Great sanitation idea

Okay, I bottled my third batch last week. With my first batch we soaked them in sanitizer solution and then rinsed them, and had no infection problems. The second time, I soaked them and then sent them through the dishwasher for a rinse, and again, no infections.

My brother suggested that, rather than going through the hassle of soaking and rinsing all the bottles, why not just put them in the dishwasher with some iodophor instead of dish detergent. Sounded like a great idea to me, so we did it and bottled them up. Anyone else ever try this? Does it seem like a good idea, or is there some horrible flaw that I've missed?

Torchiest said:

Okay, I bottled my third batch last week. With my first batch we soaked them in sanitizer solution and then rinsed them, and had no infection problems. The second time, I soaked them and then sent them through the dishwasher for a rinse, and again, no infections.

My brother suggested that, rather than going through the hassle of soaking and rinsing all the bottles, why not just put them in the dishwasher with some iodophor instead of dish detergent. Sounded like a great idea to me, so we did it and bottled them up. Anyone else ever try this? Does it seem like a good idea, or is there some horrible flaw that I've missed?

Click to expand...

There's no guarantee that water will get inside all of the bottles. But if you have a sanitizer setting, you should be good.

Iodophor stains too, so if the inside of your dishwasher is white now, it will be a dull yellowish color afterwards

...and isn't it effected by heat???

homebrewer_99 said:

...and isn't it effected by heat???

Click to expand...

Yeah, it says on the bottle not to use with hot water. Good idea though.

Back when I bottled alot I would rinse and sanitize as I went, and then I would store the bottle upside down in the case box with a fresh sheet of newspaper in the bottom. Newsprint is really very clean, even if messy. I had good luck with this set-up.

I've recently started to follow this "process". After a bottle is empty, wash it, store in a case box.

Day of bottling: Rinse the bottle with very, steaming hot (Read: Borderline if not Boiling) water from the tap. Hopefully your tap can get this hot; mine has instant-hot on it, so you can melt/disfigure a styrofoam/plastic cup its so hot if you use that. Just watch your hands. I usually just turn the tap as hot as it goes and it will get close to instant-hot temps.

After rinsing once or twice, dip into the other sink-well filled with starsan solution and fill the bottle. Dump out. Replace into case box face down or sink drainer. If in the box, make sure a clean sheet of paper/newspaper is placed into the bottom (as mentioned above).

When all 24-48 bottles are sanitized, bottle. We'll see if this process "holds water" or if I get some ruined bottles of brew. Let's hope not...

EDIT: I'm sure a bottle rack would be a safer bet than the case box or the sink drainer, but what do y'all think? I see the Brewpastor replaced them into the box, so I feel kind of comfortable...?

magno said:

Yeah, it says on the bottle not to use with hot water. Good idea though.

Click to expand...

Just how hot does water need to be to kill germs? 212ºF? Or only around 140-150º? Because my LHBS has an online guide that claims sending bottles through a dishwasher sanitizes them, and makes no real mention of using any sanitizer at all. I wonder how hot the water in a dishwasher gets anyway.

Assuming the bottles are adequately clean, the heat dry cycle of an average dishwasher ought to be satisfactory to sanitize the bottles.

Most DW's don't get that hot, unless you have a sanitizing heater switch or something similar, mine does. I'd be worried that not enough water would get inside the bottles. I've taken the advice of others here, rinse them when your done drinking them with hot water and place in box unside down. When ready to bottle, I make sure my DW is clean and empty, rinse the bottles in One Step, place them with the neck down in the dishwasher. When I got everything else set up, I simply grab them as I'm filling. So far, so good.

Ol' Grog said:

Most DW's don't get that hot, unless you have a sanitizing heater switch or something similar, mine does. I'd be worried that not enough water would get inside the bottles. I've taken the advice of others here, rinse them when your done drinking them with hot water and place in box unside down. When ready to bottle, I make sure my DW is clean and empty, rinse the bottles in One Step, place them with the neck down in the dishwasher. When I got everything else set up, I simply grab them as I'm filling. So far, so good.

Click to expand...

That's pretty much what I do. I *always* rinse my bottles immediately after pouring a beer. I can't imagine why you'd want to wait and cause yourself grief later. I usually rinse them, let them sit for a while, then upend them to get the last bit of water out. And the last two batches, I've done exactly as you said with pulling them from the DW as I go. It's ridiculously convenient that way.

jpsloan said:

Assuming the bottles are adequately clean, the heat dry cycle of an average dishwasher ought to be satisfactory to sanitize the bottles.

Click to expand...

I'd question that. The average dishwasher really doesn't provide enough heat to sanitize - at least I wouldn't trust it. Besides, I can sanitize about 50 bottles by dunking them in iodophor and be bottling before the dishwasher is done cycling.

Having said that, some folks use their dishwashers and report success in bottling without infections. Trust it if you want. I'd rather use a method I KNOW will work.

Ol' Grog said:

Most DW's don't get that hot, unless you have a sanitizing heater switch or something similar, mine does. I'd be worried that not enough water would get inside the bottles.

Click to expand...

When using the sanitizing cycle, you're not concerned with how much hot water gets inside the bottles, only the temperature that the bottles reach. The sanitizing cycle should be adequate. My dishwasher has a sanitizing cycle, but it takes forever, so I don't bother with it. I do, however, run my bottles through a regular cycle after rinsing them thoroughly and peeling the labels off. I find that it takes care of any lingering glue, and they do not smell even faintly of beer when they come out. So some water probably gets inside them, though I don't care that much, since I'm just cleaning rather than sanitizing. I sanitize just prior to bottling with Star San in one of those fountain style bottle sanitizing gadgets.

Another concern with dishwashers is the drying agent (Jet Dry - can't remember if it was mentioned in this thread). It will kill the head of your beer if you use it inside your bottles.

That's the word I was trying to find....sanitizing cycle, which my DW does have. But my methodology seems to be working A-OK so far. One thing about the sanitizing cycle, it eats up a lot of power.

I use my dishwasher as a bottle rack until I am ready to fill. I don't like the idea of the bottle sitting in upright like a bacterial ring-toss game at the circus

I have a 55 gallon plastic drum that I used to keep 1/2 full of Star-san. I would rinse the bottles right after emptying them and then sink them in the Star-san until I got around to bottling my next batch. Never had a problem.

I would fish them out and rinse them then fill and cap. Not much effort.

jpsloan said:

Assuming the bottles are adequately clean, the heat dry cycle of an average dishwasher ought to be satisfactory to sanitize the bottles.

Click to expand...

Hey JP! That's mad-scary! I live in Germantown too!

Torchiest said:

Just how hot does water need to be to kill germs? 212ºF? Or only around 140-150º? Because my LHBS has an online guide that claims sending bottles through a dishwasher sanitizes them, and makes no real mention of using any sanitizer at all. I wonder how hot the water in a dishwasher gets anyway.

Click to expand...

Thats all i do to sanitize my bottles, just run them through the heavy setting, and make sure it is on the heated dry setting. I have had no problems before.

However, i wouldnt do this on those larger grolsch type bottles. I ran 8 1 litter bottles through, and it didtn do much. I think they are too big for the water to be effective.

Just to throw one more testimonial into the mix... I soak my bottles overnight in bleach water, then run them 2 cycles in the dishwasher without detergent. So far, so good.

I don't believe I've ever seen a sanitizing setting on it.

Orpheus said:

Hey JP! That's mad-scary! I live in Germantown too!

Click to expand...

Cheers from down the street, Orpheus!

I rinse my bottles after pouring them and let them sit by the sink overnight. I shake the few drops left out in the morning and store them in a box until bottle day. Then I just run them throught he dishwasher on normal wash without detergent that morning. I know the bottles are too hot to touch well after the drying cycle is finished. I've never has a problem with infection.

Torchiest said:

Just how hot does water need to be to kill germs? 212ºF? Or only around 140-150º? Because my LHBS has an online guide that claims sending bottles through a dishwasher sanitizes them, and makes no real mention of using any sanitizer at all. I wonder how hot the water in a dishwasher gets anyway.

Click to expand...

130 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

Those temperatures might not be hot enough to kill all bacteria. Spores can be very resistant to heat. However, if other homebrewers are successful with this method then it seems like it is good enough to kill a majority of harmful organisms.

I don't trust the "sanitize" function on the dishwasher so I run the bottles through using the sanitize setting and then sink them in a tub of star san before filling the bottles.

I pull them out of the sanitizer as I fill them....

I have done some of my bottles in the DW a couple times and they come out so hot after the drying cycle that they will burn your hands....however, I can wash and sanitize all of my bottles by hand and be bottling beer before the DW finishes 1 load of bottles.

Brewpastor said:

Back when I bottled alot I would rinse and sanitize as I went, and then I would store the bottle upside down in the case box with a fresh sheet of newspaper in the bottom. Newsprint is really very clean, even if messy. I had good luck with this set-up.

Click to expand...

I use the same general technique. I rinse w/hot water w/ my faucet bottle rinser; dip into StarSan; shake and pour solution out; put upside down in the case with clean hand towels in the bottom. have done this the last 5 or 6 batches with no problems.