What is the easyest way

What is the easyest way to sanatize your bottles before you bottle?

Since the bottling bucket needs to be sanitized as well, I just fill it up with 5 gallons of iodophor, then start putting bottles into it, dunking them until they are full and they sink. Once the bucket won't hold any more bottles, I start pulling them out, letting the iodophor run out of them back into the bucket, and let the bottles drip dry on my bottling tree. I can do two cases of bottles in about 40 minutes or so.

jjsscram said:

What is the easyest way to sanatize your bottles before you bottle?

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Although a no-rinse sanitizing certainly won't hurt, if you thoroughly clean and rinse the bottles with bleach, then run them through a cycle in the dishwasher (without detergent) they will be sanitized. I've found that's the easiest way, considering I don't have a bottle tree.

I have no proof of this but I would think that a dishwasher cycle would not get inside the bottle very well. I use the method that bikebryan mentioned (sink them in the bottling bucket of iodophor). I do not have a bottling tree either so to drain my bottles, I then DO use the dishwasher just as a drying rack

Another point to this (although you probly already have your equipment)... I decided to go with 22 oz bottles when I started the hobby. This was a good decision IMHO. Much quicker bottling, much quicker sanitizing and if your going to leave just a bit of beer in the bottom of each bottle when you pour in order to leave any sediment behind, now you lose only about half of what you would if you went w/ 12 oz. bottles. I would highly recommend the 22's for anyone who is still in the decision making process of what equipment they need.

I have been using the methed that bikebryan described, but i am use bleach instead. This is very time consuming and I was looking to see if any one had a quicker way.

found this what do you think?

http://www.morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15682

jjsscram said:

I have been using the methed that bikebryan described, but i am use bleach instead. This is very time consuming and I was looking to see if any one had a quicker way.

found this what do you think?

http://www.morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15682

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One of the guys on this forum has that, rightwing I think....he could probably tell you how good it wqorks or not....I think it looks cool but my dishwasher methjod works very well for the very few bottles I do actually need.

ORRELSE said:

One of the guys on this forum has that, rightwing I think....he could probably tell you how good it wqorks or not....I think it looks cool but my dishwasher methjod works very well for the very few bottles I do actually need.

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The problem with dishwashers and beer bottles is that you don't usually get a good dose of water up into the bottles. The narrow neck prevents a good stream of water from coating the entire inside of the bottle.

jjsscram said:

I have been using the methed that bikebryan described, but i am use bleach instead. This is very time consuming and I was looking to see if any one had a quicker way.

found this what do you think?

http://www.morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15682

Click to expand...

It would be much less time consuming if you chose a no-rinse sanitizer, such as iodophor or StarSan, instead of bleach. You'd save a lot of time since you wouldn't be rinsing and rinsing each bottle.

I do a combination of all these methods when I bottle, which is very rare thankfully. Because I rarely bottle, all sorts of crap ends up in the bottles. I soak in bleach, give a single cold water rinse, run them through the sanitzing cycle of the dishwasher, soak in iodine.
When I got started, I used to soak in bleach then rinse until I could not detect chlorine odor anymore. After a while I started noticing that I couldn't smell anything.
If your bottles are not crud infestations like mine, I'd do the bottling bucket soak technique. It's pretty good.
That sanitizing sprayer is kind of iffy to me, I thought iodophor required something like 5 min of contact time. That gadget clearly won't give you that. Besides, the 15 bucks they're asking is about what 10 gal of beer costs me.
Save your money. Use what you've got.

Iodophor only needs maybe two minutes of contact time, if you mix it properly. You'll get that as you let it drip out of the bottle if you hang it on a bottle tree.

Well what I do is as I drain/drink them I give them a quick rinse/shake to get the yeast out of the bottom then I throw them in a 5g bucket of bleach water which is always ready as I'm always drinking. They'll sit here for at least 24h. Then I drain them and put them away "clean".

Come bottle day I use my bottle washer and rinse them out; stick them in my iodiphor solution (1 min or so) then drain them sitting in the clean dishwasher. As they're drying I'm racking to the bottle bucket.

I seem to have this down pretty good and can have a batch all bottled up in less than 90 minutes.

I clean them when I drink them and then on bottling day I rinse in hot water again, then boil the kettle and pour a bit into each bottle, put my thumb over the opening (with rubber glove on!!) and shake like hell.

Pour out the boiling hot water and that's it.

I've never had any problems with this and there are no chemicals involved.

I just rinse them well after use, then run them through the dishwasher at bottling time, using the full heat cycle. As long as there's no crud in the bottom of the bottle to begin with, the heat cycle will sanitize the bottles.

Sam

Sam75 said:

I just rinse them well after use, then run them through the dishwasher at bottling time, using the full heat cycle. As long as there's no crud in the bottom of the bottle to begin with, the heat cycle will sanitize the bottles.

Sam

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I hate to tell you this, but a home dishwasher does not come anywhere near close enough, during the heated drying cycle, to sanitize bottles or dishes. Industrial dishwashers usually do, but most of those use pressurized steam.

I just rinse the bottles after use.

At bottling time I soak 2 cases of bottles in bleach water, rinse off with hot tap water and drip dry on a tree.

Never had any problems.

I just rinse the bottles after use.

At bottling time I soak 2 cases of bottles in bleach water, rinse off with hot tap water and drip dry on a tree.

Never had any problems.

wow, i thought that i obsessed about my stuff. i have found that:
1) the "no rinse" cleaners are great, but expensive
2) bleach works great, but you have to rinse, this means more time
3) most importantly, rinsing the friggan botles out after you pour your precious brew into a clean cold glass is the best way to insure that you can bottle with impunity.

Brew well

bikebryan said:

I hate to tell you this, but a home dishwasher does not come anywhere near close enough, during the heated drying cycle, to sanitize bottles or dishes. Industrial dishwashers usually do, but most of those use pressurized steam.

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I have to respectfully disagree. All you need to properly sanitize is water >165 degrees. Boiling to sanitize is a common misconception.

FDA website
"Hot water for handwashing shall be of a temperature of at least 110°F. Hot water for mechanical dishwashing must be 150°F-165°F for washing and 165°F-180°F for sanitizing."

A low-end dishwasher on the market usually has a drying cycle or a rinse cycle that will properly sanitize.
In fact mine here at home has a button on the front that says "sani-rinse".
Specifications in my manual say the water reaches 170 degrees. That's plenty to kill the bugs.

I have a 7 gallon bucket full of no rinse sanitizer and soak the bottles in the sanitizer before bottling. And I have never had a film build up on any bottle.