bottle sanitizing

I'm about to brew my first batch! In the meantime, I'm trying to get everything ready to roll. One of the things I of course need to do is sanitize my bottles.

Here's my question....is it possible to sanitize the bottles ahead of time, and then store them so that you can be sure you don't get any contamination? I would think that leaving them sitting out for a couple days is a good way to end up with problems, but I might be being too cautious.

Anyone want to share their methods? I just cant see myself sanitizing 50 bottles right as I am bottling the beer.

Any help would be much appreciated.

cover the opening with aluminum foil. Put them in a cold oven, set oven to 340 F. Leave for an hour once oven hits 340. Turn off the oven and let the bottles cool slowly in the oven. With the foil, they should stay sanitized indefinitely.

You can if you cover each with foil or store them upside-down.

I just rinse them in the sink by dipping them in watter for a few seconds and then shaking them with my thumb over the opening and then dip them in iodopher than shake again. I do two at a time, one in each hand. 55 bottles might take 10 minutes or so. I can bottle five gallons in about one hour (with everything cleaned and put away.)

Easiest way to sanitize, IMHO, is to mix up a spray bottle of starsan. Then just before you bottle you just give the bottles a couple sprays through the mouth, swirl around and dump in the sink. Bottle while wet and you're golden.

If you use a no-rinse sanitizer like starsan, you want to bottle when wet. If you do it ahead of time and let it dry, then you're leaving your bottles open to whatever might be floating around in the air.

I wouldn't....the best sanitizers, the ones that re recommend are no rinse, wet contact. Meaning you rack or bottle right onto the set with sanitizer surface. If sanitiser is left to dry, you have cut it's efficacy in half, whether you cover the bottles in tinfoil or not.

I believe, if you want to insure that you don't have infections issues, and ruined batches, is not to cut corners with your sanitization process.

Why do you think you can't see yourself doing the proper way and sanitizing 5o bottles on bottling day? It takes me 45 minutes to bottle a 5 gallon batch of beer, and that includes sanitizing them all.

My process is thoroughly detailed here...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

Been brewing for abour 8 years or so and have never sanitized (with sanitizer) bottles. When I am ready to bottle, my 98% clean, label free bottles are loaded in the dishwasher for a high heat wash/heat dry/no soap. I do this the day before bottling and don't open the DW until I am ready to bottle.

Good Luck!

DurangoHomeBrewMafia said:

Been brewing for abour 8 years or so and have never sanitized (with sanitizer) bottles. When I am ready to bottle, my 98% clean, label free bottles are loaded in the dishwasher for a high heat wash/heat dry/no soap. I do this the day before bottling and don't open the DW until I am ready to bottle.

Good Luck!

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Ditto on Durango - same process for 17 years. Put clean bottles in the dishwasher the night before - no soap, high heat cycle. I bottled my Imperial IPA today - can't wait!

DurangoHomeBrewMafia said:

Been brewing for abour 8 years or so and have never sanitized (with sanitizer) bottles. When I am ready to bottle, my 98% clean, label free bottles are loaded in the dishwasher for a high heat wash/heat dry/no soap. I do this the day before bottling and don't open the DW until I am ready to bottle.

Good Luck!

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I heard that myself. I haven't actually tried it, but my logical sense. I think that is the COA I am going to try. Anyone else do it this way?
Oh...does that tatic only work w/ bottles or is there any other equipment or things of that sort, that this would be a good way to sanitize?

Do any of you use the oven route? Any tips on how to do that would be appreciated since our dishwasher's labels are all pretty much faded off and it's impossible to tell the specific settings.

Thanks!

Superbad said:

Do any of you use the oven route? Any tips on how to do that would be appreciated since our dishwasher's labels are all pretty much faded off and it's impossible to tell the specific settings.

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Hah, yeah, I would definitely advise against using that dishwasher for anytihng related to sanitization; if it is as old as you insinuate, then I doubt it is working within the specifications it was designed for.

Superbad said:

Do any of you use the oven route? Any tips on how to do that would be appreciated since our dishwasher's labels are all pretty much faded off and it's impossible to tell the specific settings.

Thanks!

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See post #2

I do it the day before and leave the oven closed until bottling time.

I personally take pride in all steps of brewing, gives me a much better sense of accomplishment after slaving away (maybe not slaving) to have the final product. In my opinion what is another 30 minutes of work to ensure that the bottles are clean and sanitized. besides, it gives you 30-60 minutes of drinking and relaxing prior to bottling. To the original poster, if you are that concerned about cutting corners with bottling, why not just throw some sanitizer in a keg, swirl it around, dump it out and then keg?


Edit:
I don't want to seem like i am saying cut corners on the keg, but what i meant to say was it takes much less time to clean and sanitize 1 keg then it does to do 50ish bottles

I did my first batch with glass swing-top bottles (these things look seriously cool, by the way. And bottling is a *breeze*) a couple of weeks ago. After quite a bit of research, I determined that my washing machine (high heat wash cycle at 70 degress C) was hot enough to sanitize. I have room for 24 bottles, so I had to do two cycles. I took the first batch out, capped them to keep air out, did the second batch, and left them in the DW until I was ready to bottle.

Opened up the first bottle last night, and it was perfectly fine - could have been luck, of course, but based on my admittedly limited experience, I think a dishwasher run on clean bottles, with no soap, hot water cycle while the wort is boiling is just about as no-brainer easy as you can possibly get.

Oh, did I mention how seriously sexy these glass swing-top bottles are? :rockin:

I have used the oven with no ill effects, palmer mentions in how to brew that your bottles will be sterile if you properly bake them.

I'd read that section of how to brew before using the technique. Honestly, Starsan on bottling day is much less of a hassle than foiling, loading and unloading 50 bottles from the oven.

I have used my dish washer many times. I can get 110 bottles in it with stubbies on the top rack. Still the dishwasher has to go through every cycle and it takes a few hours. Iodopher is much faster. I have noticed that bottling with the bottles still warm gives the yeast a good jump start.

I have been doing a modified version of the dishwasher technique. When I load my bottles into the dishwasher, I have a spray bottle with a slightly stronger iodophor dilution that I spray into each bottle. They each get a good swirl and are put in to drip as the dishwasher does it's thing. I bottle right after it runs, still hot and wet. I have never had a problem with this method in several years.

Maybe not the best technique, but it works for me.

My first bottling day I sort of went over the edge with the cleaning. I cleaned each bottle with a cleaning agent and a bottle brush, rinsed, placed into the dishwasher for the high heat cycle, then dipped them into a no-rinse sanitizer.

After that batch every bottling process there after has been just the dishwasher without any problems thus far. (Note: After I pour a beer I place the empty bottle into water for soaking so I do not get some wild science experiment started)

Don't forget to sanitize your bottle caps, I say this because I forgot on my first brew but got lucky..

I took some tips from the link Revvy posted for my last bottling and I think it worked very well. I did end up buying a Vinator and that also made life much easier. Briefly, I first get all the dishes out of the dishwasher. Then I sanitize them all with the Vinator and put them top down in the racks. I then put my bottling bucket above the dishwasher so any spills go right on the door. All I do then is grab a bottle from the rack and fill it.

One other point, before I put a bottle away for storage I make sure it's clean. First I try to make sure each bottle is clean after use by rinsing quickly with water. I then store them in a small rack upside down to dry. When I get a bunch ready I soak and rinse with Oxyclean. They go back to the rack to dry then they go upside down into a cardboard case where I store them.

Sanitizing bottles is overrated. If the bottles are clean, there is enough alcohol in the beer to take care og any nasties you would have to worry about.

Jaysus said:

Sanitizing bottles is overrated. If the bottles are clean, there is enough alcohol in the beer to take care og any nasties you would have to worry about.

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Yeah, right.....



Someday that will bite you in the ass.

I HOPE the Op ignores most of the crap in this thread. I have seen some of the worst attitudes and advice about one of the most IMPORTANT aspects of brewing. If you guys wanna cut corners and play russian roulette with your beer fine, but you have to be careful when giving new brewers ADVICE who are just starting out. There's a big difference between opinions and advice, and you know what they say about opinions....

I agree Rev. This isn't one of those topics that can be disputed like fly vs batch sparge etc. Cleanliness and Sanitation throughout the cold side of the brewing process is an absolute must!

The 2 peices of equipment that will make every bottling session a breeze are a vinator and a jet bottle washer that screws onto a standard faucet.

-Clear out dishwasher, spray with sanitizer to sanitize the pegs (or get a bottle tree)
-Jet a bottle with the jet sprayer.
-pump on the vinator
-place on bottle tree or on dishwasher pegs

of course you should always clean the bottles right after use. I like the jet sprayer just to blast out any debris or dust that might have settled.

Thanks everyone for weighing in on this topic. I wasn't expecting such a contentious debate, but I learned a lot from everyone's viewpoint.

Part of the reason that I asked this question is that this will in fact be my first batch of home brew, so my concerns about the time it takes to sanitize so many bottles may be misplaced.

The vinator does look like a great solution, but I want to wait until I try a few batches before I get too crazy with equipment.

I was considering just filling my (clean) primary fermenter bucket with a water/sanitizer solution, and batch soaking the bottles for a minute, then transferring to a sanitized dishwasher rack as the last poster suggested. Any reason this wouldn't work?

My local supply shop gave me a sanitizer called 1step, but I haven't seen that mentioned here. Anyone know if this product is adequate?

Lastly, I was hoping to recycle some comercially bewed beer bottles that I have been collecting as I empty them of their contents (so far the best part of this process, haha). I was planning on removing the labels, and cleaning them thoroughly. This would obviously save me the expense of buying a bunch of empties. Is this an acceptable solution, or am I setting myself up for trouble?

Sorry for the multiple questions here, but again I'm new at this and just want to make sure I don't have wasted effort on the first attempt.

Thanks again for the responses.

Zero said:

Thanks everyone for weighing in on this topic. I wasn't expecting such a contentious debate, but I learned a lot from everyone's viewpoint.

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In my limited time here I think this is actually a tame debate so no worries!

Part of the reason that I asked this question is that this will in fact be my first batch of home brew, so my concerns about the time it takes to sanitize so many bottles may be misplaced.

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I've been there so I can relate.

The vinator does look like a great solution, but I want to wait until I try a few batches before I get too crazy with equipment.

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I also can relate to this since I thought the same thing. Perfectly good plan if you ask me. If you start to enjoy the hobby then consider this a good purchase.

I was considering just filling my (clean) primary fermenter bucket with a water/sanitizer solution, and batch soaking the bottles for a minute, then transferring to a sanitized dishwasher rack as the last poster suggested. Any reason this wouldn't work?

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I think that's fine. I did that with my first few batches but I didn't use the rack until later because I didn't read that thread from Revvy that gave me the idea. I think you'd be fine indefinitely using a plan like this and never need a vinator. Just be sure to follow the instructions on the sanitizer (i.e. if it's no rinse then don't rinse).

My local supply shop gave me a sanitizer called 1step, but I haven't seen that mentioned here. Anyone know if this product is adequate?

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I haven't used it but I would guess it's fine.

Lastly, I was hoping to recycle some comercially bewed beer bottles that I have been collecting as I empty them of their contents (so far the best part of this process, haha). I was planning on removing the labels, and cleaning them thoroughly. This would obviously save me the expense of buying a bunch of empties. Is this an acceptable solution, or am I setting myself up for trouble?

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Of course that's acceptable! As long as the bottles aren't twist off. Here's a tip - I've found that soaking most bottles in the sink with Oxyclean will make the labels fall right off. Some brands use insanely tough glue on their labels but most will work with this method. It also leaves the sink nice and shiny. Just be sure to rinse the Oxyclean out before storing them. Also, if you store them upside down they should be ready for the sanitizing and not require another cleaning. Biggest problem though is you start to collect a lot of bottles.

Sorry for the multiple questions here, but again I'm new at this and just want to make sure I don't have wasted effort on the first attempt.

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Again, I've been there. I've bottled 5 batches and have 2 more in fermenters. It really does help to relax a bit. It also helps to start thinking ahead about the next batch or working a long term plan for a supply line. Once you think long term, it takes a lot of pressure off.

I would be careful using your primary bucket for sanitizing because of the chance you may scratch the inside somehow. I used a mild bleach solution, then dishwasher for my 1st batch, then after reading the sanitizing thread (and getting a funky taste in some bottles of my 1st brew) took Revvys advice and got a dedicated sanitizing bucket and a gallon of 1% Iodine solution at Tractor Supply. I make a 4 to 5 gallon batch of sanitizer that sets right beside my while Im bottling and shove in about 12 bottles or so, pull them out one at a time, shake off any excess and bottle, my caps sit in a big glass measuring cup of the same solution on my other side.

Zero said:

Thanks everyone for weighing in on this topic. I wasn't expecting such a contentious debate, but I learned a lot from everyone's viewpoint.

Part of the reason that I asked this question is that this will in fact be my first batch of home brew, so my concerns about the time it takes to sanitize so many bottles may be misplaced.

The vinator does look like a great solution, but I want to wait until I try a few batches before I get too crazy with equipment.

I was considering just filling my (clean) primary fermenter bucket with a water/sanitizer solution, and batch soaking the bottles for a minute, then transferring to a sanitized dishwasher rack as the last poster suggested. Any reason this wouldn't work?

My local supply shop gave me a sanitizer called 1step, but I haven't seen that mentioned here. Anyone know if this product is adequate?

Lastly, I was hoping to recycle some comercially bewed beer bottles that I have been collecting as I empty them of their contents (so far the best part of this process, haha). I was planning on removing the labels, and cleaning them thoroughly. This would obviously save me the expense of buying a bunch of empties. Is this an acceptable solution, or am I setting myself up for trouble?

Sorry for the multiple questions here, but again I'm new at this and just want to make sure I don't have wasted effort on the first attempt.

Thanks again for the responses.

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First off, Onestep is not TECHNICALLY a sanitizer according to the FDA, it really skirts the line between cleaner and sanitizer, and I highly recommend people use one of the two fda approved no rinse, wet contact sanitizers, approved for brewing. Starsan or Iodophor. I think onestep is the least adequate of them all.

I go into great deal of detail about onestep, starsan and iodophor, here, as well as provide lots of tips for using sanitizers properly. I also recommed that as soon as they finish the onestep they get a "real" sanitizer like the afore mentioned.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/sanitizer-question-54932/

Plenty of us recycle bottles, either getting them from the recycling center, empty for a liquor store/ bar, or the preffered method; Buying them full and emptying them ourselves. We call it "style research".

Oxyclean is the best thing to both remove labels as well as removing any ciggarette butts, mold or just dried beer in the bottom of the bottles.

I can't recommend enough that you NOT forgoe the vinator, get it immediately, and roll it into your bottling process, and use the tips that I outlined in my Bottling tips thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

You will see that I get my batch bottled from sanitizing to capping in 45 minutes, top. (not including cleanup after) But from taking the gravity to putting the bottle cases in my closet.

I did the dunk and pour out method for the first few batches, there's nothing wrong wit that at all, but you will find the the vinator is much easier and less time consuming.

By using a no rinse, wet contact sanitizer, as part of the bottling process there is a barrier of sanitize between the glass of the bottle and the beer, any micro-organism that would land inside the bottles would be killed on contact. If you let the sanitizer dry, or employ any other methods like the dry heat methods, you don't have any AFTER SANITIZATION PROTECTION....anything that touches the surface after can render all your beautiful sanitization null and void.

I'm not convinced, using the oven/dishwasher methods mentioned, works as well as people think, and is not environmentally sound, either- Especially dishwasher, since the recommendation is that you run a cycle once to clear out any soap residue before adding bottles since soap residue can kill head retention, nor do I believe in sanitizing ahead and bottling later.

Listen, you got some ****ty advice on this thread....It's you first batch, if you want to INSURE that you won't infect your beer, DON'T NEGLECT or CUT CORNERS WITH YOUR SANITIZATION.....you can when you get more experience find little ways to make you brewing processes smoother, but NEVER cut corners on your sanitization regimene.

I tell people not to WORRY about their beer automatically being infections, but one of the ways you remove that worry, is by cutting down the ODDS of it happenning, and you do that by paying attention to sanitization.

You can read and listen to this post, you will see although I tell people it is hard to ruin your beer, there IS the possibility of infections lurking...it's pretty common, and that's why we protect ourselves.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/has-anyone-ever-messed-up-batch-96644/#post1050480

Good luck....and watch out for the bad advice.

Dirt101 said:

I would be leary of using your primary bucket for sanitizing because of the chance you may scratch the inside somehow. I used a mild bleach solution, then dishwasher for my 1st batch, then after reading the sanitizing thread (and getting a funky taste in some bottles of my 1st brew) took Revvys advice and got a dedicated sanitizing bucket and a gallon of 1% Iodine solution at Tractor Supply. I make a 4 to 5 gallon batch of sanitizer that sets right beside my while Im bottling and shove in about 12 bottles or so, pull them out one at a time, shake off any excess and bottle, my caps sit in a big glass measuring cup of the same solution on my other side.

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I missed that part about using a primary or bottling bucket as a sanitization bucket, DON'T! If you haven't noticed, some of the bottoms of beer bottles are etched with a rough diamond pattern, and many older beer bottles may have some uneven wear and jagged/sharp edges, so you will run the risk of scratching the plastic of the bucket which could be a haven for bacteria.

Get a dedicated homer bucket or used fermenter or soy sauce bucket, and you can use that to bang stuff around it.

Good catch Dirt!!!!!

I have to agree with the last post. Sanitizing bottles is one place not to cut corners. I've always found boiling up some water and rinsing out my bottles with it just before filling to work fine for me. No chemicals in your beer, nothing to buy...

-Kev

My process is:
1) Soak in Oxyclean and hot water for a couple of hours. (this step can be skipped if labels have already been removed). I do this a couple days in advance of bottling day.
2) Load them in the dishwasher and run them with no soap.
3) On bottling day I fill my bottling bucket with sanitizer. I then use it to fill my bottles with sanitizer as if it were beer, that way all parts of the bottling bucket are hit with the sanitizer as well.
4) Pour out all the sanitizer from bottles and bucket.
5) Rack beer into bottling bucket
6) Distribute beer into bottles, set caps loosely on top (to allow for any oxygen to escape).
7) When all bottles have been filled, start capping.

What bad advice? What I have seen is several different ways to do things.

As I said earlier, I have used my method for 8 years with ZERO problems....that is a fact, not opinion.

edit:just wanted to add that I am not trying to be an ass or anything, bottom line (to me) is for the OP to know that there is always more than one way to do things.

I do 100% agree that sanitation is key to producing consistantly good beer.

DurangoHomeBrewMafia said:

What bad advice? What I have seen is several different ways to do things.

As I said earlier, I have used my method for 8 years with ZERO problems....that is a fact, not opinion.

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If you go back and re-read I think you'll see the reference is from something NOT written by you but in fact this bit:

Sanitizing bottles is overrated. If the bottles are clean, there is enough alcohol in the beer to take care og any nasties you would have to worry about.

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AFAIK, your dishwasher cycle method is sanitizing, just not with a product but instead it uses hot water. So I think you might also agree that it's a necessary step and not overrated. Or maybe I'm not following.

Pretz-

I wasn't taking offence, just when I went back and re-read all 3 pages I thought everybody had decent (but different) ways of doing it. I don't believe that any sanitizing is "overrated". I, like some, probabaly over sanitize but it does give me peace of mind.

My first batch I used bottles purchased from midwest. I just used the dishwasher approach. That batch has taken 7 weeks to get any carbonation very slow, may be a coincidence or something else in my process. I have since started using Revvys process, only I dunk my bottles in a bucket, and my last 2 batches have worked great. I would recommend using his process, it seems to work well.

Rather than hijack this thread, I staretd a new thread about swing top sanitization and some questions with that.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/swing-bottle-sanitization-142744/

The best two investments I've made in bottling is a bottle washer:

...and a tree:


Takes about 15 minutes to sanitize an entire batch of bottles. You can even do it while your beer is racking into your bottling bucket!

Chips said:

The best two investments I've made in bottling is a bottle washer:

...and a tree:

Takes about 15 minutes to sanitize an entire batch of bottles. You can even do it while your beer is racking into your bottling bucket!

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The vinator I mentioned repeatedly is the bottle washer.

Nicely put. Yeah, I was wondering what they meant when they said they weren't sanitizing but they were using a dishwasher? !? Maybe I wasn't following either...

-Kev

wow

(123456)

Revvy said:

there IS the possibility of infections lurking...it's pretty common, and that's why we protect ourselves.

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Another great sig quote...........

Seriously, though, great thread. Another aspect of brewing that I took for granted. Honestly wasn't too worried about bottling until the brew was fermenting.

Now you guys have me all worried. I bottled my first batch yesterday.... I washed and scrubbed and brushed all of the bottles a week or so back...Stored em upside down in a closed container...Took em out a dozen at a time and set em on the table...grabbed a bottle and hit it twice with the vinator and filled it with beer and layed the cap on top. grabbed the next bottle and repeated....After I got all 12 filled a capped em... Other than notliking the one step I used revvy is that acceptable?

OHIOSTEVE said:

Now you guys have me all worried. I bottled my first batch yesterday.... I washed and scrubbed and brushed all of the bottles a week or so back...Stored em upside down in a closed container...Took em out a dozen at a time and set em on the table...grabbed a bottle and hit it twice with the vinator and filled it with beer and layed the cap on top. grabbed the next bottle and repeated....After I got all 12 filled a capped em... Other than notliking the one step I used revvy is that acceptable?

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Yeah...that's pretty much what I do, as outlined in my bottling thread, except that I use either starsan or iodophor.