Sanatizing Bottles

It probably would've been smarter to ask first then do but it's too late for that now...

So I recently soaked my collection of used bottles (woodchuck and Great Lakes) in a mixture of warm water and oxyclean to remove the labels and adhesive (which worked great). When pulling the bottles out of the bucket I noticed that they had a slippery almost soapy feeling to them. Now that they're dry they feel normal.

My question is this: will the oxyclean have left some residue on the bottles that will affect my beer? What is the best way for me to sanitize at this point? I've debated on running them in my dishwasher on high temp with no soap or just soaking them in Star-San. What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance from a first batch newbie!

I've never had any issues running my bottles through the dishwasher. If it were me, I'd do it just to be safe. I am however, always really paranoid about sanitation and the like when I brew and I am definitely a beginner so that's not saying much.

You did rinse them well, right? If not, make sure you rinse that oxyclean residue. I use my dishwasher with no soap and 'heated dry' cycle for sanitation. Works for me. Lots of folks use a starsan soak or spray. Works for them. Try each method on 1/2 of your bottles and see which method works for you.

Aren't Woodchuck bottles twistoff? Twistoffs don't cap so well, and tend to either break at the neck, or lose pressure with time. If that's all you have be extra careful while capping.

I only know what works for me so far... so with said grain of salt..

Rinse after pouring beer. next day, set to soak in http://www.oxiclean.com/ to remove labels. Set to dru on bottle tree to drip dry.

Once I have 40 or so, Run through dishwasher no soap, use sanitizer and heat dry settings.
Spray bottle tryy with starsan, set bottles on it.. wait till bottling day.
Bottling day, in a spare 6.5 gal bucket, mix up 3gal of starsan, bottles go in bucket and get submerged (about 20 of them.)

Bottle out.. drip dry a sec, fill with beer....my bottle filler holder deal holds 8 bottles.. Once 8 are done, I cap them and put aside...

Repeat till all bottles are filled (or bottling bucket is empty...I hate that part)

I use a vinator (sp) to sanitize my bottles then place them on a tree before bottling... Also I have purchased two C & W crates for storing some of my bottles, and they offer drying trees that fit inside (so also an option). I will say that the crates are VERY nice... More are in my future...

MadCnty said:

I use a vinator (sp) to sanitize my bottles then place them on a tree before bottling... Also I have purchased two C & W crates for storing some of my bottles, and they offer drying trees that fit inside (so also an option). I will say that the crates are VERY nice... More are in my future...

Click to expand...

These?
http://www.cwcrate.com/

E_Marquez said:

These?
http://www.cwcrate.com/

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Yes those... My LHBS sells them already assembled for $17.00 each...

bfgcdub said:

It probably would've been smarter to ask first then do but it's too late for that now...

So I recently soaked my collection of used bottles (woodchuck and Great Lakes) in a mixture of warm water and oxyclean to remove the labels and adhesive (which worked great). When pulling the bottles out of the bucket I noticed that they had a slippery almost soapy feeling to them. Now that they're dry they feel normal.

My question is this: will the oxyclean have left some residue on the bottles that will affect my beer? What is the best way for me to sanitize at this point? I've debated on running them in my dishwasher on high temp with no soap or just soaking them in Star-San. What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance from a first batch newbie!

Click to expand...

You didn't rinse off the Oxyclean? Dude, it's SOAP... rinse them in clean water.

JimRausch said:

Aren't Woodchuck bottles twistoff? Twistoffs don't cap so well, and tend to either break at the neck, or lose pressure with time. If that's all you have be extra careful while capping.

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Nope. Woodchuck bottles are capped with a standard cap and require a bottle opener to open. In all likely hood I will probably cap the Great Lakes bottles first to practice on a normal bottle before I start on the woodchuck bottles.

evrose said:

You didn't rinse off the Oxyclean? Dude, it's SOAP... rinse them in clean water.

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Oops... Like I said total newb here. I guess I'll be running them through the dishwasher to clean the residue off (probably after a dunk in bucket of water)

bfgcdub said:

Oops... Like I said total newb here. I guess I'll be running them through the dishwasher to clean the residue off (probably after a dunk in bucket of water)

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Yeah, dunk them in a bucket of fresh water, then run them through the dw... you should be fine. Just be sure the inside gets rinsed well.

Remember, there's a difference between washing and sanitizing. Washing is just like doing dishes. Sanitizing is done immediately before bottling, and is typically done with a no-rinse chemical like StarSan. Rinse what you use to wash... don't rinse with the no-rinse sanitizer. haha.

bfgcdub said:

Oops... Like I said total newb here. I guess I'll be running them through the dishwasher to clean the residue off (probably after a dunk in bucket of water)

Click to expand...

Skip the dishwasher- the water won't go up into the inside of the bottles and rinse it well anyway. Just rinse them well under the faucet in the sink with warm water, and turn them upside down.

I just soaked a bunch of bottles in PBW the other night, then as I removed them from the tub they were soaking in, I gave them a few shots with my (also called a sulfite, I think?) to rinse them out, then put them on my bottle tree to dry. I donno if you have a vinator, but they're fantastic, and might be of use in the future if you plan on having to rinse tons of bottles... It also makes sanitation a breeze.

I'd do what Yooper says.

If I find some mold or nasties in my bottles / want to remove the labels I soak them in oxyclean and hot water, then hit them up with a bottle brush. Rinse them 3-4 times each! (yea I'm paranoid), and put them away to dry. Before I fill for long term storage I will dip in starsan solution. One nice thing I found about starsan is it seems to remove any oxyclean residue. I made the mistake of soaking a carboy in heavy oxy solution for about a week. After rinsing it out many times the residue did not want to come off. So I left the carboy full of starsan solution for a day and all the residue was gone jsut by dumping it out. The starsan worked well to remove any left over oxyclean!

Yooper said:

Skip the dishwasher- the water won't go up into the inside of the bottles and rinse it well anyway. Just rinse them well under the faucet in the sink with warm water, and turn them upside down.

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I don't use the dishwasher for final rinsing, that is done by hand... but sanitizing ...
if you have a washer with this setting and heat dry... it is another way to ensure sanitation..

People have been making beer for thousands of years before sanitation was understood... brewers stress over it because we want more success then failure i think,, in that reference... If you have the means to do the "extra" sanitation step in the dishwasher and give the outside a good rinse as well... why not...
Yes, you may say it's not needed, and likely Ben Franklin would have agreed

Thanks for the confirmation it is an extra step... as you clearly have had success without it (hence your recommendation)

I generally use the vinator for sanitizing, then place the bottles in the dishwasher rack (making sure that I have just finished a clean load of dishes in there, then spray it down with some StarSan, just to he sure the rack itself won't contaminate my bottles), then begin filling/capping.

However, I have been wanting to use the "sani-rinse" w/heated dry function on the dishwasher to sanitize my bottles that way (+1 by the way to the rinse the bottle out a couple of times with hot water immediately upon finishing the beer, and a PBW soak to remove any labels or scuz from the inside, followed by more rinsing as a cleaning method). My only concern is the Rinse-Aid...

Since I need to use rinse aid for regular dish-waging use, I am wondering if there's any way to basically empty the rinse aid reservoir. Or, if I turn the dial all the way down, will the amount of rinse aid used be minimal enough that I won't have any negative, head retention issues? Is it silly of me to worry about this and I should just use the dishwasher as is rinse aid and all (no detergent, obviously)?

This is also partially because I managed to bust my vinator; some heavy stuff fell on it and it cracked... I plan to replace it, but it'll be another week or two before I make it to my LHBS and I have two batches that both have been ready for bottling for over a week now (I'm getting impatient, as well as running low on drinking stock so I gotta get these babies priming ASAP!).

So, rinse aid thoughts? There's a part of me that thinks I shouldn't worry about it since so little water will actually make it inside the bottles anyway.

Also, while I'm at it...
How many uses do people tend to get out of the gaskets for the grolsch style swig top caps? How do you know when it needs to be replaced without just waiting for an improper seal, or something funny looking? I tend to replace em every 3 bottlings or so (they are so cheap when you buy em a gross at a time!), but wonder if maybe I'm being silly and can be getting a lot more use out of them.

Thanks!

My system-
1-fill 5 gallon bucket w/OxyClean
2-drink beer, rinse out bottle, let dry and store near the 5 gallons
3-when I have 12 bottles I put them in the bucket and leave them there until I have another 12 bottles
4-remove the lableless bottles and rinse in kitchen and set upside down to dry
5-when dry put in 6 packs and store in covered plastic boxes that hold about case and 1/2
6-on bottling day bring up what's needed and soak in StarSan for a few minutes
7-empty and place on dish washer rack w/bottling bucket sitting on counter above the washer.
8-take bottle and fill while sitting on my butt and place on kitchen island.
9-cap when all are full.

Thanks to Revvy for much of what I do.

dobie99 said:

However, I have been wanting to use the "sani-rinse" w/heated dry function on the dishwasher to sanitize my bottles that way (+1 by the way to the rinse the bottle out a couple of times with hot water immediately upon finishing the beer, and a PBW soak to remove any labels or scuz from the inside, followed by more rinsing as a cleaning method). My only concern is the Rinse-Aid...

Since I need to use rinse aid for regular dish-waging use, I am wondering if there's any way to basically empty the rinse aid reservoir. Or, if I turn the dial all the way down, will the amount of rinse aid used be minimal enough that I won't have any negative, head retention issues? Is it silly of me to worry about this and I should just use the dishwasher as is rinse aid and all (no detergent, obviously)?

This is also partially because I managed to bust my vinator; some heavy stuff fell on it and it cracked... I plan to replace it, but it'll be another week or two before I make it to my LHBS and I have two batches that both have been ready for bottling for over a week now (I'm getting impatient, as well as running low on drinking stock so I gotta get these babies priming ASAP!).

So, rinse aid thoughts? There's a part of me that thinks I shouldn't worry about it since so little water will actually make it inside the bottles anyway.



Thanks!

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Yes, my understanding is that the 'rinseaid' stuff will cause problems with formation and retention of your head, IF it gets inside the bottles. Now, unless your dishwasher is better than mine, not much water actually gets inside the bottle (that's why you don't use it to clean the bottles, just for heat sanitation). So, it MAY be OK, but I would still do my best to empty the container.

The dishwasher is the quickest method and it is effective, even without the sanitation function. As long as you have extended periods of steam, you're good. And the heated dry function on my dishwasher creates a ton of steam. I also have vinegar in my rinse aid for an additional level of sanitation. Leave the bottles on the rack as you bottle.

... edited... post removed actually... seemed a bit harsh after re-reading. Was meant to be humorous. Some might have missed the humor.