Sanitizing Bottles

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Go Gators

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
178
Reaction score
0
Location
Fort Lauderdale
SWMBO works in a research lab, and has offered to sanitize my bottles using an autoclave. They have one in the lab, and it uses heat to destroy the germs. Does this sound like a sound technique? They use it to sanitize the lab equipment. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
i'm sure it will work but then you have to transfer them home in a sterile way of some sort. seems like more work than its worth to me personally.
 
I agree the risk during transport probably outweighs any benefits of the autoclave. Just get yourself some starsan and a Vinator and sanitizing bottles becomes a trivial matter.
 
I can fit over 55 bottles into my dishwasher.

How to Brew also says that you can cover them with aluminum foil and bake them for a couple hours.
 
+1 for baking

My bottles are already clean. All I do is load all my bottles into the oven (holds about 3 cases) and turn the oven on. Takes all of 3 minutes actual work time to sterilize 3 cases of bottles. Note that sterilization and sanitation are different. Palmer gives some temps and times for such things. The point is for minimal work the result is the best (IMHO).

If I had a dishwasher that would be quite tempting as well.

EDIT: here is the table:

Table 3 - Dry Heat Sterilization

Temperature Duration

338°F (170°C) 60 minutes

320°F (160°C) 120 minutes

302°F (150°C) 150 minutes

284°F (140°C) 180 minutes

250°F (121°C) 12 hours (Overnight)

and the link to the page
 
Boerderij Kabouter said:
+1 for baking

My bottles are already clean. All I do is load all my bottles into the oven (holds about 3 cases) and turn the oven on. Takes all of 3 minutes actual work time to sterilize 3 cases of bottles. Note that sterilization and sanitation are different. Palmer gives some temps and times for such things. The point is for minimal work the result is the best (IMHO).

If I had a dishwasher that would be quite tempting as well.

EDIT: here is the table:

Table 3 - Dry Heat Sterilization

Temperature Duration

338°F (170°C) 60 minutes

320°F (160°C) 120 minutes

302°F (150°C) 150 minutes

284°F (140°C) 180 minutes

250°F (121°C) 12 hours (Overnight)

and the link to the page

I have never wanted to leave my oven on that long...
 
I have never wanted to leave my oven on that long...

For an hour? How do you bake? j/k This method does work, but I know tons of people think it is silly. It just takes less of my time, that is why I do it. There are plenty of other ways to sanitize your bottles as I am sure many people will post. The Vinator with Star-san is very easy as well.
 
I did the dishwasher last time, but I had almost zero head retention. I have been told this could be due to oils from the soap. Thanks for the replies guys.
 
I really don't think that is worth it.

If you soak your already clean bottles (because you rinsed them after washing them right?) in oxyclean for 30 minutes, then soak them for 30 seconds in star-san immediately before bottling... that really is all you need.

Don't complicate your brewing.
 
Boerderij Kabouter said:
If you use the dishwasher, do not use soap. Run the high heat cycle with no detergent and you should be fine.

And you fill them straight from the dish washer? I don't feel like I have a good system for sanitizing bottles. My dishwasher does not have a heater for the water so it uses the hot water line for the house and I don't think that it is hot enough.


atarlecky said:
...then soak them for 30 seconds in star-san immediately before bottling... that really is all you need.

Don't complicate your brewing.

the 30 soak in star-san how long does it take to do a couple of cases of bottles @ 30 each? Do you have a huge wash basin that you can soak a case at a time in?

Last question- how long could you have them out after sanitation (say on a bottle tree)?
 
jtvinny said:
...the 30 soak in star-san how long does it take to do a couple of cases of bottles @ 30 each? Do you have a huge wash basin that you can soak a case at a time in?

Last question- how long could you have them out after sanitation (say on a bottle tree)?
Do yourself a favour and get a vinator, 2 quick pumps of the starsan and then onto the bottling tree and you're done.

You could probably leave them safely for a few hours but personally I would want to use them as soon as possible. I normally will get all my bottles onto the bottle tree, then heat my priming solution and rack my beer into the bottling bucket, then bottle.
 
just FYI but heat alone won't kill all microbes, pressure and a quick release is needed to rupture the cell walls of some of them. That is what an autoclave does, it heats up to 250 degress for 30 minutes at 15 psi then a sudden drop back to atmospheric pressure at the end. The likelyhood that your bottles would have some of the microbes for which this is required is really minimal unless you are bleeding on your bottles or using them for sexual practices which I hope none of you are doing.

Nate
 
Boerderij Kabouter said:
+1 for baking

My bottles are already clean. All I do is load all my bottles into the oven (holds about 3 cases) and turn the oven on. Takes all of 3 minutes actual work time to sterilize 3 cases of bottles. Note that sterilization and sanitation are different. Palmer gives some temps and times for such things. The point is for minimal work the result is the best (IMHO).

If I had a dishwasher that would be quite tempting as well.

EDIT: here is the table:

Table 3 - Dry Heat Sterilization

Temperature Duration

338°F (170°C) 60 minutes

320°F (160°C) 120 minutes

302°F (150°C) 150 minutes

284°F (140°C) 180 minutes

250°F (121°C) 12 hours (Overnight)

and the link to the page

How does this work with Grolsch bottles? Can you still put them in the oven with the rubber part?
 
Boerderij Kabouter said:
For an hour? How do you bake? j/k This method does work, but I know tons of people think it is silly. It just takes less of my time, that is why I do it. There are plenty of other ways to sanitize your bottles as I am sure many people will post. The Vinator with Star-san is very easy as well.

I don't bake, my wifey does :mug:
 
Is Swmbo using a big autoclave bag and doing them in bulk? If so then as long as she doesn't break the seal on the bags you could have her do them and bring them back to you. If she does make sure you sanitize your hands, the scissors you use to cut the bag and the outside of the bag before breaking the seal... Another option would be to autoclave them with tinfoil over the mouth of them. Then they could be transported normally, and you could break the foil seals with sanitized hands....

I agree that using iodophor or starsan with or without a vinator, is the way most of us go with success....Although there is something to be said for doing it in one shot...or having someone ELSE do them for us.
 
jtvinny said:
the 30 soak in star-san how long does it take to do a couple of cases of bottles @ 30 each? Do you have a huge wash basin that you can soak a case at a time in?

I have a 5 gallon soysauce bucket I use as a sanitization bucket...I use 4 gallons of water and a little less than a tbs of Iodophor. I can fit 12 bottles in at a time...So that's 4 batches for 2 cases of beer. It takes me no more than 1/2 hour (probably a lot less but I don't time it) to do all of them.

I roll it into the whole pre bottling process. What I usually do is sink 12 of them into the filled bucket. Measure out my priming sugar and add to 2 cups of water and turn stove on.

Pull the bottles out of the bucket and drain them, then soak 12 more. Check on my priming solution. Then maybe grab a beer, or set up my bottling bucket.

Pull out the 2nd batch of 12 and replace them with 12 more (36 bottles so far). If it was boiling when I last checked on it, then I turn off the stove and set solution on counter or in a chill bath to cool down.

Remove the 12 bottles and replace them with my last batch of bottles. Grab another beer. Pour 1/2 of the priming solution into bottling bucket and begin siphoning beer out of carboy. Drain the last 12 bottles. Then drink beer until half the bucket is filled, then add rest of the priming solution to bucket....




So it doesn't take all that long to do them....
 
I sterilize my bottles by putting them in the oven @ 175°C for half an hour. I rinse them with hot water and sulfite first. I've bottled loads of cider now and never had an infected bottle. I use Grolsch bottles, here in the Netherlands they're easy to come by :)
 
Good to know- I always wonder what others do at certain times during the process. I helped a friend this weekend and was very careful, I would hate for his first batch to turn get infected or just not be a great experience. I plan on getting into kegging as soon as possible but I would still bottle some it's just a matter of whether I bottle a couple of sixers from the keg at that point or from a bucket.
 
I just recently opened a bottled of SNPA clone that I had brewed. It has been bottle conditioning for 1 week (did so just to check carbonation). I found that it has NO carbonation...is this due to filling the bottle before the no rinse sanitizer has time to dry?
 
nl724 said:
I just recently opened a bottled of SNPA clone that I had brewed. It has been bottle conditioning for 1 week (did so just to check carbonation). I found that it has NO carbonation...is this due to filling the bottle before the no rinse sanitizer has time to dry?
Nope! It's due to your impatience. Leave them at room temperature for another week before cracking another.
 
nl724 said:
I just recently opened a bottled of SNPA clone that I had brewed. It has been bottle conditioning for 1 week (did so just to check carbonation). I found that it has NO carbonation...is this due to filling the bottle before the no rinse sanitizer has time to dry?

3 weeks is the minimum time it takes for a beer to carbonate and bottle condition (lose the "green" tastes and off flavors.) But that's just a "rule of thumb" some styles and higher grav beers take a lot longer.

I think I did a fair job of explaining why here. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=558191&postcount=101

This is a good thread to read...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=54362
 
Back
Top