Bleach stained my bottles?

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DonArmando

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Hello friends,

i am here shocked to ask for help......
Yesterday i decided to bottle my beer, so i started to clean the bottles (which only needed sanitation). I put 4 tablespoons of bleach in each bottle, filled them with water and let sit for 8 hours.
Every bottle's bottom was dirtless but i noticed that ALL bottles were stained!!!
Those stains look white and opaque, and are placed of course all over the inside part of the bottles; other bottles have little stains, like pin heads.

The main thing is: my bottles were clean, and now look really messy.....
I tried also to remove this stains but it's damn difficult, they seem to be sticked to the glass.....

What do you suggest? Muriatic acid???

HELP!!!


Don Armando
 
Well, as you probably know now, the bleach may have etched the glass. 4T / bottle is way too much bleach.

Pehaps it is only a mineral deposit that will come off w/ acid, but i kind of doubt it. Try a vinegar soak if you have that available.

IMO the bottles may be permanently etched, hopefully someone who paid more attention in Chem 101, and 102, can give you brighter news?

Get some Star San if it is avail. in Italy. If not, you could try idophor.
 
I'd just get rid of them and never ever ever ever ever ever ever use bleach for homebrewing EVER again! 4 tablespoons per BOTTLE?! Holy hell dude, you'd be better off using that much for 5 gallons of water!

Get iodophor, star-san.... I'd even pee in my bottles to sanitize them (or give it to BMC drinkers! They wouldn't know the difference) before I used bleach
 
Bleach is fine for cleaning or sanitizing, but you used way to much. You may have ruined the bottles by soaking them in that concentration.
 
I don't think bleach will etch glass, however, I am not at all sure about that. I do agree that four tablespoons is way, way to much. More like 1/4 cup in five gallons would be suitable for sanitizing.

Something else is going on here. The chlorine is possibly reacting with something in the water and leaving deposits on the glass. I'm with those who suggest rinsing them with white vinegar or Star San (acid solution).

You said that you had previously cleaned the bottles. What type of cleaner did you use. I think the deposits may have been there before the bleach soak, but were not visible while the bottles were wet. I've had Oxyclean leave deposits on my bottles after a long soak. These were easily removed with a white vinegar rinse in my case.
 
Heh, yeah I know. I suppose I just like pointing out the obvious ^_^
 
Catt22 said:
I don't think bleach will etch glass, however, I am not at all sure about that. I do agree that four tablespoons is way, way to much. More like 1/4 cup in five gallons would be suitable for sanitizing.

Something else is going on here. The chlorine is possibly reacting with something in the water and leaving deposits on the glass. I'm with those who suggest rinsing them with white vinegar or Star San (acid solution).

You said that you had previously cleaned the bottles. What type of cleaner did you use. I think the deposits may have been there before the bleach soak, but were not visible while the bottles were wet. I've had Oxyclean leave deposits on my bottles after a long soak. These were easily removed with a white vinegar rinse in my case.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking almost the same. While I'm not totally sure that bleach will/will not corrode glass it may just have brought some other growth to light after such a concentrated soak. He said that it wasn't impossible to get these stains off, but, d**n hard which in the case of corrosion ,the material would have been marred or removed. I'm thinking if he can after some effort get the spots off that it may not be corrosion, but some very tenacious mold or something that was not evident prior to the soak, and I feel he may benefit from at least trying your idea to soak them in vinegar or something before giving them the toss. Just a thought. Good luck!
 
The reason I don't think that bleach will etch glass is that long ago, Clorox was, at one time, sold in glass jugs. I've put full strength bleach in glass containers more than a few times without any visible etching occuring.
 
Catt22 said:
The reason I don't think that bleach will etch glass is that long ago, Clorox was, at one time, sold in glass jugs. I've put full strength bleach in glass containers more than a few times without any visible etching occuring.
Click to expand...

+1 Oh yeah! Man, there were days before plastics weren't there!? LOL!!:mug:
 
Could be the hardness of the water or some other similar issue leaving water spots on the glass.

At any rate that is an assload of bleach.
 
Clorox did come in glass
clorox-jug.jpg
 
i tried to remove those stains with muriatic acid and oh! cristal clean!
I'll try with that....
or vinegar....
1 tablespoon for bottle?
or coffee spoon?
 
I would not bother measuring it per bottle. Just pour some in and over each bottle. Use a dishpan or something similar and recover it for re-use. No need for a long soak as long as the deposits aren't heavy. Rinse with hot water, sanitize with Star San or Iodophor and you are good to go.

I don't know what to tell you about the muriatic acid. That's a fairly concentrated acid, so you need to use with caution. I think it's actually hydrochloric acid normally used for such things as cleaning and etching concrete. It should work, but I would dilute it substantially with water before use. Wear eye protection if you use it and be careful. Rubber gloves might be a good idea too. I think I would try the vinegar or Star San first.

Oh yeah...no olive oil.
 
If you are going to put muriatic acid or vinegar in the bottles, make sure to rinse them well first. They should remove the hard water marks in your bottles, but they also make the chlorine in the bleach volatile.

Bleach is fine for sanitizing and cleaning, just don't use it straight. You can search the internet or go to the March 29, 2007 edition of Basic Brewing Radio.
 
Proper concentration of bleach is: 5 gallons of water, add 1 oz of bleach. Stir/mix well, then add 1 oz of vinegar and mix again. DO NOT add vinegar directly to the bleach unless you want to spend some quality time with your floor. Mix each one at a time into the water.
Best to just get some StarSan or Iodophor. Both are "No Rinse" sanitizers that work remarkably well.
 
I'll try with iodophor next time i'll go to my lhbs (which is a small small small small small shop and the guy there doesn't have any idea on how to brew. Cool, isn't it?)
 
Make sure you research the correct concentration to use for sanitizing. I think its 3 ml/gallon, and a gallon will sanitize a lot.
 

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