Best way to clean a Better Bottle?

I thought I had thoroughly cleaned my Better Bottle after my last brew, but I noticed a ring of residue where the layer of kreusen was. I know you're not supposed to use a brush, so I was just curious what the best way to get this dirt off the bottle is?

I use Oxy Clean and hot water in all of mine and it has never failed. If that doesn't work, put a wash rag inside the Better Bottle with a cleaning solution and shake it up. The rag won't scratch the inside surface and should get it throughly clean.

fill it with hot water/oxyclean... shake it, let it sit for a while.. shake it some more... let it sit... do this for a couple hours and it should be clean.

warm water, PBW, a solid bung and some combination soaking and giving it a good shake should get rid of stubborn scum.

Which oxyclean? Is it food grade?

OxyClean Free. It doesn't contain any dyes or perfumes. It's the kind with the green lid.

All great information, except nobody can spell OxiClean. PBW is a similar to OxiClean, made by Five Star Chemicals (the manufacturers of StarSan). It costs more than OxiClean and doesn't foam as much.

I've never found it necessary to shake the carboy. A one to two hour soak is all that is necessary, or overnight if it's getting late. I use glass carboys, and I'm scared of shaking a slippery wet 6.5g glass carboy.

One thing that hasn't been said yet, is that after the soak, you need to drain the solution and rinse really well with hot water. Failing to do this will leave a residue in the carboy (especially if you have hard water). Some people say you should follow up with an acid rinse of white vinegar or StarSan to completely remove the residue. I have soft water, and find that this does help, but I really don't know if it is necessary or not.

-a.

schweaty said:

OxyClean Free. It doesn't contain any dyes or perfumes. It's the kind with the green lid.

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+1

About 1/2 gallon of hot water and a half scoop of Oxiclean, put a stopper on it and shake like hell. Sometimes I'll let the carboy sit completely filled with Oxiclean and water for a few hrs then drain and start the shake ritual. Never had any issues.

+1 on filling it up with PBW and letting it soak for a couple of hours, hasn't failed me yet.

I think I'll probably order some PBW. I won't need my better bottle for a couple of weeks until I'm racking to secondary, so I have some time.

fotomatt1 said:

I think I'll probably order some PBW. I won't need my better bottle for a couple of weeks until I'm racking to secondary, so I have some time.

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That stuff is crazy expensive and in my opinion OxiClean (there, I spelled it correctly) works just as well. Personally I would only use PBW for clean in place (CIP) applications when cleaning out my brewery.

Here is what the better bottle website suggests

http://www.better-bottle.com/technical.html

If I were you I would at least use some hot water and a rag and try to get most of the scum out. Then when you get oxiclean or PBW you can do a more thorough cleaning.

I use the dish towel with about 1 gal of water and cleaner combined with good agitation for cleaning my BB. Also, according to the website the bottles dry better on their side and NOT upside down.

OxiClean and hot water for me also. Make sure your water isn't too hot though. I think 140 F is the highest they recommend for the Better Bottle. I also cap mine up with an orange carboy cap and turn upside down in the sink to soak and really get that krausen ring. Never takes me more than 15-20 minutes doing that.

SpacemanSpiff said:

OxiClean and hot water for me also. Make sure your water isn't too hot though. I think 140 F is the highest they recommend for the Better Bottle. I also cap mine up with an orange carboy cap and turn upside down in the sink to soak and really get that krausen ring. Never takes me more than 15-20 minutes doing that.

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+1 on the temperature...my better bottle doesn't look quite normal anymore

I rinse it out with extremely hot water and stuff a dishrag inside. Give it a bunch of good swirls to wipe off the sludge. I know its not an extreme cleaning... or even a decent one but it works for me. Less chemicals, less wasted water, less money, etc.

If a Walmart is nearby...and where in the USA is one NOT nearby...OxiClean is quite cheap there. When my Better Bottle fermentor gets a thick ring, I fill it up with hot water and some OxiClean and let it soak for several days. The crust is ALWAYS broken up by the soak.

glenn514

I found this thread after a google search of a similar problem. I just used better bottles for the first time. After about 30 minutes on my carboy washer, the brown kraeusen ring is completely clean, and the bottle looks sparkling, save for a faint, white ring where the kraeusen ring was. It looks more like a mineral ring like when you leave a glass of water out and the evaporation leaves a ring behind. I can't figure it out.

Hot water and PBW for me. Never thought about OxiClean though. Might get that from now on since PBW is so damned expensive.

Oxiclean and hard water DEFINITELY need the vinegar/water soak/rinse. ugh.
One time I just let my bottles soak overnight in an oxiclean type solution with water. All kinds of haze inside my bottles. After a brief panic and some searching here, I learned about the vinegar and water solution. It works wonders. whew!

Wait a minute.... I think the vinegar thing is only necessary with glass. Not sure since I don't use Better Bottles. But it is definitely necessary for glass that has had a bit of a soak in oxiclean.

Also, Walmart has the generic "Sun Cleaner." Cheaper than Oxiclean, and works very well.

I go cheap and use bleach. I keep the PBW for SS

+1 to OxiClean, rinse, vinegar, rinse again, and if you want it really clean with no water spots you can give it a final rinse with a pint or two of distilled water. Somewhere on here there's a thread about making your own version of PBW using 70% OxiClean Free and 30% TSP/90 (not regular TSP) from Ace Hardware. I haven't tried this and don't remember if the percentages are by weight or by volume.

All I use is either a small amount of dish soap and a wash cloth. Swirl it around and it takes care of most everything. And an overnight soak in oxiclean Will do the rest.

A few months back I needed to find a product that would clean my grout between the floor tiles and found a product called Stainsolver and ordered a few pounds. Its ingredients are peroxyhydrated carbonate of soda (dried hydrogen peroxide and soda ash) and is according to their website FDA food-grade quality. So I tried some on my grungy blow-off tubing and better bottle and was really surprised how clean they came out. Its a highly concentrated powder so you don't need a whole lot to do the job. As with any "oxygen bleach" a thorough rinsing is mandatory and as the website states its oxygen removing ability only lasts about 4-6 hrs. Just keep shaking every now and then to provide a constant cleaning action and it will quickly remove that krausen ring build-up. Best I've used on that tile grout too.

fill with hot water, add oxiclean, leave it sit for a day or 2, rinse well....

I use hot water, fake OxiClean (Sun brand from WalMart) and the brush on mine, very carefully. I don't have the time to soak it as I am racking to the secondary and need the primary for the beer I'm brewing. I may try the wash rag idea next time, but if it doesn't work well in a few minutes time I'm using the brush again. At least until I get more fermentors.

boo boo said:

I go cheap and use bleach. I keep the PBW for SS

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Thing to keep in mind is, if someone uses bleach, better rinse the living hell out of it afterward, or you may end up with a rather disgusting medicinal taste in the finished product.

... learned that the hard way.

Does aging ever take that taste away?

Soooooooo...........you're not supposed to use a brush on a Better Bottle? uh-oh.......

rocketcrab said:

Soooooooo...........you're not supposed to use a brush on a Better Bottle? uh-oh.......

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That's what I hear, some newer brew kits with a Better Bottle no longer come with a brush, mine did. You should just be careful not to scratch the inside of the bottle.

schweaty said:

OxyClean Free. It doesn't contain any dyes or perfumes. It's the kind with the green lid.

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Crap. I have been using the yellow lid this whole time. I can never find any green lid oxiclean. oh well, I still made good beer using it!

There was a post on here the other day. I forget the section it was in. But basically the poster had a problem with the krausen ring at the top. He used a racking cane and a stopper inverted the bottle. Basically let it soak to use less water. I would think the same could be done with a solid stopper. Not sure I don't use them but it seems possible.

I found the cap from water cooler bottles fit on BB. I snap one of those on and turn over. I also put a dishrag inside and swirl, that helps get the hard stuff off.

+1 on the Oxiclean. I usually mix up a little over 3gal of Oxiclean solution in my BB, put on a carboy cap and suspend it upside down (I found a large stock pot that supports it pretty well). Let it sit overnight and flip it right-side-up for another ~12 hours. The carboy cap does a good job holding the solution in, and if you use warm water, you'll get negative pressure inside the BB as it cools off, which keeps the cap solidly in place (I usually open the spigot after an hour or so to keep the carboy from sucking in too much). With >3gal, the solution will cover every bit of the interior surfaces after the carboy has been upside down and right-side-up for some length of time. Also, the toughest spots are usually at the top of the carboy, which is why I flip it upside down first (while the solution is still nice and hot). Every few batches I'll take the spigot apart and soak all the pieces. Also, I occasionally switch over to PBW just to make sure I don't end up with an Oxiclean-resistant bug.

+1 OxiClean Free and shake the heck out of it

I did this about an hour ago on my 6.5 gallon glass carboy. I don't see why it would be any different with a bb.

Take a cup of plain uncooked rice and a half cup of baking soda then pour it in your bb. Add just enough hot water to male a slurry. rest the bottle on your knees while sitting (of course with a cap of some kind) and rock it back and forth making the solution swirl on the problem spots. You can shake it hard to loosen really dried up crud. When your done just dump the remains in the garbage disposal and rinse well.

this method takes me about ten muinutes to clean my 6.5 gallon carboy even after long ferments.

If you have hard water expect oxi clean to leave a residue all of it's own if you let it set very long.

Didn't see this posted but I found a nylon bristle brush with plastic casing on it with a plastic tip at home depot the other day... Realizing no metal was going to contact the plastic I decided to try it out. Filled a fermenter up with PBW and hot water and drop the brush in there after shaping it to fit the carboy.. worked like a charm, I see no scratches. Last I remember, nylon won't scratch the plastic, it's the metal parts that do - so it seemed to make sense to me.

Brewing two beers tomorrow and trying this out, but realizing this post is older - if you check out home depot in the bathroom section somewhere you may find a set of two brushes, one conical and the other that looks like a toilet brush (made by GE), the wire parts are very flexible and easy to shape to your fermenters.. I left the big brush alone to clean the necks of the fermenters but used the conical one to bend and shape to easily brush away all residue and sticky stuff from the top and sides.. I used less PBW than the normal soaking method since I could dip the brush and scrub and then swish around.

Figured this might be helpful since EVERY SINGLE BREW STORE tells you to just soak your fermenters using 4TBSP to 5 gallons rather than only needing a table spoon for a gallon or so of hot water and accomplishing the same thing in less time.

Cheers fellas.