Sanitizing bottles

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doornumber3

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so i'm curious what others do.....for sanitizing bottles i usually fill a bucket with water/Star San put some bottles in let them sit for a few minutes and then dump them out and bottle them....What do others do? I see the sanitizing bottle they have where you just place the bottle over it and it sprays it but curious what everyone else does.
 
I do what you do. Just make sure the bottle are clean as can be before sanitizing. I have had a few off tasting bottles that I believe came from improper cleaning
 
I use this (stock photo) makes life so much easier.... I just use a sprayer and spray down the arms fill up the reservoir and I'm off.....

image-4093307323.jpg
 
I soak in oxiclean/rinse/starsan for 10 mins then dunk them in a bucket full of distilled water to rinse / set on bottle drain tree like in pic above while racking to bottling bucket. Then bottle. I use this system due to having well water. I dont trust rinsing with well water. But I do use it for oxiclean or starsan mix.
 
I soak in PBW, scrub with bottle brush, rinse, put in wash basin with star San and transfer to pictured bottle tree.
 
Oxiclean soak & dishwasher heat cycle. No starsan, brush
 
After drinking contents, rinse with warm/hot water then store until I have 4-5 cases and a fresh batch of BBright. Soak bottles for 30-45 minutes and rinse. Store upside down until ready to fill, use Vintonator to spritz inside of clean bottle - fill - cap - wait... Repeat.
 
stvo said:
I use this (stock photo) makes life so much easier.... I just use a sprayer and spray down the arms fill up the reservoir and I'm off.....

Just bought the whole set up. Can't wait To use it. Looks very easy.
 
doornumber3 said:
Just bought the whole set up. Can't wait To use it. Looks very easy.

The hardest part will be putting vintonater together. The spring can be tricky. Take your time and you'll get it. Cheers! Sure makes bottling easier.
 
If you rinse you defeat the purpose of the sanitzer.

Not if using distilled water. The sanitizer will kill anything that might still be stuck on the bottle after cleaning. Using fresh opened container of distilled water will not infect anything.

There's no reason to have to use a bottle brush if you rinse the bottles out very good right after a pour. I rinse them then let drain upside down in a dish drying rack and them I put them up the next day. Then all you have to do is soak them in oxiclean and sanitize next bottling day. There's so many different ways people do things. And using a bottle brush will always be better but not necessary if you maintain good rinsing practice after pouring the brew into a glass.
 
What about Star San in wine? Will it give it any off flavors? In my beer bottles I leave it, but I rinse it out of my wine bottles.
 
Has anyone every tried to use the sanitizing setting on their dishwasher. if so did it work and did you add anything to it.
 
I use the dishwasher. Works great! I have set it to run when leaving for work and they are good to go when I get home. It takes longer but does the job. Btw... Don't use any soap.
 
I rinse well right after I empty one, then I run it through the dish washer. I then store it until I am going to bottle then I run them all through the dish washer again.
 
"There's no reason to have to use a bottle brush if you rinse the bottles out very good right after a pour. I rinse them then let drain upside down in a dish drying rack and them I put them up the next day. Then all you have to do is soak them in oxiclean and sanitize next bottling day."

This is what I was told in the beginning. But I rinse all bottles out three quick times (pour ~2 oz and swirl vigorously) and have been noticing yeast that won't let go in some, but in most I see a film of some sort.

I finally bought a bottle and wine brush and fill up a bucket with Oxyclean and scrub them out. I found that it still misses some of the residue stuff and so I bent a pistol nylon scrub brush so it'll get into the edges. It may not hurt anything, but I don't like weird stuff.

Is this film (or whatever) not a concern?

So now I scrub my bottles and rinse on one day, and the next I soak them in Star San for 1-5 mins and place on the bottle tree until I am ready to bottle.
 
I also give more beer to the guys that bring me cleaner bottles. One friend brings me about 24 clean rinsed and dried bottles every 2 weeks. I return 6 full ones in return.
 
Just bought the whole set up. Can't wait To use it. Looks very easy.

Believe me you won't regret it.... and as one of the posters above mentioned putting it together takes some finesse, but other than that you'll cut so much time off your bottling!! Cheers!:mug:
 
I use the dishwasher when bottling. Open the dishwasher, set up my bottles on the inside of the (clean) open dishwasher door and get to filling. Then when I'm done any drips and spills disappear when I close the dishwasher door.

For bottles, I usually fill the sink with oxyclean, give em a quick scrub with a bottle brush and drop them into a fermenting bucket filled with starsan. When they come out of the bucket, pour out the starsan, give em a quick shake and let them dry on some paper towels.

Done and done. I usually like to get the bottles ready before I go anywhere near the carboy.
 
I would never use oxyclean or harsh chemicals on bottles that were properly rinsed/stored. When I empty a bottle I rinse it well and store it on my bottle tree. On brew day I pump the vinerator 3 times per bottle and it's good to go. I've never had any problems with this method.
 
Bottles are rinsed as soon as they are empty. Once I have more than a few sitting on the kitchen counter, they get soaked in hot water and Oxiclean, rinsed well, dried, and stored upside down in boxes so dust doesn't get into them.

On bottling day, I use the vinator to squirt Star San inside them. No soaking, no rinsing needed. Why add extra steps?
 
Clean the bottles as I drink them...give them another cleaning the day of bottling. Then I simply fill my bottling bucket with starsan...fill the bottles from the bottling bucket, and dump the bottles out into another bucket as I go.

Sanitized bottling bucket, sanitized bottles, and 5 gallons of star san to sanitize my other bottling equipment and use another time.
 
Set in bleach solution for 15 minutes, bottle brush and rinse. Then night before bottling, dishwasher sanaitize cycle. Day of bottling: dunk in star san, rinse and fill.
 
In this thread, and other threads on the same topic, it sure seems that some brewers have become almost "anal-retentive" about cleaning and sanitizing beer bottles. Once I get my "new-to-me" bottles cleaned...label removed and inside scrubbed with a bottle brush, if necessary...they STAY cleaned. I rinse them out thoroughly immediately after pouring. Then, when it's time to bottle, all they need is a quick rinse and sanitizing...and my dishwasher takes care of both of those chores. In fact, as I type this, the dishwasher is running with a load of empty bottles that will soon be filled with delicious beer!

In this hobby, it's easy to begin "over-thinking" and/or "over-doing" each step in the process. As has been stated so many times...RDWHAHB! And if a specific process works for you...then go ahead and use that process, and don't worry about what others are doing.

glenn514:mug:
 
In this thread, and other threads on the same topic, it sure seems that some brewers have become almost "anal-retentive" about cleaning and sanitizing beer bottles. Once I get my "new-to-me" bottles cleaned...label removed and inside scrubbed with a bottle brush, if necessary...they STAY cleaned. I rinse them out thoroughly immediately after pouring. Then, when it's time to bottle, all they need is a quick rinse and sanitizing...and my dishwasher takes care of both of those chores. In fact, as I type this, the dishwasher is running with a load of empty bottles that will soon be filled with delicious beer!

In this hobby, it's easy to begin "over-thinking" and/or "over-doing" each step in the process. As has been stated so many times...RDWHAHB! And if a specific process works for you...then go ahead and use that process, and don't worry about what others are doing.

glenn514:mug:

^^^^^ Very true on the over-doing.... If my bottles are already de-labeled I just rinse well after pouring them, dry on the bottle tree which is in the garage (attached) once dry they're put away then like an above poster stated a few pumps with the washer thingamajig on bottle day and I'm golden, never had any issues or off flavors, I'm afraid if I use another cleaning agent in the process and don't rinse well enough it'll transfer to the finished product. Also the only thing I've ever used to de-label is hot water never used a cleaning agent.
 
I rinse with hot water after a pour, dishwasher all the bottles and store back in the box.
When I'm ready I fill up each bottle all the way with starsan/water and just dump out right before filling.
 
i used the bottle tree yesterday with the sanitizer and it worked fantastic.....really cut down the time and made it alot more organized
 
i used the bottle tree yesterday with the sanitizer and it worked fantastic.....really cut down the time and made it alot more organized

Cool!!! this is expandable too... every now and again I do a 10 gal batch and I don't have to rinse twice (mine is like 96 or 115 I haven't counted lately) but well worth the money!! Cheers!!!:mug:
 
I have the bottle tree that fits 90 bottles, with the vinator that sits on top. I will say that it is wonderful!

Like most of the others here I rinse my bottles out directly after pouring a beer. I usually wait till I have about 2 cases saved up then run them through the dishwasher to have a hot bath and dry.

On bottle day, I break out the bottle tree and put a little bit of sanitizer in the vinator. Get all of my bottles out and start the sanitizing process, doing this while heating the priming sugar cuts a bit of time off. Not to mention that it is easy to grab a bottle of the tree and fill it once you have them all sanitized!

:ban:
 

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