Santitation Questions

Ok guys Im totally new at this and im a bit confused. I have two quick questions.

1. If i sanitize a bottling bucket using bleach solution what do i rinse it out with? Is tap water ok? I've seen conflicting suggestions for this.

2 how exactly do you go about cleaning the bottle? what i mean to say is, once i clean them and sanitize them what do I do with them? Would it be acceptable to leave them upside down on an sanitized draining rack or do I need to cap them?

All of these questions are answerable as the mitigation of risk through $$, time or effort.

A commercial no-rinse sanitizer would be best.
Rinsing a bleach solution with boiled water would be less risky than tap.
That said, rinsing with tap is OK.

Upside down is fine or right-side up with foil or plastic wrap.
Capping would be excessive.

1. Use the hottest water you can get. (Be careful) Rinse very well. A small amount of bleach will flavor your beer.

2. Clean your bottles thoroughly before you put them away and then sanitize them right before you bottle your beer. I used to put them in the dishwasher (without soap) and run it on the hottest settings. It worked great for me. The bottles come out so hot you can barely touch them. The rack in the dishwasher makes a great place to keep your bottles inverted until they are filled.
Don't forget to rinse out bottles right after they have been emptied. They will get clean much easier.

Something else you might consider is going to a no rinse sanitizer. Iodophor and StarSan are the most popular. If you mix them correctly all you need to do is slosh some around for a few minutes in the container to be sanitized and then drain. Let it set inverted for a few minutes and you are done. Very easy.
It may seam like these sanitizers are expensive but they really aren't. They are highly concentrated and a small bottle goes a long way.

I hope this helps.

olllllo said:

A commercial no-rinse sanitizer would be best.

Click to expand...

Buy StarSan or OneStep. StarSan is good cause you can keep it around for a while and use it for more than one batch, or at least primary, secondary, and bottling for the same batch. Save some time and worry; sanitize right before bottling, and use this bucket to store your StarSan. Thus, you've killed two birds with one stone.

Does your tap water seem to have residual chlorine? Then it is probably okay to rinse with. If not, boil a bit and while it is hot off the burner rinse out your bucket. This is how my mom always sanitizes jars for canning.

i didnt expect to get so many responses and so quickly. This forum rocks!:rockin:

I use a bleach mix /w water. you don't need much bleach, check a homebrew book for a solution mix. & i rinse with a mild warm tap water, let it dry. Just think that when people 1st learned how to brew all they had to sanitize with was boiled water...