Re: [CH] Reusing hot sauce bottles?
Jim Graham (spooky130@cox.net)
Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:11:21 -0600
On Sun, Feb 17, 2008 at 04:07:09PM -0500, Cameron wrote:
> At 1:05 PM -0600 2/17/08, Jim Graham wrote:
> As a Chile-Head I think the level of sanitization needed for most
> culinary purposes is below that which is required for marketing a
> beverage,
If said beverage is a particular favorite of mine, made from malted
barley, hops yeast, and water (and every now and then, adjuncts such
as wheat, oats, rye, and other stuff), you're absolutely right...the
required level of sanitization is much higher.
> albeit one which is around 5% alcohol and to that extent self
> preserving.
That's what made me stop reading and post this reply...I'll go back
to reading after I send this one off....
It's true that, post-fermentation, beer (when kept away from oxygen)
is an anaerobic environment with a pH that is hostile to most
beer-spoiling bacteria. But, there's the ever-present threat from one
of the biggest of the big nasties...Acetobacter. Anaerobic[1], feeds
on alcohol to produce acetic acid (vinegar), and an absolute b*tch to
remove from the brewery (or so I'm told...never had any experience with
it, myself). Based on what I've heard, you're better off having wild
yeast such as Brettanomyces roaming around in your brewery...at least
then, at least if it's Bret. lambicus, you could add Pediococcus damnosus
and, if you have the Belgian secret magic (just try and explain it any
other way...even "art" doesn't explain it), you can combine these two
normally horrible flaws and make a lambic....
Later,
--jim
[1] Note that Wikipedia says Acetobacter is aerobic, not anaerobic....
I've always read and been told just the opposite by brewers and
brewing publications....
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