bottle cleaning

What is the best and fastest way to clean and sanatize
bottles?
It seems like everytime I go to bottle it takes longer than
it should.

rigger7 said:

What is the best and fastest way to clean and sanatize
bottles?
It seems like everytime I go to bottle it takes longer than
it should.

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Rise them out immediately after pouring the beer. Dry upside down and store them already clean. On bottling day, soak them in Starsan solution for a couple minutes. I usually get them soaking before I prepare the rest of the bottling steps (priming sugar, racking to bottling bucket, etc.) No scrubbing necessary.

Rinse out the bottles soon after pouring your beer.

Then sanitize with Starsan using a Vinator.

kh54s10 said:

Rinse out the bottles soon after pouring your beer.

Then sanitize with Starsan using a Vinator.

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+1 to the Vinator, but you are CLEANING your bottles, not just rinsing right?

mpcluever said:

+1 to the Vinator, but you are CLEANING your bottles, not just rinsing right?

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If you rinse well right away with hot water there is no need for much cleaning. I do look into the bottle held up to a light to make sure nothing is stuck inside.

I tried the no cleaning method and found that a good amount of the bottles had some Brett when I bottled with them again so I stopped doing it after that.

kh54s10 said:

If you rinse well right away with hot water there is no need for much cleaning. I do look into the bottle held up to a light to make sure nothing is stuck inside.

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I have been using this method with no ill effects. I also don't use brett so YMMV.

No way would I trust a rinse with water to clean anything, much less something I'm going to drink. You can't sanitize a dirty bottle with Star San.

Rinse after drinking.
Fill with hot Oxy/PBW solution, cover mouth with thumb and shake vigorously, rinse with bottle rinser screwed onto faucet.
Sanitize with StarSan and Vinator.

I have cleaning the bottles in the dishwater and then running them through the sanitary cycle,but I can only fit about 2 1/2 cases the rest I do by hand in a iodine water mix.

I'd be hesitant to rely on a dishwasher, as I question its ability to get the soap/water up inside each and every bottle.

mpcluever said:

No way would I trust a rinse with water to clean anything, much less something I'm going to drink. You can't sanitize a dirty bottle with Star San.

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They are not dirty. I inspect every bottle to see there is nothing inside before filling. Glass does not absorb anything so if they look clean and there is no crud they are clean. The Starsan will kill anything bad.


I had my first infected bottle yesterday. One bottle in 35 batches. Or 1 out of over 1750. I cannot attribute that one to not cleaning...
All the other bottles in that batch were fine.
Not bad as far as I am concerned.

kombat said:

I'd be hesitant to rely on a dishwasher, as I question its ability to get the soap/water up inside each and every bottle.

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Its not the soap/water that you are using the dishwasher for, It's the heat. the Inside of the dishwasher will hold the bottles at 180ºF for 20-40 min and kill most everything. So as long as you are putting rinsed bottles, without any dirt or grime in them, this is a great way to sanitize bottles.