Bottle Sanitation

Nashbrew · 12-05-2005, 10:19 AM

Hello,
I am ready to bottle my first batch. Got 2 cases from the HBS store. The guy there told me to put them in the dishwasher, wash them with no soap, and put on aotomatic dry, then wash them again, with soap. He said if i do that i will not have to sanitize. I still want to sanitize though. Is it better to wash, then sanitize, or vice versa? Thanks for all of your help guys.

**Orfy** · 12-05-2005, 10:23 AM

Always wash then santitise.
You can't sanitise muck, you need to get rid of it first.

I think I'd always manually use a chemical sanitiser to make sure.

Nashbrew · 12-05-2005, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orfy

Always wash then santitise.
You can't sanitise muck, you need to get rid of it first.

I think I'd always manually use a chemical sanitiser to make sure.

These are new bottles so didn't know if i should wash them or not. I thought maybe i could just sanitize them. Thanks.

**Orfy** · 12-05-2005, 10:33 AM

They should be clean so you can miss out the cleaning but as for sanitising I'd be concerened about dust and wild yeast amongst other things.

But there again I tend to over complicate simple things.
It's you beer, go with what you think best.

drengel · 12-05-2005, 03:14 PM

if you use soap for washing make sure its a gentle one, amd dont udse too much. you dont want soap residue in your bottles. then manually sanitize them using your bottle cleaning brush and your preferred sanitizer. i rinse my bottles again after sanitation because i use bleach water and dnt want that residue in my bottles. then dry them on a sanitized drying rack. i use the top rack of my broke dishwasher. fill a squirt bottle with sanitizer and spray it down good before putting bottles on it. properly sanitizing your bottles is something to not be overlooked.

God Emporer BillyBrew · 12-05-2005, 04:45 PM

I use my dishwasher also, but I run an empty cycle with some bleach in it. The benefit to that is that I catch it when it's starting to dry and when I close it and turn it back on it drys my bottles for me.

Anyway, I agree. I think your time would be best spent rinsing each bottle out with No-rinse. It doesn't take very long at all.

Genghis77 · 12-13-2005, 06:22 PM

I use a dish washer to clean and sanitize. The dishwasher has never had dirty dishes in it so clean from foreign contaminants. With the temperature boost things get pretty sterile. But PET bottles do dent on me, probably from all the heat. I use a little bleach in the wash cycle, no soap.

bikebryan · 12-14-2005, 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Genghis77

I use a dish washer to clean and sanitize. The dishwasher has never had dirty dishes in it so clean from foreign contaminants. With the temperature boost things get pretty sterile. But PET bottles do dent on me, probably from all the heat. I use a little bleach in the wash cycle, no soap.

No dishwasher I have ever seen, heard of or read about can get anything "pretty sterile." You can't get sterility from a dishwasher. If you are aiming at sanitary, that's one thing, but don't confuse sanitizaton with sterilization, as they are NOT interchangeable terms.

Something that is sanitary may not be sterile. Something sterile IS sanitary.

Genghis77 · 12-14-2005, 05:47 PM

But it sure uses water a lot hotter than my hands can stand. Just don't see the need for an autoclave.

**Baron von BeeGee** · 12-14-2005, 06:00 PM

My bottles are clean as soon as I polish one off and go in a bin. On bottling day I run them through a rinse/dry cycle with no soap just to knock any dust off and wth, it can't hurt. I then fill up a bottle with Star-San solution, coat the inside good and then pour it into the next bottle ensuring it hits all of the lip on the way out. I do about 8-10 at a time this way, bottle them, then repeat the process.