Better Bottle

How does everyone like the better bottle carboys? Got my first one today and have a brew in there now and i love the lightweight but what about sanitizing because its plastic? I need 1 or 2 more and i want ti stik with them just worry about durability and sanitizing. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I love my Better-Bottles. They are a cinch to clean and sanitize. NEVER attempt to clean the inside with any kind of brush! You will scratch and ruin them! To clean, I rinse out whatever gunk I can with water. Then I add enough PBW for about 5 gallons and add about 2 gallons of hot water. If there is any stuck on krausen and junk I insert a wash cloth. Then I shake the crap out of it until all the stuck on stuff is removed. The action of the rubbing of the cloth, hot water and PBW have never failed to get off even the most stuck on crud! Then I fill it up to the top with hot water and let it sit overnight. Dump it out, a thorough rinse and it's done.

To sanitize, I pour in about a gallon of Star-San solution and roll it around for a couple of minutes to coat the entire interior surface. And that's it.

John

Do you have to let the inside of the bottle dry all the way after sanitizing before racking?

I have 4 BBs. They are great.

I used a bottle brush in the necks. Otherwise I just shake them very hard with cleaning solution in them. It gets them clean. Its important to clean carboys before the junk has a chance to dry out.

I find it takes a while for a BB to dry out. I wash them again with sterilizer before I use them.

I primary ferment in open buckets.

Cool Hand said:

Do you have to let the inside of the bottle dry all the way after sanitizing before racking?

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No, I never have. I haven't even considered allowing it to dry completely. I sanitize a few hours in advance and just seal up the Better-Bottle until I'm ready to siphon the wort in.

John

Love mine!

I bought a couple of BBs 6 months ago (on Johnsma22's glowing recommendation) and I am still trying to find one negative thing to say about them. They're great!

Cool Hand said:

Do you have to let the inside of the bottle dry all the way after sanitizing before racking?

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Nope. Not with Starsan anyway. I pour my Wort or apple juice right on top of the bubbles. Here's how I let it drain though.



Better Bottles Rock!

I love how you can put really hot water into a BB and shake the hell out of it and not have to worry about breaking it. I can get some serious cleaning action going on doing this. I have an undrilled #10 stopper just for this. People say that the plastic is less sanitary than glass, but I can clean plastic better because I can handle it like this.

Cleaning right after emptying is essential. Otherwise a soak with Oxyclean Free takes care of any build up.

I haven't had any experience with glass, and don't really care to. Better bottles are easy to move, easy to clean, and probably almost impossible to break. Looking forward to getting more in the future.

McKBrew said:

I haven't had any experience with glass, and don't really care to. Better bottles are easy to move, easy to clean, and probably almost impossible to break. Looking forward to getting more in the future.

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Yep, and my back loves them. I picked up 4 at Morebeer.com for $18.95 each shipped to my house with no sales tax. Austin HBS wants $21.99 each and I would have to go get them and pay another $1.81 in sales tax bring the total to $23.88 compared to $18.95. I saved almost enought to buy another 5 gallon Better Bottle.

Thanks for the replies, I have 1 BB and 1 glass carboy so I guess I'll be able to compare this differences firsthand.

I have been looking at these better bottles for a while. They are VERY proud of their valve/spigots though at $20 a pop. Are these even worth the money and has anyone had problems with them leaking? I know I have had problems with bucket spigots leaking.

First off I have glass and better bottles. Iprefer the better bottle and am in the process of replacing the glass with plastic.

The only problem that I can think of is the better bottle cannot hold negative pressure.

This is only important if you use negative pressure to transfer beer via the wort wizard.

The wort wizard creates a vacuum in your carboy so that you can transfer from one vessel to the other even if they are on the same level.

I decided against using the BB spigots. I use a racking cane and the carboy cap. I feel it gives me better control over placing the inlet of the cane where I want it in the yeast and its cheaper, easier to clean, etc. To start a siphon, I just blow into one port on the carboy cap. In now look forward to racking instead of dreading it.