Sanitizing Bottles

well i was wondering if there was an easier way to sanitize the bottles besides using my ineffecient method of submerging them completely in my bucket of water with two cap fulls of iodopher sanitizer in it. This way was very tedious and time consuming especially when you have around 30 bottles to sanitizes. Would the hot water in a dish washer be enough to clean and sanitize the bottles as long as i used them right after to bottle my beer??


thanks for any replies


brew on!!

You could try putting your bottles in the oven for 20 minutes or so. I've never tried it but it sounds like a good idea. The trick is to put the bottles in the oven while the oven is still cold and let them heat up with the oven, so you don't shock the glass.

What size is your bucket? I purchased a 5 gal bucket at Home Depot and fill it with my Sanitize solution and I do 50 bottles in sets of about 6 at a time. I submerge them and let them fill (when the bubbling stops) so they stay under, then let them sit a minute drain them and put them on my bottle tree. I then grab the next 6 or 7. The bottle tree holds 48 bottles.


Tommy

Back when I didn't have much $$$ or equipment I used to sanitize all my bottles in the tub.

I changed out the shower head with a hand wand style so I could remove the shower head and use the rinse water straight out of the hose for rinsing.

I'm far from an expert, but I find that filling all the bottles takes too much time, water, and sanitizer. What I do is fill each bottle with about an inch of sanitized water. I give them a good shake with my thumb over the spout, let them sit about 20 minutes, give them another good shake, then rinse and fill soon after. Never had any problem and uses a lot less sanitizer. Never had a problem yet...

On the rare occasions when I bottle, I use two buckets and a washing up bowl.
Bucket 1 is placed on the left and filled with Iodophor.
Bucket 2 has been rinsed with Iodophor, but is empty. It is placed to the right of bucket 1.
The washing up bowl is placed to the right of bucket two.
Clean empty bottles are placed on the kitchen counter which is behind bucket 1.
The bottling bucket is placed on the kitchen counter above the washing up bowl..
I start by submerging a dozen bottles in bucket 1, wait for a minute, and then place them upside down in bucket 2.
Then I place another dozen bottles in bucket 1. The production line is now primed, and ready to roll.
Take the drained bottles from bucket 2, and place them in the washing up bowl.
Fill the bottles in the washing up bowl.
Loosely place caps in the filled bottles
Move the filled bottles to a suitable place for capping
Empty bottles from bucket 1 and place in draining bucket.
Fill bucket 1 with the next batch of bottles.
Cap the filled bottles, rinse their bottoms off (beer spills in the washing up bowl make the bottoms sticky.)
If there is any beer left in the bottling bucket, go back to Take the drained bottles from bucket 2 ...

You could use the dishwasher if it has a sanitizing cycle, the bottles fit in it, and it holds all the bottles, but you gave to wait an age for the bottles to cool.

-a.

When I bottle I use a Bottle Tree and Vinator Bottle Rinser. Make sure the bottles are completely clean, which is easy if you rinse them thoroughly right after pouring the beer out of one and sit it on the bottle tree to drain until you are ready to bottle another batch. Put some sanitizer inside the Vinator bottle rinser, place the bottle over the stem and give it 3-4 pushes. This will flush the entire inner surface of the bottle with sanitizer. Then just put the bottles back on the tree to drain until you are ready to fill them. Super easy.

John

Be very careful doing the Oven idea, you don't want to shock the glass. It's adviced to put the glass in, and slowly raise the heat. If I remember correctly from an I-Cast, it's 100 degrees every 15 minutes up to 300 degrees and then slowly bring it back down to room temperature doing the same thing. The wonderful thing about this is the fact that it doesn't just Sanitize the bottles, it Sterilizes them.

santizing the bottles is the part i hate.. i think no matter what you do its just time consuming.. i find that kegging it is so much easier..even though i like to have the bottles to give away!

Get a honking big rubbermaid tub of some sort--they're also good for partially submerging a bucket or carboy to control fermentation temp.

That way you can fit 1/2 or all of the bottles for a batch in one container. (Yeah, you use more sanitizer that way, but iodophor is fairly cheap.) Drain the bottles upside down on a bottle tree or in a clean dishwasher.

johnsma22 said:

When I bottle I use a Bottle Tree and Vinator Bottle Rinser. Make sure the bottles are completely clean, which is easy if you rinse them thoroughly right after pouring the beer out of one and sit it on the bottle tree to drain until you are ready to bottle another batch. Put some sanitizer inside the Vinator bottle rinser, place the bottle over the stem and give it 3-4 pushes. This will flush the entire inner surface of the bottle with sanitizer. Then just put the bottles back on the tree to drain until you are ready to fill them. Super easy.

John

Click to expand...

That's the bottle tree I have and it makes things a bit easier for sure. That Vinator looks interesting and I can see how that would make sanitizing a breeze.
I'll have to get one...I've never seen those before.
However I am a bit of a better safe than sorry (or anal) kind of guy so I would probably wet the outside of the bottles with sanitizer also. I use Star San so contact time is minimal.

Thanks for that post and pics John.

Tommy

hey thanks for the all replies and ideas it has been very helpful... sorry i couldn't reply sooner yesterday i was typing this post up in between bottling, racking and brewing (sundays are very busy days for me lol) and after i was done brewing my iron rat stout i had quite a few of my london brown's i had left and well lets just say i was in no state of mind to make an intelligent reply. thanks again for all the help.


brew on!!

Is it safe to fill bottles when they are still wet with sanitizer solution or should I wait for them to air dry?

YOOOEE said:

Is it safe to fill bottles when they are still wet with sanitizer solution or should I wait for them to air dry?

Click to expand...

I wash way in advance of bottling day so bottles are already clean and dry. But to answer your Q, yes its ok. Or maybe. Sanitizer is not effective when it dries. Are you asking if to sanitize, let dry then fill with beer?

In "How To Brew" he mentions running bottles through the dishwasher without soap. I did this yesterday, I'm hoping it worked. Also the bottles weren't 100% dry when I bottled. I hope they work out!

Watch out for the dishwasher if you use jet dry. Also I don't trust a dishwasher to get my small opening bottles cleans. I just soak in a bucket of oxy free and shake alot and rinse thoroughly.

kapbrew13,

Yes. I was referring to sanitizing the bottles, let ting them dry, then filling them... But if it is perfectly acceptable to fill wet sanitized bottles, then that is what I'll do as it eliminates the time waiting for the bottles to dry.

Thanks for the reply.

I've had good success using the dishwasher. Provided the bottles have been well rinsed/cleansed I give the inside a shot with a jet bottle washer and place them in a clean dishwasher with NO detergent. I run them through and let them complete the dry cycle and cool down a tad before bottling. You can keep them in the dishwasher and fill the bottles right on the open door of the dish washer, it keeps the drips and spills contained.

Vinator with a bottle tree. You can sanitize many bottles quickly with that equipment.

Woodland said:

I've had good success using the dishwasher. Provided the bottles have been well rinsed/cleansed I give the inside a shot with a jet bottle washer and place them in a clean dishwasher with NO detergent. I run them through and let them complete the dry cycle and cool down a tad before bottling. You can keep them in the dishwasher and fill the bottles right on the open door of the dish washer, it keeps the drips and spills contained.

Click to expand...

This is exactly what I did. Almost seemed too easy! I hope it works!

Thanks again for the replies...

I ended up scrubbing the bottles with a bottle brush in a sink full of warm water (no soap). Then they went into a sanitizing solution to soak. I basically filled a bottle up, covered the mouth of the bottle with my hand, and shook it vigorously to ensure the inside was completely covered. Emptied the bottle and then it went straight to bottling.