Up here in Portland, our tap water is very clean and drinkable. I have been sanitizing my bottles lately using bleach water and then rinsing them. But my question is, is it REALLY that important to do my post bleach rince with water that has been boiled? Or does it more depend on the location one lives in?
Sanitizing Bottles
- Thread starter Brak23
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BendBrewer
Well-Known Member
I highly suggest a no rinse sanitizer over your current method. Your water is probably fine, but bleach is tough to get rid of. It'll save you time and water.
Pickngrin
Well-Known Member
+1 on what BendBrewer said. I highly recommend a no-rinse solution. I used to used iodophor, and now use StarSan. Either is fine. If you have a dishwasher, another option is to sanitize the bottles in there (using heat).
Brak23
Well-Known Member
Sadly my dishwasher only can do a full cycle, it can't do just the heat cycle.
is Iodophor and Star-San only in brew shops? Or regular stores? I'd like to get rid of using bleach, I just haven't had a lot of extra time to figure out a better kind yet.
is Iodophor and Star-San only in brew shops? Or regular stores? I'd like to get rid of using bleach, I just haven't had a lot of extra time to figure out a better kind yet.
BendBrewer
Well-Known Member
Revvy recommends Teat Dip found in Feed Stores if going the Idosophor route. Same thing and much cheaper. But it looks like you are in Portland. Isn't there some brew shops around you?
BendBrewer
Well-Known Member
That Star San stuff is one of my best friends. It keeps so have a bucket and lid handy.
Star San plus this http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=1322&osCsid=932dcec780173e7fb137d9e8a9162d5e
Quick and easy.
Quick and easy.
NorthRiverS
Well-Known Member
Does Star-San foam a lot in the Vinator? I bought Saniclean instead for the Vinator for that reason.
NRS
NRS
ARittner
Well-Known Member
I get a lot of my bottles from friends who donate their empties to me, and they may or may not have been rinsed. They've also been sitting in their garage or basement, so who knows what's taken root in there.
So, my procedure, which is a pain in the butt, but gives me piece of mind is:
Soak all my bottles in tubs filled with hot water and Oxyclean for 2 days. This gets any labels off, and also loosens up any gunk inside. I usually soak a few extra bottles, since not all of them get through the procedure.
After that, in the sink, I use a bottle brush on each bottle to make sure it's clean, rinse, and give it a quick peek through the bottom to make sure there's nothing stuck. If there is, I toss the bottle. There's usually about 3 I can't save.
As I'm done with each bottle, it goes into the dishwasher. Bottom rack. My dishwasher can't do just a short cycle in combination with the extra hot wash, so I do a full cycle, extra hot with no detergent, and the dry cycle for the heat.
When they're cool, I bottle. I pull the bottles from the washer, give each one a few bursts of Star-San from the Vinator, bottle, and cap with caps that have been sitting in the Star-San in the Vinator's reservoir.
Like I said, it's really time consuming, but it's also really thorough. Since I give away the majority of my beer to friends, I want to make sure I don't give them moldy bottles. If it was just for myself, I might not be so paranoid.
-A
So, my procedure, which is a pain in the butt, but gives me piece of mind is:
Soak all my bottles in tubs filled with hot water and Oxyclean for 2 days. This gets any labels off, and also loosens up any gunk inside. I usually soak a few extra bottles, since not all of them get through the procedure.
After that, in the sink, I use a bottle brush on each bottle to make sure it's clean, rinse, and give it a quick peek through the bottom to make sure there's nothing stuck. If there is, I toss the bottle. There's usually about 3 I can't save.
As I'm done with each bottle, it goes into the dishwasher. Bottom rack. My dishwasher can't do just a short cycle in combination with the extra hot wash, so I do a full cycle, extra hot with no detergent, and the dry cycle for the heat.
When they're cool, I bottle. I pull the bottles from the washer, give each one a few bursts of Star-San from the Vinator, bottle, and cap with caps that have been sitting in the Star-San in the Vinator's reservoir.
Like I said, it's really time consuming, but it's also really thorough. Since I give away the majority of my beer to friends, I want to make sure I don't give them moldy bottles. If it was just for myself, I might not be so paranoid.
-A
ARittner
Well-Known Member
Not really. Not if you're fairly gentle. If you go nuts pumping away at it, it definitely will. But it hasn't been a problem for me.
-A
All the bottles that I have get throughly rinsed after use and soaked in oxi clean to remove labels. On bottling day I give each bottle a dunk in star san. I've been thinking about using the sanitize heat cycle on my dish washer prior to bottling to save time but I'm not sure how effective that is to killing all the nasties.
Using the dishwasher and Star San is redundant and unnecessary. One or the other is probably fine.
rycov
Well-Known Member
its ok to run it through the full cycle. just don't put any soap in it. thats what i do. just do it early enough to let the cycle finish before you need to be bottling
ARittner
Well-Known Member
Probably. But the dishwasher also has the added benefit of making sure there's no more Oxyclean on the bottles, seems to do a good job of getting rid of any glue residue I may have missed, and dries the bottles a lot more quickly than a bottle tree would. Plus like I said, it makes me feel better, even if it's just a security blanket. I don't mind the extra time. While the bottles are washing, drying, and cooling my beer is settling on the counter in the carboy, after being sloshed a bit when I carried it up from the basement.
-A
shipfaced
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using bleach in the dishwasher for years - no soap. Put it on normal cycle with roughly a little less than a cup of bleach - did I mention no soap? Also bleach the fermenter and let stand for 24.
Mine does, but it gives me the warm fuzzies to know that my star-san solution is strong enough.
Plus you can make a star-san beard.
krc333
Well-Known Member
I just put mine in the dishwasher as I drink beer and wash them on the bottom rack with my other dishes. I check the inside to make sure they are clean and then store them in my basement upside in the beer box until I’m ready to bottle. Knock on wood, I haven’t ever had any problems with contamination.
Using the heat of a dishwasher to sanitize already clean bottles sounds OK to me, but relying on a dishwasher to clean dirty bottles sounds very risky because the small size of the neck just isn't big enough to allow sufficient cleaning water into the bottle with sufficient force to clean out the crud.
-a.
-a.
Yes, I just read his post more carefully. I agree with you that it sounds very risky.
-a.
BrewinBigD
Well-Known Member
After theyre gunk free, i rinse em inside and out in hot water, stack them in the oven and. Heat them to 350F from room temp for a half hour and let them cool on the rack w the oven open before filling. Never had a problem!
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