Quick Bottle Washing - Dishwasher?

I want to bottle today or tomorrow morning, but I'm a bit behind on my bottle preparation. Normally I hand wash 48 bottles with my bottle brush, but I just don't have the time.

Anyone use the dishwasher to do the initial cleaning on the bottles? Unfortunately there is JetDry in the machine that you cannot remove. Will this hurt it at all? Should I put the detergent tab in?

I know there's no gunk in the bottles since I just soaked them in OxyClean yesterday to de-label them, so this is just to do the pre-clean.

well the OxyClean took care of anything you need to worry about inside the bottles. the dishwasher will get all the stuff off the outside the bottles. it is unlikely that the water jets will get very far into the bottles. that being said i always wash my bottles in the dishwasher with soap. on the bright side the heat dry cycle will sanitize the bottles for you.

I just use my dishwasher to rinse off any dust on the outside of the bottles (after drinking I store them upside down after their oxyclean soak and rinse). Assuming that you thoroughly rinsed the inside of your bottles after the oxyclean soak you should only have to sanitize them.

Another one here that uses the dishwasher to "shine up" the bottles. I rinse well after the beer is poured out, and use the dishwasher with the heated dry and sanitize cycle just before bottling. Take out of the dishwasher, a quick dunk into StarSan, and insert beer.

I used my dishwasher the first couple times and found it to take more time than I liked. So I just rinse bottles well after I empty them and throw them on my bottle tree. When I can fill a case I pull them off the tree. Other than I just use a vinator with the bottle tree for sanitizing. I have had zero issues with this method.

I am hoping you rinsed the bottles after oxyclean. The dishwasher will not rinse the inside of the bottles.

mosquitocontrol said:

I am hoping you rinsed the bottles after oxyclean. The dishwasher will not rinse the inside of the bottles.

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Yeah, I rinsed all of them pretty well. Of course I haven't perfected the art of shrinking myself to fully explore how well I rinsed the inside, but normally I fill them up with cold water, dump it, and then swirl a bit more inside.

I just use the dish washer for sanitizing. A good bottle washer is well worth the investment, mine's 15 and whiney. Anybody know where I can find a new one?

I think one thing missing from the responses thus far is the use of jet dry. I think what jet-dry leaves behind will kill head retention like dish soap does. Anyway, the water would likely not get up in the bottles to adequately clean them.

I used to use my old dishwasher for sanitizing bottles, heat on of of course and no soap. This dishwasher never ever saw jet dry, and then it broke late last year. I have a new, better, much quieter dishwasher now, but no heated dry. Unfortunately jet dry is pretty necessary without a heated dry setting.

I rinse bottles well after I use them and then on bottling day put them in the dishwasher with no soap. Then I sanitize them in the sink.

ToddO said:

I rinse bottles well after I use them and then on bottling day put them in the dishwasher with no soap. Then I sanitize them in the sink.

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This is about exactly what I do, except I use my vinator to sanitize...

do not use P.E.T bottles in dishwasher, I just warped the opening on about 25 of my plastic bottles by using the dishwasher. Big mistake.....

Heat dry is the devil especially when using soap. It bakes on the soap residue and shortens the life of glass from thermal shock. It is also redundant if you are going to use a sanitizer before you bottle anyway. Not to mention the waste of electricity.
Soak in hot water, oxyclean, or bleach, scrub with bottle brush, rinse well and store. Sanitize with Iodophor or Star San before bottling and it will be fine.

I never heat dried, I just used sanitize on my diswasher.. never again. Oh well, good excuse to by some used corny kegs....

I rinse the bottles thoroughly after use.

On bottling day I simply put them in the dishwasher, sanitize setting, heated dry, no soap. No fuss, no hassle, works like a charm.

Thanks for the responses. We rarely use heat dry because of the extra electricity used.

In the end, my method ended up being.

1) 1-hour OxyClean soak to de-label. Bottles are always rinsed so any extra gunk was already gone.

2) In the Dishwasher on normal wash setting, sanitize cycle, no heat dry. Sanitize cycle was due to SWMBO needing to put some baby bottles through.

3) Vinator with StarSan.

4) Add Dunkelweizn.

A little different than my normal routine, but I think everything is going to be A-OK! If not, I'm going back to my hand-scrub routine.

Call me lazy but....

I rinse with hot water after drinking, dry upside down in dish rack, rinse again with hot water on brew day, sanitize with idophor and put in dishwasher as drying rack if available, if not, I put them on the counter. Then bottle. Never had any problems in my 20 plus brews over the last two years.

I like the Oxyclean soak for labels, I'll start that, my method was dish soap soak to get the commercial label off. I put my labels on with milk so they come right off during a quick rinse.

what if you have well water? I'm worried about sanitizing anything with our water, its pretty rough and I wouldn't drink it. About to do my first batch at home (with bottled water) and really worried about the sanitizing process

Weezknight said:

3) Vinator with StarSan.

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No need for this step if you use the sanitize setting in your DW.

superjunior said:

what if you have well water? I'm worried about sanitizing anything with our water, its pretty rough and I wouldn't drink it. About to do my first batch at home (with bottled water) and really worried about the sanitizing process

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Any harmful bacteria will be killed by the sanitizer. You should be fine.

arturo7 said:

No need for this step if you use the sanitize setting in your DW.

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No need for this step if you use your vinator with Star San.

Like Mose, I clean and de-label, rinse well, dry upside down on a commercial dishmachine rack, store upside down in milk crates, sanitize with vinator, bottle.

viking73 said:

Any harmful bacteria will be killed by the sanitizer. You should be fine.

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much thanks

just cleaned and delabeled some san miguel (that back label sucks) santize in dw then checked the apfelwein still couldy i guess i'll bottle in another two weeks