bottle cleaning advice...

Ok, i'm going to bottle my first batch of beer this week and need to clean my bottles. I was going to soak all the bottles in a large plastic storage container, but cannot find any oxyclean. I'm hoping i don't have to go to the store, and am thinking of using a bleach solution. is this a viable solution? after they have soaked, can i just rinse with iodophor or do i need to do the dishwasher or oven sanitizing method. i know a lot of this has been gone over before, but am mainly curious about bleach instead of oxyclean.
thanks in advance,
brandon

I don't see a problem in that if you dilute the bleach to proper levels (1tbsp per gallon). I have got sort of lazy lately when it comes to my bottles though.

I make sure I rinse them out thoroughly once they are opened and let them dry completely. After that I just store them until I run them through my dish washer w/o soap and let them cool and bottle. No problems so far

I typically run mine through the dishwasher (with no soap, and no jet dry). Let them be heat dried, then sanitize as normal with iodophor. You can clean with bleach if you want, but you need to make damn sure its rinsed completly off, you dont want any chlorine tastes in the finished product.

I used bleach as a cleaner for many years, and it works just fine. Just remember: cleaner: 1 tbs/gal, sanitizer: 1 tsp/gal.

Rinse very thouroughly.

You can also use TSP (Tri-sodium-phosphate) as a cleaner, available at most hardware stores, at 1 tbs/gal.

Yeah, I used bleach for years, just make sure you dilute and rinse well.

Basically, after you rinse it two or three times, then smell it.
If you don't smell bleach, you're good.

I got lazy with bottle cleaning on a batch of IPA this summer. Turns out Montrachet yeast from Apfelwein survives my usual "three rinses with hot water after pouring" regimen and leaves a faint film of yeast on the bottle bottom. Probably turned into a film of dead yeast-fed bacteria after sitting in the basement for awhile. Survived the Starsan rinse before filling and had to dump a bunch of them, they got way over-carbed, nasty "off" flavor, weird fluffy sediment on the bottom instead of the usual compact yeast cake.

Deuce said:

I typically run mine through the dishwasher (with no soap, and no jet dry). Let them be heat dried, then sanitize as normal with iodophor. You can clean with bleach if you want, but you need to make damn sure its rinsed completly off, you dont want any chlorine tastes in the finished product.

Click to expand...

I do the same except I use Star San and I have yet to have any problems

ok, here's another question. my bottles are "recycled." the ones i drank i know i've rinsed out fairly well. the ones my buddy contributed i'm not so sure about. i was just planning on cleaning them all well just in case. I think i'm going to see if i can find some oxiclean when i go to work and soak in that. sounds like i may have less problems with risidual chemicals.

How long does iodophor take to sanitize bottles? I ask because so far I've been handwashing all of my bottles with a brush, rinsing them with a bottle washer, then filling up my sink with iodophor solution, submerging the bottles (working all the bubbles out), and letting them sit for 5 minutes before rinsing them out again with the bottlewasher. However, using methods like the Vinator seem to only provide a couple of seconds of contact between bottle & iodpohor.

Last time it took me an hour to clean all my bottles. I think next time I'll just do the dishwasher method (I'm pretty good about rinsing out bottles after they're poured) and a quicker soak in iodophor.

I use oxyclean (or cheap knockoff to clean bottles soak off labels and scum) rinse and bleach to sanitize. 2 stage process but works fine for me.

have 1 batch of label removed bottles soaking now in bleach in a big cooler.
need to start soaking labels off of another batch. in second cooler.

need to bottle 2 batches in a week. (3 batches bottled in 3 weeks) Wheew! I hate bottling. really wish I had room for a small fridge and a keg set up.

I soak all of my bottles in oxyclean solution overnight
Then, I use the "sanitise" selection which I have on my dishwasher and run with no soap.

and finally when the dishwasher is done, I grab about 10 bottles at a time and put them into my iodophor solution, and bottle. I bottle right next to my dishwasher and just keep feeding bottles into the iodophor solution as I go.

mugglesport said:

How long does iodophor take to sanitize bottles? I ask because so far I've been handwashing all of my bottles with a brush, rinsing them with a bottle washer, then filling up my sink with iodophor solution, submerging the bottles (working all the bubbles out), and letting them sit for 5 minutes before rinsing them out again with the bottlewasher. However, using methods like the Vinator seem to only provide a couple of seconds of contact between bottle & iodpohor.

Last time it took me an hour to clean all my bottles. I think next time I'll just do the dishwasher method (I'm pretty good about rinsing out bottles after they're poured) and a quicker soak in iodophor.

Click to expand...

I soak bottles in iodophor for 10mins and then let drip dry on a bottle tree.

Ive never needed to clean the bottles first in oxyclean, since I rinse out the bottles pretty thoroughly after I open them.

Ok, i think i'm going to bottle friday. tonight i'm going to set my bottles soaking in either bleach or oxiclean solution. I'm going to fill my bottling bucket with a 5 gallon iodophor mix and fill bottles in process that i will bottle bear in. this way my equipment gets sanitized as i sanitize my bottles. Do i need to do the dishwasher process?
Also, i think i misplaced my priming sugar. Can i just use regular sugar? if so what proportion will i use for a 5 gallon shiner bock clone?
thanks,
brandon

We've been rinsing the bottles, and then simply running them through the dishwasher with a sanitizer loaded in the soap tray (I forget the brand off the top of my head). This seems easy enough - is it too risky?

My process is soak in PBW or oxyclean (typically overnight) and give them a good brushing inside with a bottle brush. Soak some more. Rinse then soak in santizer prior to bottling.

Deuce said:

I typically run mine through the dishwasher (with no soap, and no jet dry). Let them be heat dried, then sanitize as normal with iodophor. You can clean with bleach if you want, but you need to make damn sure its rinsed completly off, you dont want any chlorine tastes in the finished product.

Click to expand...

Aside from being redundant with the use of iodophor or Star-San, using heat dry can near-permanently bake on anything (soil, yeast, cleaners) left behind on the glass and has a tendency to shorten the life of glass from thermal shock.

mugglesport said:

How long does iodophor take to sanitize bottles? I ask because so far I've been handwashing all of my bottles with a brush, rinsing them with a bottle washer, then filling up my sink with iodophor solution, submerging the bottles (working all the bubbles out), and letting them sit for 5 minutes before rinsing them out again with the bottlewasher. However, using methods like the Vinator seem to only provide a couple of seconds of contact between bottle & iodpohor.

Last time it took me an hour to clean all my bottles. I think next time I'll just do the dishwasher method (I'm pretty good about rinsing out bottles after they're poured) and a quicker soak in iodophor.

Click to expand...

Iodophor santizes in one minute of wet contact time. So, squirt it in/on and then it can drain. If you're rinsing the iodophor after soaking in it, you're washing off the sanitizing properties. It's no rinse, and will stay sanitized as long as it's wet.

brewhymn said:

Ok, i think i'm going to bottle friday. tonight i'm going to set my bottles soaking in either bleach or oxiclean solution. I'm going to fill my bottling bucket with a 5 gallon iodophor mix and fill bottles in process that i will bottle bear in. this way my equipment gets sanitized as i sanitize my bottles. Do i need to do the dishwasher process?
Also, i think i misplaced my priming sugar. Can i just use regular sugar? if so what proportion will i use for a 5 gallon shiner bock clone?
thanks,
brandon

Click to expand...

Remember, washing and sanitizing are two different things. When you sanitize, you take clean bottles and sanitize them. Some use the oven, some use the dishwasher (mine doesn't get hot enough) and some use Iodophor or star-san. Wash first, sanitize last.

I rinse my bottles well when I empty them, so rarely have to soak or scrub them. Just a quick rinse and an inspection is usually all they get. I mean, either it is clean, or it is not. If it's clean, then I don't waste time cleaning again.

So, take the clean bottles and sanitize in your method of choice. Then, fill and be done. You can bottle a batch of beer in under an hour if you have the items ready to go.

I use the bleach method for washing my bottles. I let the bottles soak for a few days then (unless they still have labels on then let them soak for a few days, scrap off most fo the labels then let the bottles soak another 2-3 days to dissolve/liquidfy the glue) I use a modify bottle cleaner brush in my electric hand drill to easily clean the inside to the bottle. Empty the bottle and do another rinse fo the inside and hang the bottle on the bottle tree to dry. Whenit comes to bottling day, the bottles are given a sanitizing rinse (again water with 1-2 tsp of bleach) and rinsed out for 10-20 seconds using the bottle jet washer that attaches to a garden hose or faucet.

Easiest way we have found to clean bottles in my neighborhood.

Redbeard5289

YooperBrew said:

Iodophor santizes in one minute of wet contact time. So, squirt it in/on and then it can drain. If you're rinsing the iodophor after soaking in it, you're washing off the sanitizing properties. It's no rinse, and will stay sanitized as long as it's wet.

Click to expand...

Does the same hold true for my fermenter, etc? I've been rinsing everything off/out after sanitizing. Funny, I know from backpacking that small amounts of iodine are ok to consume, I just assumed it was better to rinse it out.

Wow, some people seem to really be going overboard and wasting a lot of precious time when cleaning/sanitizing bottles.

Here's my routine, it seems to work just fine:
-drink homebrews or buy microbrews and drink them
-rinse bottle with water after drinking
-after I save up enough where I'm ready to remove labels, fill the kitchen sink up with the absolute hottest water that comes out of the tap and the appropriate amount of pbw/oxyclean. Soak for about 2 hours (some people said 2-3 days?!?!). Labels will fall right off most brands, if not, throw the bottle in the recycle bin.
-lightly scrub off any remaining glue with a scouring pad (just like I'm doing the dishes), rinse, let dry.
-on bottling day, load the dishwasher with bottles, no soap, and run on the highest heat setting. Once the load is complete, set the bottling bucket above the dishwasher and go to town. The bottles are completely sanitized due to the temperature, and also dry as well.

I don't see any reason to use StarSan/Iodophor (except for a small bowl full for the caps) or a bottle tree.

I'm always totally anal about cleaning my bottles. It'd be a shame to lose a good batch because of a cleaning glitch. I usually soak bottles in Oxy, then scrub with a brush. I know I don't have to scrub if they're rinsed well, but peach of mind is worth a little extra time. Iodophor to sanitize (sanitizes in one minute).

Just bought a jet bottle washer to end my bottle scrubbing, and I'm looking forward to using it when I bottle my next batch.

My method:

1. Soak 24 hrs in 10 gallons of water with 2 big scoops of oxyclean (make sure all the bottles have no bubbles and are fully submerged)
2. For each bottle, dump out the solution while removing labels, rinse off label residue, then use hot water to rinse out each bottle 2-3 times
3. Put bottles into storage if not needed right away
4. On bottling day, dunk each bottle into a bucket of star-san, let it fill, then dump it out
5. Spray an empty dishwasher rack with star-san and use it to dry bottles

Star-san's my sanitizer of choice because you never need to rinse it off if you use the recommended concentration.

mugglesport said:

Does the same hold true for my fermenter, etc? I've been rinsing everything off/out after sanitizing. Funny, I know from backpacking that small amounts of iodine are ok to consume, I just assumed it was better to rinse it out.

Click to expand...

Yes. It's marketed as a "no rinse" sanitizer, when diluting according to package directions as is star-san. No rinse means they are wet contact sanitizers. After a minute (and you can just spray it on with a spray bottle, no need to immerse), you can simply use.

YooperBrew said:

Yes. It's marketed as a "no rinse" sanitizer, when diluting according to package directions as is star-san. No rinse means they are wet contact sanitizers. After a minute (and you can just spray it on with a spray bottle, no need to immerse), you can simply use.

Click to expand...

So, how do you get the inside with the spray bottle? Just spray inside? That seems like more work than just dunking it in a bucket full.

B-T-F Iodophor is effective at a concentration of 12.5 ppm. and at that strength, is an effective sanitizer with a contact time of 60 seconds... As it turns out, the cap on a one liter bottle of iodophor has a capacity of ¼ ounce... To obtain an effective sanitizer, no more than 2 capfuls, (1/2 oz.), need be added to 5 gallons of water. This creates a solution at 12.5 ppm.

Click to expand...

I asked about contact time and was told that 60 seconds was adequate. Dr. Landman went on to comment that it is not necessary to keep the surface completely immersed in the solution for 60 seconds. He explained, by way of example, that to sanitize a 5 gallon carboy there is no need to prepare 5 gallons of solution. Swishing a gallon of solution, (at 12.5 ppm), around the inside of the carboy for a minute or two will do the job.

Click to expand...

Source: http://www.bayareamashers.org/content/maindocs/iodophor.htm