Bottle Cleaning - Need Advice

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eaglewwit

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I am thinking about trying a cleaning shortcut. I am sick of scrubbing bottles. So here is what I am gonna try. Advice please:

All my bottles are 22's that I rinse with hot water immediately after pouring the beer out. I then store them covered. Looking in them there appears to be no sediment or stuff leftover.

My plan is to rinse each bottle with hot water and then heat sterilize them in the oven. I used to fill each bottle with an Oxyclean solution and give a scrub with a brush.

Will this be enough?

Thanks
 
I think people get a little crazy with bottle cleaning. Here's what I do...

Rinse with hot water immediately after emptying used bottle. Store upside down in case until ready to use. When ready to use, rinse with hot water, sanitize with idophor, and allow to dry.

Simple, fast, and I've never had an infected bottle.
 
I have been doing the following with good results so far. I only do an oxyclean soak for bottles with labels or bottles I have recently acquired. Any bottle that I have previously bottled in gets rinsed with hot water after draining contents. Once the bottle has air dried, I put a non ziploc style sandwich bag over the mouth and neck and hold it in place with rubber band during storage. Before the bottle is filled, it goes in the dishwasher for a short sanitizing cycle, no dry then gets a couple of squirts of star san inside the bottle before being refilled. Fill, empty, rinse, repeat.
 
I don't even go that far. I triple rinse each bottle after emptying with hot water and store upside down. On bottling day I use a jet washer faucet attachment with hot water to blast them out, then I run them through the dishwasher.
 
I used to just rinse them after use. Store in crates, upside right, not even covered. Quick rinse with starsan in the vinator before bottling. Done at least 50 batches that way and never had an issue.
 
Thanks guys, that helps alleviate any fears I had about doing it this way. The cleaning the bottles really is a pain in the butt.
 
+1 to oven sterilizing. I rinse 4 times after pouring, let sit, dump out excess water, put a piece of AL foil on top (I reuse the foil caps), then when I have about 3 cases empty I put them in the oven to sterilize. Never had an infected bottle.
 
I pretty much do exactly what you're suggesting. Clean immediately after drinking with hot water, then let dry in milk crates. When I have a full crate or two I rinse them again in with h2o (though that might not even be necessary), cover the tops with foil, then bake at 350 for an hour. With the foil on top they'll stay sterilized almost indefinitely. This way I always have 4-5 cases of sterilized bottles ready to go any time I need to bottle.
 

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