TNGabe

Recipes 

Bought some (cheap) used better bottles - they've been brushed. Why, oh why, would anyone do that?

As a related aside, has anyone ever personally experienced an infected beer due to scratched plastic fermentation vessel?

berebrando

Recipes 

I dont own any better bottles. Out of curiosity, what are you supposed to use to clean them with?

alchemedes

Recipes 

Yeah, I would like to know also. I clean plastic carboys with a bottle brush all the time...

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ktblunden

Recipes 

Most people I've seen toss a rag in with some Oxyclean and swirl it around. Works pretty well. There's a few Youtube videos floating around of that.

MickeyD

Recipes 

I use a brush on my better bottle and haven't had any issues with infections. I have fermented about 10 beers in that better bottle so far.

GreatWetNorth

Recipes 

Another vote for Oxi-clean. I used it to clean red wine out of a glass carboy once and I was surprised at how well it worked. I don't think we had a brush, so we just threw in a couple scoops of Oxi-clean and filled it to the brim with water and after a couple hours, the stains (little dried-on drops of red wine) just released and floated to the top.

We had tried a little bit of soap and water, and shaking it around, then bleach and water shaken around, and they didn't remove any of the stains. The Oxi-clean was a last resort, but worked great.

(One may consider it a waste of 5 or 6 gallons of water to fill a carboy full just to soak it, but if you're trying to save a dirty one it's worth a shot).

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Phunhog

Recipes 

Before I knew any better I did it a few times. Now if Oxyclean wont get the krausen ring off I take the brush and put a heavy sock over it. It seems to work great and without scratching. I haven't had any infection issues...although I can't see any visible scratches.

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JaimeTheLimey

Recipes 

What's up Al? (James from VIBE here)

PBW is awesome for BB. More expensive than Oxi but my bottles come out squeaky clean without any agitation or scrubbing.

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eastoak

Recipes 

i use a brush on my better bottles all the time but i've never noticed that they are scratched. all of my buckets have scratches and i ferment sour beers in all of them - never had an infection in 2 yrs of brewing. i use the same auto siphon and bottling bucket for my pale ale as i do for my flanders red too, no problems. i think big breweries have to worry more since they have many more surfaces to worry about, i can sanitize my brewery pretty thoroughly in short order.

verbhertz

Recipes 

I have 4 better bottles and always fill with water and oxiclean and let sit for one to two days. Rinse out thoroughly and air dry. Super easy, super clean.