Cleaning and Sanitizing Bottles

I am ready to bottle my first batch this Saturday 8.18.12. Is this viable as an acceptable way to clean and sanitize? I was planning on giving the bottles an overnight soak in a bleach bath. Then to santize, a bath of Lo-Star or whatever its called no-rinse sanitizer, then let the bottles dry on a rack. Any feed back would be appreciated as this is my first batch, I want to make sure I do things correctly.

Cleaning- Overnight soak in oxyclean followed by a thorough rinising.

Santizing- The sanitizers we use are wet contact/no-rinse sanitzers. That means they are at their most effective when the sanitizer is still wet and clinging to the surface. Anything that then comes in contact with that sanitizer barrier is then neutralized. On the other hand if we let out sanitizer dry, anything landing on the surface renders that object no longer sanitized. So you want to just sanitize fresh.

Check out my bottling sticky for more tips and tricks.

I like oxyclean for soaking bottles. But if you rinse out the bottles immediately after pouring, there really is no soak required. I rinse them out 3 times with hot water and drain upside down. Put them in storage dry.

Then when its time to bottle, I use a vinator with starsan. You can also pour 1/2 oz or so and swish thoroughly, although this will take much longer. Bottle tree makes draining the residual starsan easy. Agree with revvy about keeping surfaces wet with starsan prior to bottle filling.

I am very new to this hobby but I figured I'd let you know how I bottled the last time. Everything I read on here made me alittle worried about bottling but it turned out fine. After finishing a beer I would rinse the bottle out and throw it in the dishwasher and run it with the dishes. After that store them until bottling time. On bottling day I loaded the dishwasher with just beer bottles and run the sanitation cycle on my dishwasher with no soap. While the dishwasher was running I sanitized everything I was going to need to bottle. I have a plastic tub that can fit 6 bottle completely submerged. I filled up the tub with some star-san and threw six bottles in there along with the bottle caps. Pulled out a bottle and dumped the star san back into the tub. Then filled the bottle in the sink using a bottling wand as to save on post bottling cleanup time in case of drips and placed a bottle cap on top and placed the full bottles on a towel on kitchen counter. Finished filling all six bottles that were soaking in star san and placed 6 new bottles into tub. Then went and capped, rinsed, dried, and stored the 6 full bottles. It took me roughly 3 hours start to finish to do a 5 gallon batch. Again I am pretty new to this but this is how I did it and it worked good for me.

I am sure tired of people saying not to rinse equipment with water after its been sanitized, doesn't make frickin difference, I do it everytime and after ten batches of beer, no infection. Just don't use toilet water, common sense, I even use the outside garden hose.

Why would you bother to rinse a "no rinse" sanitizer? It's just extra work.

smalltownbrewer said:

I am sure tired of people saying not to rinse equipment with water after its been sanitized, doesn't make frickin difference, I do it everytime and after ten batches of beer, no infection. Just don't use toilet water, common sense, I even use the outside garden hose.

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You'll do it until you get your first infection, and then maybe you'll understand why.

Just because you do something stupid, and don't have a repercussion from it, doesn't mean that some day you won't. Just that you've been lucky.

I clean all my bottles with Oxyclean, rinse with my jet sprayer, then sanitize w/ Starsan in a bucket. If I have help we do a production line of this, if I'm alone I do all the bottles in Oxyclean, then rinse them all in a batch, then sanitize them all. I line up the sanitized bottles, with foam clinging, on the floor and bottle them all in a line, then move them to the table in batches and cap.

smalltownbrewer said:

I do it everytime and after ten batches of beer, no infection.

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So you're a new brewer then, eh. No reason to rinse with water, that defeats the purpose of a no rinse sanitizer. Don't fear the foam n00b

idigg said:

So you're a new brewer then, eh. No reason to rinse with water, that defeats the purpose of a no rinse sanitizer. Don't fear the foam n00b

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Yeah, wow, 10 whole batches, eh? I'm awed by his vast experience and expertise.

smalltownbrewer said:

I am sure tired of people saying not to rinse equipment with water after its been sanitized, doesn't make frickin difference, I do it everytime and after ten batches of beer, no infection. Just don't use toilet water, common sense, I even use the outside garden hose.

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I'm terrible at telling when someone is goofing. Are you goofing?

passedpawn said:

I'm terrible at telling when someone is goofing. Are you goofing?

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No not goofing, but I use sodium metabisulfate, which a rinse sanitizer, just saying fresh tap water doesn't cause infections, its the handler.

Revvy said:

Yeah, wow, 10 whole batches, eh? I'm awed by his vast experience and expertise.

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Screw you loser, just stating facts. Bet your a real winner.

smalltownbrewer said:

Screw you loser, just stating facts. Bet your a real winner.

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Ruuhhh, ohhhh.

smalltownbrewer said:

Screw you loser, just stating facts. Bet your a real winner.

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Yeah, actually I have won a few medals for my beers, most of those recipes I've posted on here. That comes with a willingness to learn, and experience.

*shrug*

smalltownbrewer said:

No not goofing, but I use sodium metabisulfate, which a rinse sanitizer, just saying fresh tap water doesn't cause infections, its the handler.

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yes, but not everyone has fresh tap water. a lot of people are on wells or have chemicals in the water that can metabolize in beer. don't blame the handler, blame chemistry. you're lucky because you have clean water. don't presume to know what everyone else's water is like.

In short, you should ALWAYS rinse with clean (read filtered/boiled) water. Congrats because you get to skip a step.

And WHY use a rinse sanitizer, when you save time, money and water by using a no rinse?

SoonerDoc said:

Why would you bother to rinse a "no rinse" sanitizer? It's just extra work.

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I did the same up until this last set of batches were bottled. I would StarSan and then rinse twice to make sure all the StarSan was gone.

For me it was due to mentally get over putting something I was going to be drinking in ....... BUBBLES. Seriously. Bubbles meant soap or soapy and I couldn't get past that my beer wasn't going to have soap in it. I know it's "no-rinse sanitizer" but the appearance of bubbles wasn't going over to me.

Finally, when I bottled the last 2 batches a week and a half ago I FORCED myself not to rinse the bottling bucket, syphon, tube, bottling wand or bottles or ANYTHING!

I DID worry about the "soapy" taste and after carbing for only a week I threw a 6pack in the fridge and the next day tried 1 out. Guess what ....... NO SOAPY TASTE OR ANYTHING!

It actually took me watching a "StarSan worms" or something video on here or youtube to get me over the worry. From now on ... NO MORE RINSING OUT THE STARSAN!

Oh, I have to add that I am OCD about a lot of things and I think one of my OCDs kicked in with the bubbles thing. Some of the OCDs actually help with my brewing(cleaning and sanitizing etc), but some miiiiiight be a henderance. I'll never admit the latter, though.

solbes said:

but if you rinse out the bottles immediately after pouring, there really is no soak required. I rinse them out 3 times with hot water and drain upside down. Put them in storage dry.

Then when its time to bottle, i use a vinator with starsan. You can also pour 1/2 oz or so and swish thoroughly, although this will take much longer. Bottle tree makes draining the residual starsan easy. Agree with revvy about keeping surfaces wet with starsan prior to bottle filling.

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+1

I think they're called no rinse sanitizers because they don't need rinsed. Just a wild guess.

smalltownbrewer said:

No not goofing, but I use sodium metabisulfate, which a rinse sanitizer, just saying fresh tap water doesn't cause infections, its the handler.

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Sulfites are a PITA. Why make things harder on yourself?
I dont even use them for wine equipment/bottles anymore, just for gassing corks and sanitizing musts before pitching.

smalltownbrewer said:

Screw you loser, just stating facts. Bet your a real winner.

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Dude, the winking smiley probably meant he was being.sarcastic. chill out a bit, people are only trying to help, and eleminate extra steps/make sanitation easier.

Revvy said:

Yeah, actually I have won a few medals for my beers, most of those recipes I've posted on here. That comes with a willingness to learn, and experience.

*shrug*

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This is my favorite response to being called a loser. Ever. Kudos Revvy.

woody34 said:

I think they're called no rinse sanitizers because they don't need rinsed. Just a wild guess.

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I know this, but seeing bubbles wasn't "O.K." for me.

It is now though. That step has been removed from my beer making. AAAaaahhhhhh! It feels good to be free!

Hackwood said:

I know this, but seeing bubbles wasn't "O.K." for me.

It is now though. That step has been removed from my beer making. AAAaaahhhhhh! It feels good to be free!

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I understand. But how could u look at krausen and trub, only to be grossed out (for lack of a better term) by bubbles? Just messing with you. Mostly rhetorical question.

That part was just "Part of the deal" for making beer. Biproduct/waste. I could deal with that. It's the DAMNED(haha) soap in the bottles and buckets that stuck me.

Don't worry though, I'm brewing 2 batches today and not a single drop of StarSan will be rinsed. I will "BE STRONG MY BROTHER AND DEFEAT THIS ENEMY"!

HAHAHAHA