to this site but I've been brewing from extract for a year and a half.
My last 2 batches I've had foam and a little whites balls at the top of the bottle.
I've only tasted 1 batch {Scottish beer} so far. It doesn't taste good, Its very thick cloudy,
and taste like a wine that hasn't been filtered. The only thing different is a new bag of dextrose
sugar. Any Ideas other than the sugar.
Oh ya I've made these 2 several times and always tasted clean and crisp.
Thanks,
Norm
 
Sounds like a potential infection coming from your brewing equipment. Do you have a good cleaning and sanitizing routine with all your brewing equipment, including your fermenter?
 
I think Mase is right. Everything that contacts your beer after boiling must be properly sanitized and everything that goes into your beer must be boiled or be sterile (don't boil yeast)

Are you using the sugar for priming? I always boil 2L of water and add priming sugar too that, before mixing with beer.
Are you boiling your extract with your sugar or adding the sugar afterwards?
 
I think Mase is right. Everything that contacts your beer after boiling must be properly sanitized and everything that goes into your beer must be boiled or be sterile (don't boil yeast)

Are you using the sugar for priming? I always boil 2L of water and add priming sugar too that, before mixing with beer.
Are you boiling your extract with your sugar or adding the sugar afterwards?


I clean everything and everything is sanitized, I add my sugar right before bottling, And no I don't boil my yeast, I don't boil the water,and I never had a problem but I will start, and reclean everything
 
Sounds like a potential infection coming from your brewing equipment. Do you have a good cleaning and sanitizing routine with all your brewing equipment, including your fermenter?


Thanks, I do clean everything and sanitize. I will reclean everything
 
Just a stab in the dark, but if you are using a plastic fermenter... they don't last forever, and any scratches, no matter how small, developed over time are breeding grounds for bacteria that cleaners and sanitizers can't get to.
 
Just a stab in the dark, but if you are using a plastic fermenter... they don't last forever, and any scratches, no matter how small, developed over time are breeding grounds for bacteria that cleaners and sanitizers can't get to.


Good point, I do use a bucket for my primary and then into glass and back into a bucket for bottling,
Thanks
 
That^^^ And also if you have anything with a spigot, it'll harbor microorganisms. I'm surprised you haven't had bottle bombs. Almost certainly there's some secondary fermentation going on and that winey-ness could be acetobacter infection leading to some vinegar being produced...it won't get really vinegar-y without oxygen.
I had a couple of batches go off that way specifically because of plastic equipment that I thought I was cleaning well enough. Started soaking with PBW and disassembling spigots and got many more clean batches out before I switched to glass exclusively.
 
Definitely sounds like a sanitation problem to me. Unusual, because if I read right, this is your second batch (infections usually don't happen in new equipment - no scratches, dead spots or other places to harbor the kind of bad bugs that love wort). If that's the case, sanitation practice is likely the culprit. If your equipment is older, look for scratches and dead spots.
 
That^^^ And also if you have anything with a spigot, it'll harbor microorganisms. I'm surprised you haven't had bottle bombs. Almost certainly there's some secondary fermentation going on and that winey-ness could be acetobacter infection leading to some vinegar being produced...it won't get really vinegar-y without oxygen.
I had a couple of batches go off that way specifically because of plastic equipment that I thought I was cleaning well enough. Started soaking with PBW and disassembling spigots and got many more clean batches out before I switched to glass exclusively.


Thanks, I'm going to change my spigot and bottling bucket, See from there.
 
Definitely sounds like a sanitation problem to me. Unusual, because if I read right, this is your second batch (infections usually don't happen in new equipment - no scratches, dead spots or other places to harbor the kind of bad bugs that love wort). If that's the case, sanitation practice is likely the culprit. If your equipment is older, look for scratches and dead spots.

Thanks, I'm going to change my bottling bucket and see what happens
 
Thanks, I'm going to change my spigot
You can usually take those spigots apart for cleaning. Most of the plastic ones just snap in place and it takes a pair of pliers or something to grab the handle and pull them apart. You have to be careful of breaking them. Even with a clean spigot you can still have some grunge around the opening and gasket and threads. Bottling buckets are less of a problem because there's minimal contact time. Fermentation vessels are the big culprit. I don't trust buckets any more at all, but fermenters with spigots of any sort are a potential source of problems.
You'll get it cleaned up and be making clean beer in no time. Meanwhile, the infected batches are perfect for cooking - if they don't bottle bomb on you. For that matter, if they don't bomb, they might age into interesting beers. A light touch of brett or sour in some beers can make for an interesting flavor profile.
 

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