Is my sterilization overkill?

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Dan-The-Man

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A friend and I recently started brewing (using Brew House kits for now) and we have been sanitizing and then sterilizing our bottles.

At first we were using sani-brew (what the brew shop gave us) but we have since switched to star san. Basically what I do now is use this rinser to squirt starsan into the bottles, put them on the tree and wait for them to dry. Next I put aluminum foil over the tops of the bottles and bake them in the oven at 350°F for 60 minutes, let them cool and store them in the six pack boxes that commercial beers come in.

When it comes time to use the bottles we simply pull the foil off the top and fill them.

My primary question is whether or not sterilizing the bottles in the oven is overkill. It would definitely be much easier to simply rinse the bottles with starsan just before bottling...

My secondary question is about starsan itself. Is it sufficient to give the bottles a squirt with my rinser, dip the top of the bottle in the sanitizer and then let them dry for a bit before filling the bottles?

Thanks for taking the time to help.
 
You're subjecting your bottles to unnecessary stress by putting them in the oven...the star san should be enough.
 
You are sanitizing, not sterilizing. Run them through the dishwasher with no soap. The heat will kill a lot of crap in them.
 
... put them on the tree and wait for them to dry. ... dip the top of the bottle in the sanitizer and then let them dry for a bit before filling the bottles?
Star San. If it's not wet it's not working!
"Don't fear the foam."
 
Is my sterilization overkill?

Yes, a simple rinse w/ starsan of a clean bottle is all you need...fill w/ beer while still wet w/ the Star San.

Sanitize NOT sterilize FWIW.
 
Rinse bottles after use with water to get the wash and any yeast out. To clean, rinse out with a bottle washer well. Put them in a bucket of oxyclean for 20 minutes. Take them out, rinse with bottle washer. Use a bottle brush to get leftover schmutz, and rinse out again. Before bottling, rinse with bottle washer. Dunk in StarSan for 20 minutes. Bottle.

Substitute PBW or your cleaner of choice for oxyclean.

New bottles should get a brush after the dunk in oxyclean.
 
So you put them in an autoclave?? Keep in mind sterilization is heat and pressure. Im not trying to be a grammar nazi, just sayin.

I appreciate the editing help to make what I am trying to say more clear. Sometimes it's hard for me to see what makes my writing hard to understand. Can you be a little more specific about the grammatical error you are seeing?

Autoclaves work by heat and pressure, but heat alone can also be used to sterilize.

See wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterilization_(microbiology)#Heat_sterilization

Quote from the Wiki article on "Dry Heat Sterilization"
The standard setting for a hot air oven is at least two hours at 160 °C (320 °F). A rapid method heats air to 190 °C (374 °F) for 6 minutes for unwrapped objects and 12 minutes for wrapped objects.
 
overkill? maybe a little.
necessary? not really
bad for your brew? not at all


Palmer gives instructions for oven, autoclave and pressure cooker STERILIZATION, which does not have to involve pressure, but makes it more effective and takes less time

sanitation kills MOST nasties, sterilization kills ALL nasties

just depends on how clean you want it

bottles are the only thing I actually sterilize, everything else is Star-San.

the night before bottling; I put bottles in the oven, THEN heat to 350°, keep them there for 1 hour, turn off the oven and leave them inside overnight without opening the oven door until the last possible moment before bottling.

VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO HEAT OR COOL TOO QUICKLY
 
Your procedure sounds perfect. It's more than what I do, but "overkill"? I don't think so. If you have the time and energy (double entendre intended), keep it up!
 
Wow, thanks for all of the replies!

I think I will continue to do what I am doing but now at least I know that in a pinch I could just go with the star san rinse.
 
When you find yourself oiled and nude in a small dark room with a single light picking out dust with a pair of chop sticks (a la karate kid) then you will be truly taking it too far. Spend enough time here and you will discover what (who?) I am referring too. (otherwise I agree with the comments above). Cheers...keep brewing.
 
Yes it's overkill, but you already knew that :)

Invest your sanitation on your fermenter.

Such extreme measures are especially pointless for your bottles for a few reasons: 1) at bottling time your beer already has alcohol which provides resistance to baddies. 2) your beer is already fermented so there is much less food for baddies. 3) you have a large amount of viable competitive yeast that will out number and hopefully out compete baddies. 4) if baddies were to take hold they would only ruin individual contaminated bottles rather than the whole batch.
 
I just rinse my bottles well after use. Let em dry. Then sanitize come bottle time. Sometimes bottles are even a little dusty on the outside from sitting around. Never had a problem. Some sterilizing procedures I see ppl do are excessive. I don't have time for that but to each their own
 
I can't get behind using star San for bottles. I wash them with a bottle brush the run them thought the rinse cycle in the dishwasher.
 
I rinse after use and dry upside down. On bottle day I run through the dishwasher and then rinse with iodophor before filling. From what I read here I think I can ditch the dishwasher step.
Is the dishwasher step even needed if the bottles are clean? I'd love to get rid of that step.
 
I rinse after use and dry upside down. On bottle day I run through the dishwasher and then rinse with iodophor before filling. From what I read here I think I can ditch the dishwasher step.
Is the dishwasher step even needed if the bottles are clean? I'd love to get rid of that step.
I've used the dishwasher on the heated dry cycle in place of sanitizing the bottles, but I wouldn't feel a need to do both.

The goal is clean and sanitized. It sounds like you are accomplishing that without the dishwasher.
 
There's no point using star-san and then baking in the oven.

That's like rotating your tires right before you drive to the shop to have a new set of tires installed.

If you are going to bake your bottles, clean and dry them first.

If you are going to star-san your bottles, do it right before you bottle.
 
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