When bottling/sanitising...

Hope I'm posting in the right section...

After sanitising, do you bottle your beer while the insides of the bottles are still wet?

Otherwise you would have to air dry and I'm assuming they would become contaminated while waiting for them to dry...

Sorry it's such a dumb question.

It depends on the sanitizer you are using. I use Star San which is a wet contact sanitizer so wet is good. What sanitizer are you planning on using?

It's not a dumb question at all! Most sanitizers are "no-rinse" sanitizers, and are considered sanitized until they dry. Once they dry, though, they are once again susceptible to contamination. Bleach is an exception- I believe that even dry, it stays sanitary for a little while. But I have no idea if that is true in brewing- that goes back to my memory many years ago of briefly working in institutional food service.

The short answer is to bottle when still wet!

yopper said bottle when wet.
Who am I to argue?

Double Arrogant Bastard does this to me!

Thanks so much for the replies (and for not pointing out my spelling error in the title, argh)...

I'm using household bleach at this point unless I can find something better before bottling time. (I live in a small town with not much in the way of HB supplies).

The way I bottle is this...Never had a problem (yet)

1) Soak bottles in warm water with Oxy-Clean for 10-24 hours.
2) Scrub outside of bottles (get all the guck and crap off the bottles and make sure inside looks clean) then give a good rinse under clean water
3) Rinse or soak bottles in Star-San for a bit
4) Rinse under clean water again and place on bottle tree
5) When putting brew in bottles dont worry about remaining Star-San in bottles, thats ok for the brew and will not harm it or change the taste.

We have used this process for many many batches now and they have all come out fine.
Good luck.

NZGirl said:

Thanks so much for the replies (and for not pointing out my spelling error in the title, argh)...

I'm using household bleach at this point unless I can find something better before bottling time. (I live in a small town with not much in the way of HB supplies).

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If by 'NZ' in your name you mean New Zealand email Brewer's Coop in Auckland (sorry can't remember the address but should be in the yellow pages), Mike there is selling Star-San, probably the one of the best sanitisers on the market. It may seem expensive compared to other products but you use about 1.6mL per L so a little goes a long way.

Also check out realbeer.ning.com for some kiwi brewers.

Hope that helps.

BrianTheBrewer said:

The way I bottle is this...Never had a problem (yet)

1) Soak bottles in warm water with Oxy-Clean for 10-24 hours.
2) Scrub outside of bottles (get all the guck and crap off the bottles and make sure inside looks clean) then give a good rinse under clean water
3) Rinse or soak bottles in Star-San for a bit
4) Rinse under clean water again and place on bottle tree
5) When putting brew in bottles dont worry about remaining Star-San in bottles, thats ok for the brew and will not harm it or change the taste.

We have used this process for many many batches now and they have all come out fine.
Good luck.

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I wouldn't rinse Star-San out - Just let it soak for a little, dump it out, and fill the bottle up while its still wet.

First, I get my priming solution boiling and throw it in the freezer with a (sanitized) temperature probe. I then start sanitizing my bottles one by one and hang them on the botling tree. When the primer hits 70 F or so, I rack to a bottling bucket and start bottling. There is usually quite a bit of moisture in the bottles still, but I think most of it has drained by then. It's StarSan, so it doesn't matter.

If you are using a bleach solution, you should probably rinse with water that has been boiled and cooled. I highly recommend getting StarSan. It's a lot easier. Just order it on the internet if you have no HB places nearby.

Brian,

If you rinse that star san out of the bottle, you might as well not use any in the first place. Star-san is a no rinse santitizer. You put more icky stuff back into the bottle with the tap water.

zac said:

Brian,

If you rinse that star san out of the bottle, you might as well not use any in the first place. Star-san is a no rinse santitizer. You put more icky stuff back into the bottle with the tap water.

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+1 on this...(I never get what part of "no-rinse" & WET CONTACT don't people understand?)


It's pretty simple really...
No-rinse/no dry, or else the buggies won't die!:



Nzgirl, this thread has some great info/tips on using sanitisers effectively. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/sanitizer-question-54932/?highlight=sanitizer+question

Did ya'll see that Revvy quoted ME? And agreed with me?

happy bananna dance.

zac said:

Did ya'll see that Revvy quoted ME? And agreed with me?

happy bananna dance.

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DUDE! You are freakin' awesome! :rockin:

zac said:

Did ya'll see that Revvy quoted ME? And agreed with me?

happy bananna dance.

Click to expand...

bull8042 said:

DUDE! You are freakin' awesome! :rockin:

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But you haven't REALLY arrived until you end up in bull8042's sigline...Twice.

Revvy said:

But you haven't REALLY arrived until you end up in bull8042's sigline...Twice.

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Hehehe! Glad I could be there for you Revvy! You are my mentor and hero, after all.....

lol thanks guys

For a "hobby" there sure is a lot of waiting around, *sigh*

I need another primary to play with...

I think you'll find pretty quickly that extra buckets are just handy, even if you don't use them for fermenting.

If you haven't already, get a permanent marker and draw lines on your bucket(s) to mark the gallons/quarts/liters etc. I personally mark mine by the quart, but that is what we use in the US. You'll need to measure each increment just using tap water, pour it in and mark it on the water line. (You can't just use a ruler to divide the tick marks visually because buckets are usually tapered, so the tick marks won't be evenly spaced.)

When I brew, I like to boil 4 extra gallons first, cool it, then pour it into a sanitized spare bucket. Then I keep another one with 5 gallons of StarSan to soak the equipment (1 oz StarSan per 5 gal water). Having your spare buckets marked clearly just makes everything easier.

I did some small batch bottling last night using Star San to soak the inside of bottles before placing them on a sanitized bottling tree. I don't fear the foam. But there was so much foam that it was taking a portion of beer with it on its way out the top of the bottles.

I geeked by giving each bottle a very light rinse with RO water while trying to leave a little foam in the bottle. Probably not the best procedure. But it was taking the foam forever to dissipate.

yeoldebrewer said:

I did some small batch bottling last night using Star San to soak the inside of bottles before placing them on a sanitized bottling tree. I don't fear the foam. But there was so much foam that it was taking a portion of beer with it on its way out the top of the bottles.

I geeked by giving each bottle a very light rinse with RO water while trying to leave a little foam in the bottle. Probably not the best procedure. But it was taking the foam forever to dissipate.

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What I do when bottling with starsan sanitized bottles it to let it fill until the starsan flows out of the top. You can see a distinctive line between the sanitizer and the beer. When the beer gets to the sruface of the bottle, I pull the bottle down and off the wand. That way it purges the sanitizer from the bottle.

Revvy said:

What I do when bottling with starsan sanitized bottles it to let it fill until the starsan flows out of the top. You can see a distinctive line between the sanitizer and the beer. When the beer gets to the sruface of the bottle, I pull the bottle down and off the wand. That way it purges the sanitizer from the bottle.

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I would guess that a lot of the oxygen rides out with the StarSan too

Jonnio said:

I would guess that a lot of the oxygen rides out with the StarSan too

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The liquid rising from the bottom of the bottle upward does a pretty good job on it's own, but I'm sure the foam helps...Plus it's sanitizing on the way up as well.

Also when you use the "fill to spillover" method, you aren't wasting beer this way, just a few drops of sanitizer foam.

If you use a bottle tree or dish washer rack and keep the bottles upside down it's darn near impossible for any contaminate to get in them dry or wet.

I just rinse and check interior of the bottles and load them in my dishwasher. Put it on high temp wash, high temp rinse, high temp dry the night before. Never had a problem and can easilly fit 3 casses in there. No soap, no jet dry. Just plain heat.

It use my dish washer now too. It has a sanitize cycle. :rockin:

I have socked them in bleach watter and rinsed them two times with no problems as well.

I use the dishwasher, pots & pans cycle, sani rinse, sani dry.

Dishwasher definitely makes a nice rack for sanitized bottles. Bottle trees seem very convenient although I've haven't used one.

Same here. I clean/scrub the bottles after each use. Then, when I am ready to bottle, I do another cleaning (with OxyClean). I rinse the OxyClean off, then, place the bottles in the dishwasher. I do 2 runs of the dry cycle, then bottle. I haven't had a problem yet (but I have only done 3 batches).

I'd love to use the dishwasher, but every time I brew I am usually putting dishes in there to be washed. I think one time I was able to use the dishwasher to hold my bottles until time to fill.

I can see dipping the bottles in Starsan and setting upside down on the dishwasher rack would be so easy!