Fastest way to clean bottles

After making a jump to 10-16 gallon batch sizes, my method for cleaning bottles is getting time consuming. My method consists of putting 30 bottles at a time into a container of oxyclean mix over night. Mix is about 2 scoops per 10 gallons water (approx).

Is their a method you guys use that would enable me to knock out a few cases in a hour? Is soaking bottles over night really needed? Kegging is appealling however funding is not currently available.

Thanks
Brian

I just realised I forgot about the bottle/kegging section, is there a way to repost there? oops....

I've found so far, if I'm good about thoroughly rinsing and letting the bottles dry right after I empty them, they only need a quick rinse (to get dust and such out) before I sanitize and refill them. It's super easy. If I forget and let them sit out a night or two, well, it's time to break out the bottle brush, which always sucks.

Here's how I do it.
First, it's easiest if you rinse out your bottles right after you pour the beer out, so they don't need much cleaning - no dried beer or mold in there.

While I use Oxiclean for most cleanup, I use PBW for bottles because it doesn't leave a while film on the bottles like Oxiclean does. The PBW is expensive - I think I'm going to try the homemade version (Oxiclean and TSP/90) - there's a thread on here somewhere about how to do that.

So I soak some bottles in a PBW solution in a bucket for a few minutes, sitting upright, then take them out, still filled, and set them next to the bucket, then add more bottles to the bucket to let soak while I rinse the first batch. I do this on the counter next to my sink. I have a faucet adapter on the faucet, and a "Y" attaches to that so I have two separately controlled outlets. On the rear outlet of the "Y" I have a jet bottle washer - nothing on the front outlet. I set the front control so that it's just barely on and get a fine spray coming out. Now I take a bottle, dump the PBW solution back into the bucket, then rinse the outside under the spray, rinse the inside with the jet washer, another quick rinse on the outside, and hang on the bottling tree. By the time I get the first batch rinsed, the second batch has soaked, so I pull those out and set them next to the bucket and refill the bucket, etc. But if your bottles are really filthy, you're going to have to soak them longer.
Normally, I don't need to use a bottling brush.

I just fill a large cooler with water and iodine so it is a light brown color. Then about 30 bottles go in and sit for a couple of minutes. 2 minutes is sanitized, 10 minutes is hospital grade clean. Truth be told, by the time I get the last bottle sunk, I can start taking out the first bottles. As I take them out, I pressure blast them and hang them on my bottle tree to dry. It may take me about a half hour to sterilize 6 gallons worth of bottles this way. When I am done with the bottles, my racking gear gets the cooler treatment including my racking bucket.

The initial clean and label removal should be the only time consuming part of the process.
Rinse as soon as you empty them and store them upside down in a milk crate or box.
If your concern is sanitizing at bottle time your best solution is a vinator. When its time to bottle I hit them with sanitizer from the vinator and set them upside down on the pegs of restaurant dish rack. I can sanitze two cases in about 5 minutes. Occasionally they have to be cleaned again as rinsing does not actually clean them and a residue will buildup on the inside.
There is nothing else that needs to be done. There is no need for all the superfluous baking, sanitizing, rinsing, soaking in chemicals, rinsing, resanitizing, resterilizing then bottling. All the rest is a waste of time and money.

As you drink rinse the hell out of it while it's still wet, all the gunk will come out with normal tap pressure.

Load in dishwasher on bottling day and run in high heat mode with no soap.

As you can tell, rinsing after pouring is key.

Initially to get labels and crud off/out of the bottle, I soak a case or two of bottles in hot tap water with a scoop of oxyclean in the laundry tub. Depending on the brewery's choice of glue and freshness of the bottles, the labels are floating off in an hour or so, along with the molds, etc. Rinse inside and out and let drain in a milk crate. Box them when they are dry.

You bottle sixteen gallons of beer? If you've invested in a brew-rig that large, why not switch to kegging?

I rinse mine with water after consumtion (usually 3 washes and shake them) and then a quick soak in idophor in the sink on bottling day. I usually have my wife do that while I start filling. Works pretty good when she is there.

But I just switched to starsan and I too want to speed up the process....and I am thinking of just using my spray bottle and squirting 3 or 4 sprays in the bottle shake and then poor out. I feel like I am wasting $$$ and time by mixing up a few gallons of sanitizer and soaking every time I bottle Anything wrong with this?

northernlad said:

The initial clean and label removal should be the only time consuming part of the process.
Rinse as soon as you empty them and store them upside down in a milk crate or box.

Click to expand...

I agree. When I first get bottles from someone, then it's time-consuming because of the cleaning and label removal. After it has my homebrew in it, it's easy. I rinse them after emptying them, shake it up to dislodge any yeast, rinse again, and then put them on my bottle tree.

Unfortunatly, rinsing bottles after consumption is something I need to work on.... I have a bottle tree and vinator. I just like knowing there is no crud stuck in the bottom of the bottle. Letting them sit overnight, I never need the bottle brush and using the adapter on the sink flushes everything out of the bottle. Sanitizing is the easy part (thanks starsan...)

So from what I have read so far I've come to the conclusion that I need to stop being lazy and rinse bottles right after they are emptied.

pericles said:

You bottle sixteen gallons of beer? If you've invested in a brew-rig that large, why not switch to kegging?

Click to expand...

25 gal megapot, 2 coolers and a sq-14 is a brew rig? I didn't think it was that much of an investment.

captainL said:

I rinse mine with water after consumtion (usually 3 washes and shake them) and then a quick soak in idophor in the sink on bottling day. I usually have my wife do that while I start filling. Works pretty good when she is there.

But I just switched to starsan and I too want to speed up the process....and I am thinking of just using my spray bottle and squirting 3 or 4 sprays in the bottle shake and then poor out. I feel like I am wasting $$$ and time by mixing up a few gallons of sanitizer and soaking every time I bottle Anything wrong with this?

Click to expand...

I would recommend getting a vinator, just dump in the starsan and a few pumps in every bottle. The sanitizer gets collected at the bottom and gets recycled. I usually dump the starsan in the vinator after bottle day though.

Thanks for the replies.
- Brian

Kegging can be cheap. I just found 2 cornies behind a restaurant. Along with a soda fountain setup, but it was too heavy My first cornies I got from craigslist for free. Just posted an ad saying I was looking for them.. I started without a co2 tank. Just cornies. Naturally carb them. Use a picnic charger to push the beer, and a picnic tap to serve. I still don't have a kegerator, just stand the corny in a bucket of ice if I want it cooler then room or outside temp. In the winter I usually just leave the keg on my back porch.. My total initial investment into kegging was like 30 bucks. 12 for the picnic tap, 18 for the charger. It does cost 6-10 dollars to push 5 gallons of beer with the 18oz canisters though.

RegionalChaos said:

Kegging can be cheap. I just found 2 cornies behind a restaurant. Along with a soda fountain setup, but it was too heavy My first cornies I got from craigslist for free. Just posted an ad saying I was looking for them.. I started without a co2 tank. Just cornies. Naturally carb them. Use a picnic charger to push the beer, and a picnic tap to serve. I still don't have a kegerator, just stand the corny in a bucket of ice if I want it cooler then room or outside temp. In the winter I usually just leave the keg on my back porch.. My total initial investment into kegging was like 30 bucks. 12 for the picnic tap, 18 for the charger. It does cost 6-10 dollars to push 5 gallons of beer with the 18oz canisters though.

Click to expand...

I'm trying to hold off. I keep telling myself "I'm going to stop buying equipment and just enjoy making beer with what I have". This hobby can be like an addiction...

I figure this summer I'll get a chest freezer that will hold 2 ale pails for a fermentation chamber (this past summer I found out the basement wasn't cool enough.... the hard way). Maybe the following summer, convert it for use as a keezer when not full of fermentors.