Bottling question- Critique my steps please?

Plan:
Step 1) Soak bottles in oxyclean and water solution for a couple hours, scrubbing insides with brush if necessary
Step 2) Rinse bottles and run through dishwasher with no soap or cleanser or jet dry, to get the sanitize setting
Step 3) put saran wrap over tops of bottles
Step 4) Transport bottles to bottling location on Monday to bottle them
Step 5) Put beer +carbtabs in bottles
Step 6) Cap bottles
Step 7) Wait 3+ weeks to drink and enjoy.

Should there be a Step 4.5 (rinse with Star-san)?

And theres a step 1.1-7.1 - HAHB.

Not claiming to be the best but I think oxyclean is a pita to get out of bottles and the dishwasher is not going to do anything for you. my steps are:

1- as bottles are acquired they are rinces and rinsed until water from them tastes fresh, then I store them upside down in milk crates that i appropriated (stole) from my local 7-11

2- on bottling day I fill a picture with warm water and star-san and fill each bottle with about 1 inch if it

3- place towel under bottling tree, shake bottles, pour out star-san, and fill the tree

4- holler at the kids and remind them to stay away from bottle tree

5- fill bottles with beer, cap, and wait a month

I will dip them in star san right before I fill it with brew. It is a wet process but it gives me peace of mind.

I just got me a Avvinatore bottle cleaner sanitiser for less then 20 bucks. I tried the dishwasher thing too, its a pITa also. I tried 2 or three washes in it and still couldnt get the insides clean, the outside was fantastic, but you just cant seem to get it all out.

The Avvinatore is gonna be my rising sun my next bottling day.
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_56_152&products_id=1322

High,
Coming from wine making, I make my own sulfurous acid for way less, than anything you can buy commercially.
This stuff is a no rinse solution and sterilises really well.
The recipe is quite simple:

1 qt of water
20g potassiumbisulfate (K2 S2 O5)
4g citric acid

The bottles are physically cleaned beforehand with water and stored in a beercase upside-down.
Before bottling, the sulfurous acid is mixed up and filled into the bottle steriliser (a pump sprayer).
The bottles are then hung on the bottle-tree, where from they are removed one by one for filling.
The caps are also sterilised in the sulfurous acid.
Most of the worlds winemakers have been using this method for decades, to sterilise their bottles, corks and equipment.
C YA
swillmaker

I wouldn't use oxyclean unless the bottles are dirty or of unknown origin. Also, oxyclean is a caustic cleaner and star san is an acid sanitizer so star san should help get rid of the oxyclean "film." For unknown bottles wash with oxyclean and rinse, then give them a few minutes in star san. Do this whenever you like.

Store bottles open end down.

On bottling day, rinse in warm water to help get rid of any dust etc. that might have settled or crawled in on bottling day then put in a bucket of star san.

Lots of options for filling. I never use carbtabs so I'll describe 2 ways I've done it using primed beer.

1) put your bottle tops in a bowl (or other smallish container) of star san
2) sanitize all your bottles and line up below the level of your bottling bucket.
3) using bottling wand fill each bottle
4) go through and cap each bottle

Or
1) put bottle tops in a bowl of star san
2) put bottles in bucket of star san
3) fill each bottle as you pull it from the bucket of star san
4) when all the bottles are out of the bucket re-fill bucket
5) cap bottles that are filled.
6) repeat step 3-5 until done. (the time spent capping should provide plenty of contact time for star san to work.

The bottles are pretty dirty and need the labels removed, hence the oxyclean. I have a really powerful dishwasher so i'll run them through that after cleaning them out.. just to get them a chance to get hot and rinsed off and let the heat also sterilize them. Then we'll soak them in starsan right before using them.. or maybe dunk them in the bucket.. but we have a starsan bucket with a spigot so that works well to just rinse

I made friends with the owner of a local bar, when I need bottles I stop by around last call, collect all the bottles I want, bring them into the kitchen and run them through his industrial dishwasher until clean. I also do the rest of the dishes and mop up the area. he gets free help, I get free clean bottles.

cheers!

staffVAJoe said:

I made friends with the owner of a local bar, when I need bottles I stop by around last call, collect all the bottles I want, bring them into the kitchen and run them through his industrial dishwasher until clean. I also do the rest of the dishes and mop up the area. he gets free help, I get free clean bottles.

cheers!

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Very Cool...