Do you need to let sanitized bottles dry?

I've never used Star San to sanitize before and started wondering. I sanitized the bottles by having my girlfriend dunk the in Star San solution (one liter swing tops), pour out and give to me and then I filled them. While the solution was poured out it definitely wasn't dried and still probably had some small bit left in it. I didn't think it mattered but wanted to get your thoughts. I always thought after you sanitize them it was best to fill quickly so nothing would contaminate them

Well you have to wait the couple mins or so to let the sanitizer do its thing but I often fill my car boys and use my equipment still wet from sanitizer. I don't have a puddle in the bottom but... as long as you keep your bottles upside down, like on a bottling tree, you should be fine. There is no need to rush it you'll be good, even if there right side up... but yes I haven't had any issues with equipment and bottles etc being wet with sanitizer. Palmer says in his book that he has purposely filled a carboy that had all the foam still from the san star and it turned out fine. I've done the same and all was good.

linusstick said:

I always thought after you sanitize them it was best to fill quickly so nothing would contaminate them

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One to two minutes of contact time, but then bottle while still wet. Once the surface is dry it's open to contamination.

If the bottles are still wet with your sanitizing solution, any contaminates that come into contact with it should die.

I usually fill my sink with sanitizing solution. Then I rack the solution thru my racking cane, tubing, and bottle filler until all my bottles are filled. That way everything gets thoroughly sanitized. Then scrub each with a bottle brush for a few seconds each. There's usually enough solution left to do my bottling bucket, spigot, caps, etc. Then dump everything and you're ready to go.

It helps if you have another person though. They can scrub the bottles as you finish everything else.

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Wet Star-San is good, dry=bad.

If you let a no-rinse, wet contact sanitizer like starsan or iodophor, dry your are reducing it's efficacy by half. If it is dry, any micro organisms that touch the surface render it no longer sanitized. If the walls are wet with sanitizer, that organism would be toast. But dry it would still be alive.

Revvy said:

If you let a no-rinse, wet contact sanitizer like starsan or iodophor, dry your are reducing it's efficacy by half. If it is dry, any micro organisms that touch the surface render it no longer sanitized. If the walls are wet with sanitizer, that organism would be toast. But dry it would still be alive.

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So by this, are you suggesting that we should not rinse bottles after sanitization, or is it okay to do so?

Thanks!

The sanitizers we recommend, starsan and iodophor are no rinse wet contact sanitizers. That means they are no rinse.....

The last batch I let them dry because a Put all the bottles in the Tree for bottles and took some extra time because I had some other issues to work around. And some of my beers changed in flavour in time, my scottish export got some sour flavor and my Blonde ale got some cardboard flavor. they also lost some CO2. Do you think this could be the cause?

I rack right on top of it. Pretty sure that’s the way starsan is designed to work.

I never dry them. When I bottle, I have my bottles submerged in starsan for roughly 30-60 seconds. I empty it, fill it with beer, cap it and that's it. Never had issues, the oldest bottles are 1 year old now and they are still perfect.

I use a bottle tree as well, but I never let the bottles dry completely off. Your bottles should still be wet and have Star-San foam on them and that's how you know it is still effective.

Realistically if you have bottles upside down on a bottle tree or fastrack for a short time and they dry the likely hood of something getting them is probably quite low depending on your enviroment. I use to sanitise bottles as i bottled but it find it faster to sanitise 12 or 24 330ml and put them on a fastrack then fill then repeat for the next batch. I doubt they get completely dry but im sure some do, No issues so far and the time window for contamination is quite low.

Before starsan people often used sanitisers that required rinsing after sanitisation which left an open window for contamination. Sure wet is best with starsan but no panic if the bottles dry out unless your environment has very high concentrations of unwanted organisms.

Starsan directions recommend allowing the sanitizer to dry before use. Iostar also recommends allowing beverage containers to dry before using. I follow the directions myself, but am in the vast minority of people who do. If there is a tiny bit of moisture left in the bottles when I rack my beer, I don’t worry about it.

AZCoolerBrewer said:

Starsan directions recommend allowing the sanitizer to dry before use. Iostar also recommends allowing beverage containers to dry before using. I follow the directions myself, but am in the vast minority of people who do. If there is a tiny bit of moisture left in the bottles when I rack my beer, I don’t worry about it.

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I thought this was wrong so I got my Starsan bottle and it does say to allow to air dry. But I think that is more for restaurant use than homebrewing. I will continue to keep my surfaces wet for a couple of reasons. 1) I don't want to add extra time to the process waiting for things to dry. 2) I have to believe that once dry it is no longer doing what is intended. But if things dry off while in the process, I don't get go into a panic to re-sanitize.

Anyone baking their bottles and skipping the star san step? The night before I bottle i cover each bottle top with a small square of aluminium foil. Each bottle goes in the oven and i bake them at 350 for 1.5 hrs. When the 1.5 hr is up i let the bottles stay in the oven to cool naturally, pull them out the next day to fill. The bottles stay sterilized ( i believe) until the foil is removed. Never had a bottle issue.

No, I don't sanitize until bottling day. Short soak in starsan, then put on the bottle tree. I guess by the time I bottle them, they're semi dry

I like to run my bottles through the dishwasher at the sanitizing setting. I have not had any issues. I try to time my bottling so they are still pretty hot coming out of this dishwasher. I bottle over the open dishwasher and there is very little mess to clean up.

As the Great Beer Swami says to us, "Fear Not The Foam."