Sanitizing bottles

bjzelectric · 04-08-2009, 11:39 PM

Im an amateur homebrewer (5 batches under my belt) and I am interested in other techniques for cleaning and sanitizing my bottles. I fill my bathtub with water and a scoop of oxyclean and let the bottles fill and soak for 20 mins. Then I rinse and do the same thing with bleach to sanitize. Anyone have any other ideas? Ive heard of Starsan in a spray bottle but it doesnt sound like that would be efficient for the bottles.

double_e5 · 04-08-2009, 11:52 PM

A spray bottle works. The most efficient thing I've found is a vinator. Just mix up some of your favorite sanitizer solution, give it a couple pumps and you're done. Other people have success with the sanitizing option on their dishwasher or even using their ovens. But for me, like I said the vinator.

Aleforge · 04-08-2009, 11:53 PM

I pre rinse and scrub all my bottles with steaming tap water then I fill up a cooler with starsan solution and let them all soak for a half hour, then dump and fill. I am one of those people who are super paranoid that I wont get all the bleach rinsed out so I just use Starsan since its a no-rinse forumula.

llazy_llama · 04-08-2009, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by double_e5

A spray bottle works. The most efficient thing I've found is a vinator. Just mix up some of your favorite sanitizer solution, give it a couple pumps and you're done. Other people have success with the sanitizing option on their dishwasher or even using their ovens. But for me, like I said the vinator.

+10 to the Vinator. To get the most bang for your buck, buy a bottle of Star San, and a vinator. Maybe 1/5th of an oz. will sanitize 50-ish bottles per batch no problem.

**BargainFittings** · 04-09-2009, 01:50 AM

Soak in a bucket of hot oxyclean and then I use my cordless drill to spin my bottle brush (just cut off the loop) and rinse them well with hot water.

When I bottled all of my beer I would just run a heat cycle in the dishwasher to heat sanitize and just bottle with the dishwasher door open to catch the spills.

Now I just spray my bottles with starsan, swirl and dump back in the bucket I store the starsan.

**Malticulous** · 04-09-2009, 02:18 AM

I use the sanitize cycle on my dish washer. I can fit four cases in there. I keep my bottles clean by just rinsing soon after using them. I have to rinse them again before putting them into the dish washer because once I found a gnat in a beer.

**Whutever** · 04-09-2009, 02:28 AM

Absolutely agree with the rinsing of bottles immediately after being emptied and then the dishwasher. Newer machines will heat the water well within the range needed to sanitize the bottles. This is how I did mine prior to kegging and never had any issues.

Aleforge · 04-09-2009, 03:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BargainFittings

Soak in a bucket of hot oxyclean and then I use my cordless drill to spin my bottle brush (just cut off the loop) and rinse them well with hot water.

When I bottled all of my beer I would just run a heat cycle in the dishwasher to heat sanitize and just bottle with the dishwasher door open to catch the spills.

Now I just spray my bottles with starsan, swirl and dump back in the bucket I store the starsan.

If you don't mind how long do you store mixed starsan? I always hated dumped out a made up batch on brew day and wondered how long it could be stored.

**Malticulous** · 04-09-2009, 03:28 AM

If the pH of Starsan is 3 or lower it's still good. Use distilled or RO watter and it lasts longer.

**rico567** · 04-09-2009, 10:10 AM

All bottles are thoroughly rinsed immediately after the beer is poured. I have then used two techniques to sanitize. One is the vinator / sulfiter technique described in a previous post. This is a fast method and conserves the Star San (my only sanitizer) really well. The other is to use the dishwasher. Both seem to work.