When to sanitize equipment

Hello everyone. I recently received my beer brewing kit and as you can guess I am anxious to get started. Anyhow... is it ok to sanitize the equipment a day or two before brewing or should it be done right before using the equipment? I'm also wondering about when to sanitize the bottles. Thank you in advance!

You should Sanitize everything right before you use it. Bottles included. Most no rinse sanitizers work when they are wet. If they completly dry, some would say they are no longer sanitized.
What sanitizer do you have?

I have about 6 cases of bottles in rotation. When they get empty I rinse them (important) and set them aside. When I have about 50 or so I soak them in the laundry tub with clorox for a day or so and them spray out the insides with a jet sprayer attached to the faucet, then i hang them on a bottle rack to dry. I keep them stored clean like that and when I am ready to bottle a batch, 12-6 hours prior I fill the dishwasher up with bottles and caps and run it on a high heat cycle with sanatizer as detergent. I don't open the dishwasher again until I'm ready to fill the bottles. As for all the other equipment I clean when it's finished being used and sanatize before using again.

Clean immediately after use, sanitize immediately before use.

Clean items are easy to sanitize, dirty items aren't, and a lot of brewing stuff will dry into some rough stuff, so clean it while its still wet.

malkore said:

Clean immediately after use, sanitize immediately before use.

Clean items are easy to sanitize, dirty items aren't, and a lot of brewing stuff will dry into some rough stuff, so clean it while its still wet.

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Agreed. I have even now got in the habit of cleaning and sanitizing right after the brew and again right before the brew. Probably too much but I am anal! No infections yet though

TheBroonery said:

when I am ready to bottle a batch, 12-6 hours prior I fill the dishwasher up with bottles and caps and run it on a high heat cycle with sanatizer as detergent. I don't open the dishwasher again until I'm ready to fill the bottles.

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whoah...good idea. think i might have to try that!

The sanitizer I have is ID Carlson Easy Clean... it came with the kit. Is this good?

I also use the 1-Step as a sanitizer. 1 tablespoon per gallon of hot water, and I'll use an extra fermentation bucket and make a 5gal solution, let everything soak in that until ready to use and just shake it off since it's no-rinse. I'll also take a shower right before and wash my hands repetitively throughout the process and before touching anything that's been sanitized. These habits may seem compulsive but it's developed from years of experience believing that 1 germ can ruin an entire batch. The very first batch I made in college got moldy before bottling, the second batch was only palatable when already inebriated, and every batch since has been an improvement upon the last. A good upgrade that I only recently got is a stainless steel baster that you can use to extract a sample from the fermentation bucket with minimal impact to take a gravity reading.

TheBroonery said:

12-6 hours prior I fill the dishwasher up with bottles and caps and run it on a high heat cycle with sanatizer as detergent. I don't open the dishwasher again until I'm ready to fill the bottles.

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What sanitizer do you use and do you just fill up the little compartment with it or do you cut it with water or anything?

mmonacel said:

What sanitizer do you use and do you just fill up the little compartment with it or do you cut it with water or anything?

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1 step. See post #8. I just fill the detergent cup on the dishwasher door dry, as if it's powdered dishwasher detergent. It may not do anything since the hot water will probably sanitize everything on it's own, but overkill is never a bad thing.

TheBroonery said:

1 step. See post #8. I just fill the detergent cup on the dishwasher door dry, as if it's powdered dishwasher detergent. It may not do anything since the hot water will probably sanitize everything on it's own, but overkill is never a bad thing.

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The only problem with this is that the solution may not get into the tiny opening of the bottle and, worse, if it does then it may not get rinsed out.

As you said it is the heat you are utilizing from the dishwasher.

Like others have said, I rinse bottles immediately after use and then dishwash them on sanitize setting the day of bottling-day and leave the door closed until ready.

For other equipment, I just clean with PBW (similar to Oxy-Clean) and rinse after use, then rinse and sanitize right before the next use.

I'm in charge of cleaning the kitchen in the house. I don't think I ever get it as clean as I do before and after brewing or bottling.

Gotcha. I wonder if I can just put some star san in there. Good point about the heat though.

JiveTurkey said:

I'm in charge of cleaning the kitchen in the house. I don't think I ever get it as clean as I do before and after brewing or bottling.

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Likewise! That's what motivated me to run the dishwasher before work this morning incase I might bottle my porter tonight, but I don't think it's ready yet.
The sanitizer just dissolves in water, so in the dishwasher it might not do anything or it might so something, but I've never had a problem using that method. I know it probably doesn't get past the rim on the bottles but that's why I had them soaking in bleach before. Redundancy in sanitization is a good thing. I imagine the dishwasher works by running the soap(sanitizer) + water solution through the propeller jets to pressure wash whatever it can. Works great on plates; does the job on bottles.