Do bottles have to be ABSOLUTELY dry before bottling?

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markiemark

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Hi all, about to start bottling. I sanitized all bottles with diluted star san, and let them dry upside down on the counter on top of paper towels (about 30 minutes). Then i flipped them all around right side up and placed paper towel on them to cover them. There is no water collecting inside bottles, but if I stick my finger in the neck it feels slightly damp. Is this a worry? Or should I go ahead and bottle? Thanks!
 
Hi all, about to start bottling. I sanitized all bottles with diluted star san, and let them dry upside down on the counter on top of paper towels (about 30 minutes). Then i flipped them all around right side up and placed paper towel on them to cover them. There is no water collecting inside bottles, but if I stick my finger in the neck it feels slightly damp. Is this a worry? Or should I go ahead and bottle? Thanks!

Nope go ahead and bottle, nothing to worry about. :mug:
 
Oh. Ok well I rinsed them with warm water after star san because when i poured out the star san its still bubbly/foamy and thought that might give weird flavors. Is that a problem? Should I re-star san them with no rinse?
 
Oh. Ok well I rinsed them with warm water after star san because when i poured out the star san its still bubbly/foamy and thought that might give weird flavors. Is that a problem? Should I re-star san them with no rinse?

Yes I would re-sanitize them. Don't worry about the foam. It will not impart any flavors.
 
Yup. You just un-did the sanitizing by rinsing. Bottles must be wet and foamy. The foam imparts no flavor, but it'll all be pushed out by the beer during filling anyway.
 
I usually put the StarSan solution into a Sanitizer Injector. 3 pumps of the water/starsan mix and then bottle the beer... I also keep the caps in the solution so we can cap it right away.
 
Cool, thanks everyone! I resanitized and bottled! One more question though, I have to bottle a second batch tomorrow, I cleaned and then filled my bottling bucket with star san, stuck all my utensils in to sanitize them, and capped the bucket. Will this be okay to use my utensils tomorrow when I bottle? Will they still be sanitized?
Thanks
 
The StarSan foam is displaced by the beer when you bottle. Whatever is left is diluted enough that it will not interfere with carbonation. In fact the manufacturer says that it actually becomes a nutrient to the yeast at low concentrations. StarSan's "life" is indefinite, as long as the pH is below [a number that escapes me at 5am]. So your utensils are probably fine if the solution looks clean. If it looks cloudy and gross, I'd want to re-sanitize them anyway.
 
Hi all, about to start bottling. I sanitized all bottles with diluted star san, and let them dry upside down on the counter on top of paper towels (about 30 minutes). Then i flipped them all around right side up and placed paper towel on them to cover them. There is no water collecting inside bottles, but if I stick my finger in the neck it feels slightly damp. Is this a worry? Or should I go ahead and bottle? Thanks!

I wouldn't screw around re-sanitizing them. As your bottles are already clean, put them in a 300 deg F oven 1 hour. Cut 2" aluminum foil squares (one for each bottle). At the end of the hour, take towel or oven mitten and carefully pull the bottles out of the oven (that glass is HOT...and be careful not to touch the mouth!) then affix your aluminum foil over the mouth of the bottle to seal it from air.

Your bottles are just not sanitized - they're sterilized. It's cheap, it's easy, and superior to sanitizing.

Baking is probably overkill, but I've learned pver the years with canning food that your storage vessel can never be too clean.

DY
 
If you have really hard water I would not use a mixed starsan solution over 1-2 weeks old.

I doubt that heating an oven to 300F for an hour (plus pre heat) is cheaper than a squirt of Starsan in a spray bottle.
"Superior" is only applicable when it accomplishing something more than the alternate method - and in this case baking your bottles is a waste of time, effort, and $ when a simple spray of Starsan will do.
 
If you have really hard water I would not use a mixed starsan solution over 1-2 weeks old.

I doubt that heating an oven to 300F for an hour (plus pre heat) is cheaper than a squirt of Starsan in a spray bottle.
"Superior" is only applicable when it accomplishing something more than the alternate method - and in this case baking your bottles is a waste of time, effort, and $ when a simple spray of Starsan will do.

I didn't say it was cheaper, I said it was cheap. And easy. And, you have no sanitizer (chemical) residue in your bottles. Having home canned for decades, any home canner will tell you they'll take sterilized storage vessels over sanitized every day of the week.
:mug:
 
i don't even drip dry, I just take it out of the sanitizing bucket and fill. absolutely no problems with that
 
I didn't say it was cheaper, I said it was cheap. And easy. And, you have no sanitizer (chemical) residue in your bottles. Having home canned for decades, any home canner will tell you they'll take sterilized storage vessels over sanitized every day of the week.
:mug:

Following that logic, wouldn't any home canner also pressure can everything, even high acid foods? Just because it is more thorough, doesn't make it necessary or even prudent for every circumstance.
 
I didn't say it was cheaper, I said it was cheap. And easy. And, you have no sanitizer (chemical) residue in your bottles. Having home canned for decades, any home canner will tell you they'll take sterilized storage vessels over sanitized every day of the week.
:mug:


Maybe it's because I'm a Yankee, but I'm with damnyankee on this one. There's nothing wrong with how starsan cleans. People can and should use and be happy.

I, personally, am finding way too many chemicals in my life already and so I've been boiling my bottles. I've got a pretty slick technique for doing that and i have down pat. Still... It takes about an hour and a half to do 28 bottles so I think I just very well may try this oven technique next time.

Thanks for the tip.
 
Actually, processing of food is an entirely different conversation altogether; that analogy would be in reference to beer pasteurization.

You're right: Pressure canning is strongly recommended for non-acidic foods but remember before pressure canners became affordable in the '50s-'60s, non-acidic foods were commonly boiled for 4 hours then hot-packed into sterilized jars. The advantage of pressure canning is it takes food from 212 deg F to 250 degrees F AND it reduces processing time.

Believe me, I'm not slagging on sanitizing. It's important. But remember, the original poster was looking at re-sanitizing all his bottles again, and if he was thinking, "Crap...I gotta re-sanitize all over again", I was giving him an easy option to consider since his bottles were clean: sterilize in a 300 deg F oven for an hour. :mug:
 
I wouldn't screw around re-sanitizing them. As your bottles are already clean, put them in a 300 deg F oven 1 hour. Cut 2" aluminum foil squares (one for each bottle). At the end of the hour, take towel or oven mitten and carefully pull the bottles out of the oven (that glass is HOT...and be careful not to touch the mouth!) then affix your aluminum foil over the mouth of the bottle to seal it from air.

Your bottles are just not sanitized - they're sterilized. It's cheap, it's easy, and superior to sanitizing.

Baking is probably overkill, but I've learned pver the years with canning food that your storage vessel can never be too clean.

DY

How do you sterilize the aluminum foil?
As the bottles cool, do they suck the foil in? And air?
 
I put the foil on the mouth of the bottle BEFORE baking and I let the bottles cool in the oven. I don't want to shock them by opening the door when they are hot or messing with them when they can cause serious burns.

I wouldn't say it's any easier or faster than using StarSan. Quite the opposite actually. It's just better for me because I don't want a vinator or bottle tree and a batch of bombers fits nicely in the oven.
 
specialkaye said:
How do you sterilize the aluminum foil?
As the bottles cool, do they suck the foil in? And air?
As soon as the about 1/2 dozen bottles come out, they get the aluminum foil treatment. Then I get another 1/2 dozen out. Rinse and repeat. Those bottles stay hot for quite a while.

No, the aluminum foil doesn't get sucked in.
 
My dishwasher has a high heat wash. I use that and the heated dry (no detergent, of course). I pull them out of the dishwasher and bottle. No fuss, no muss.
 
I wash my bottles in the dishwasher whenever I'm done drinking out of them. Basically it goes:

1. Shake Rinse
2. Dishwasher (sanitize mode)
3. Store (indefinitely)
4. Sanitize (boil)
5. Bottle.
6. Drink
7. Rinse
8. Repeat

I don't think my dishwasher actually shoots water up into the spout of each of the bottles. I figure it's best to give them a rinse off anyway, to get any external scuzzo off. Also I'm not convinced that Sanitize on the dishwasher always actually sanitizes anything:

My wife (who's nursing) has read a great deal about sanitizing certain unmentionable pump equipment and most 'expert' people in that sphere say that the sanitizer mode on dishwashers isn't to be depended on, especially as your dishwasher gets long in the tooth.
 
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