Bottle Sanitizing Question...

I don't know him, but then again, I don't get out much. I live outside of Farragut. Have him drop me an e-mail, my taps are always open.

tnlandsailor said:

I don't know him, but then again, I don't get out much. I live outside of Farragut. Have him drop me an e-mail, my taps are always open.

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Awesome, I will tell him.

I visited the Sam Adams website. Under home brewing he advocates using bleach as a sanitizer........ or is he just trying to be misleading? I think the issue of using bleach gets about a 50/50 split. Are there better things to use? Yes. But some people are set in their ways and are unlikely to change. If something works or you, stick with it. Personally, I like all the home brews I ever tried, and techniques were widely varied.

There is one other point that really has to be addressed from the original post. I am amazed that in five pages of discussion it was overlooked.

Forty eight bottles? Dude! Buy a couple of six packs of something good and drain those puppies (and I don't mean down the sink!). You are likely to need about fifty six bottles (plus or minus a few), and there is nothing more painful than running out of bottles before you run out of beer to go in 'em.

Yeah, I went scouring through the house when I first brewed looking for pop bottles to quickly sanitise and use since I was about a six pack short, ended up putting it into a 2 L pop bottle. I learned quick. I was brewing 5gal Can so that about 6 or 6.5gal US and hadn't realized that at the time. I assumed it was a 5gal us carboy.
I used to call them "canadian sized" carboys. haha
I told our British neighbor (who was a HB'er) that the 2 L bottle was a Canadian sized beer.

it's tuff. all the sacrifices we make so our homebrews will have a nice little tinted home ! :~)

DeRoux's Broux said:

it's tuff. all the sacrifices we make so our homebrews will have a nice little tinted home ! :~)

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It is the necessary sacrifices - like downing a couple of sixers of quality microbrews - that truly separate the Master Brewer from the dilettantes and pretenders! It is a sacrifice I am willing to make for the sake of my art! :cross:

evans5150 said:

I didn't start this thread so that people could argue. I was hoping that this was a forum where people would "come together" for the love of brews and brewing. I love beer and am just getting started in brewing my own. I definitely appreciate ALL of the suggestions in this thread. I was told by my local homebrewer to use a solution of 1 tbsp of bleach per gallon of water. It is used as a cleanser and a sanitizer. The owner of the shop that told me this has been brewing for 25 years. He is also a National Judge in the Beer Judge Certification Program. He is also a leader and participant in the Home Wine and Beer Trade Association. I'm not saying that his info is the be all to end all when it comes to it....but his info along with other info here makes sense to me. I will start with bleach and move up if I notice any problems. I like to have options. Thanks all...and please stop the nonsense of name calling and backlashing. ENJOY A HOMEBREW!!

evans5150

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pretty much that is all that needed to be said a while ago.

I love beer too.

Man, I got in on this too late, too! Well, this topic has been done to death before - but not to this level of fever pitch! Yee-haw!

Well, here's what had been doing for nine years now: I soaked them in the bleach/water dilution El Pisto mentioned, then rinsed the hell out of them in hot water. The night before, I loaded them in the dishwasher and ran them without any soap whatsoever.

Now, here's where things differ: During the last year or so I have skipped bottle 'sanitation' with any kind of chemical or cleanser altogether. I now only bleach soak and scrub bottles that have been donated or are of unknown origin.

Now, when I open a bottle of commercial or homebrew and pour it into a glass I immediately rinse the bottles thoroughly three times with hot tap water and air dry it upside down, then store it. I run them through the DW the night before bottling, same as before. And, so far, it works!

My way is the way it should be done - I am right and the rest of you are wrong - all wrong! Bwaa-ha-ha-ha-haaa!:cross:

Rhoobarb said:

My way is the way it should be done - I am right and the rest of you are wrong - all wrong! Bwaa-ha-ha-ha-haaa!:cross:

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oh yea!?!?!? well i do it this way and it's the shhhiizzzz-nit!

I tired roobarb's method 4 times. Last two times both had 1 bottle with sumthin wierd growing on the bottom. Fist contminated bottles I've ever had.

Those 2 times I put though the last was cycle (where the second soap chamber clicks open) with no soap and used the hot sani dry cycle.

SteveM said:

There is one other point that really has to be addressed from the original post. I am amazed that in five pages of discussion it was overlooked.

Forty eight bottles? Dude! Buy a couple of six packs of something good and drain those puppies (and I don't mean down the sink!). You are likely to need about fifty six bottles (plus or minus a few), and there is nothing more painful than running out of bottles before you run out of beer to go in 'em.

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SteveM,

I was actually ahead of MYSELF on this one!! I buy quite a bit of Stone Brewing Company and Rogue Beer...so I have about 10 twenty-two ounce bottles sitting around waiting to be cleaned and sanitized. They have the painted on labels so I will never get those off...but it's a start in case I am short on bottles. Thanks for the heads up though!

evans5150

I won't use iodine. Real or imagined, I get a taste if I use it. I suppose the same could result in any of the methods of sanatizing. No one has to stick to particular rules. Heck we all got into this because we didn't like the swill on the shelf and wanted something different. We all experiment at our own rates and create our own. By whatever methods, the proof in what works is its result.

DeRoux's Broux said:

oh yea!?!?!? well i do it this way and it's the shhhiizzzz-nit!

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Well what way?

I like cleaning mine with gasoline. Gives it that nice petrol flavor. Seems to leave an oily residue though.

I like cleaning mine with gasoline. Gives it that nice petrol flavor. Seems to leave an oily residue though.

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No REAL BREWER uses gasoline . . . . unless they light it afterwards

Yeah I know a kinda late poke in the eye but it was my first chance:cross:

I used to light it on fire, but the bottles blew up.

Passload said:

Well what way?

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just be'n a smart a**

Just flicked through the post and noticed some of you have a real downer when it comes to using bleach.

It has served the homebrew trade well for many years but it must be proper 'thin' bleach, unsented and with no agents that make it cling to surfaces. Fortunately this stuff is easy to find, certainly here in the UK as it is usualy labled as thin bleach and if not its the stuff that costs around 15p per litre in the plain bottles.

Who ever said brewerys dont use bleach was wrong, not entirely but pretty much wrong. A common cleaning and sanitising routine would be to clean the 'big stuff' with peracetic acid which fortunately doesnt need rinsing and all the little stuff like jugs, funnels, sample points, pipe work etc will be kept in a no rinse solution (120ppm) of Sodium Hypochlorite...BLEACH. (incidently the sample points are made from stainless steel but the dilution isnt enough to adversley effect them, not within a reasonable tme frame anyway)

If anyone is interested 120ppm equates to 1/2 tsp per litre. Here's a link to a brewery near me that uses it...note the awards section...if bleach does effect your beer, it would seem it was for the best.HOPBACK BREWERY/

Semper Fi is going to come back here and get you, you know.

probably should keep quiet except the fact I have 3 years experience in a large winery. KMS (potassioum metabisulfite) is the major way to clean tanks and equipment except for those really gunked up ball valves and such then they did use household bleach to soak. This came from a 30 year experienced wine maker. It worked.

Can't we just let this thread die??????

loop

No.

Sorry, I just had to do it.

bikebryan said:

If you are using the standard BTF Iodophor, you aren't mixing at a sufficient rate to sanitize effectively. The standard measure of Iodophor is 1 capful for 2.5 gallons to get you an effective 12.5 ppm ratio.

Your dishwasher uses more than 2.5 gallons. Your 3 gallons in your bucket is also too much for proper sanitizing. You may have been OK, but sooner or later it may catch up to you.

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I just looked at the bottle of BTF I have..
1/4 ounce per 2.5 gallons for 12.5ppm.

1 capfull =1/2 ounce.

Maybe its because its the Quart bottle and not the 16 ouncer? I use 1 cap per 4.5-5 gallons and the water is pretty dark .Almost seems to much to me sometimes.