Leaving Diluted Star San in PET bottles

After wasting a good 1.5 hours the other day, I decided that enough was enough and I needed a better (incremental) system for bottle cleaning.

I use 1 liter PET bottles for all of my brew (I know, stop groaining, but I am too lazy and cheap to buy a capper, do kegging, and I don't like Grolsch enough to chug enough to get the good bottles.)

Here's my idea:
Everytime I finish a liter of beer, I will:
1. rinse it out
2. spray a solution of some cleanser into the bottle and wash the cap
3. rinse it out
4. spray a solution of diluted star san into the bottle
5. put the cap on
5. store the bottle

Then when I am ready to do another batch, all I have to do is rinse the bottles, and I am in bid-ness.

Is this a stupid idea? Will I kill myself? Will my bottles be damaged by prolonged wet star san exposure? Will they (or this post) burst into flame?

Any ideas, criticisms, or general "internet hate"/trolling are welcomed.

Thanks!

i'm not sure keeping starsan in there for a long time will maintain sanitation.
what i would do is clean them, let them dry upside down (on a bottle tree if you have it)
and store them in a box or something until it's time to use them.

I sanitize the bottles 30 min before bottling.

btw, I got my bottle capper for $15, it wasn't too much.

That sounds like a lot of work every time yo want a drink to me.

What I do is:
1. Pour beer
2. Rinse bottle with water, and set to the side of the sink upside down so they drain(always rinse first, as you may not remember to rinse if you drink the beer)
3. Drink the beer
4. When you are sick of bottles piling up, put them in a box in the closet
5. When it is time to fill, put a bit of star san in each bottle, shake, drain. Soak caps in star san
6. Refill bottles and cap
7. Repeat

I really don't like to store anything wet. I prefer to get them clean, let them dry until I need them, and then sanitize just before use.

I'm with Roger above, just make sure you rinse them out well after drinking and let them dry out. If you let them sit too long with your "little yeast culture" in the bottom, drying, then you will have a hard time getting it out.

My process?
1. Open beer and pour it into glass.
2. Put some water in bottle, swish it around, dump it, more water in, shake it, dump it.
2a. Remove my label.
3. Allow bottles to dry nearly upside down.
4. Store them away for next bottling day.
5. Bottling day- StarSan carboy ritual, dump ~2gallons of StarSan into plugged sink.
5a. Soak bottles in StarSan (minute or less usually) and bottle brush them before filling.

djinn88 said:

I'm with Roger above, just make sure you rinse them out well after drinking and let them dry out. If you let them sit too long with your "little yeast culture" in the bottom, drying, then you will have a hard time getting it out.

My process?
1. Open beer and pour it into glass.
2. Put some water in bottle, swish it around, dump it, more water in, shake it, dump it.
2a. Remove my label.
3. Allow bottles to dry nearly upside down.
4. Store them away for next bottling day.
5. Bottling day- StarSan carboy ritual, dump ~2gallons of StarSan into plugged sink.
5a. Soak bottles in StarSan (minute or less usually) and bottle brush them before filling.

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^^^ Good post. Same for me, except I don't even bottle brush them before filling. I actually like to do a quick soap/rinse/dry before storing and then just a quick dunk in starsan solution when bottling.

I use my spray bottle of Star San to spray the bottles on bottling day. A few squirts inside and dip the top in a bucket of Star San which the caps will later soak in and put them on the bottling tree. I may skimp a bit but a gallon of distilled water mixed into a Star San solution goes a long way. I use only one gallon on each batch, boil and bottling. Really there isn't much to sanitize on brew day. Just the fermenter and airlock really. Bottling day actually has more to sanitize. I don't scrub bottles. If they look dirty they go.

Had to bump this as I found the tread searching for answers.

Lots of alternatives offered to OP's question.

I use some glass (for give aways) and a lot of Coopers PET bottles for personal consumption.

I was thinking the same as OP, but my specific questions are:

Will the Starsan degrade the plastic?

Will the Starsan effectiveness decline if the bottle is sealed and does this matter if the internal surface is already sanitized?

I'm thinking of just about an oz of solution in each bottle.

I've never seen star san degrade plastic, but it can leave a film on it. Although, I think the film is more more from the minerals in the water than the star san itself. I've kept star san in a plastic bucket for a month or more, with no ill effects. I keep a spray bottle of it on hand all the time, but I make sure to mix it with distilled water. In fact I even have a gallon jug with some star san in it mixed with distilled water.

scp said:

I use 1 liter PET bottles for all of my brew (I know, stop groaining, but I am too lazy and cheap to buy a capper, do kegging, and I don't like Grolsch enough to chug enough to get the good bottles.)

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What's the issue with using PET bottles? I just picked up 8 1 liter bottles and thought it was a good purchase.

Nothing as far as I am concerned! I love the PET bottles, but I know some people are haters about 'em.

The thing I like about the new ones is that they have formulated the plastic to allow (small) oxygen molecules to leech thru the plastic but not allow the larger CO2 molecules to escape.

Marketing hype or real physics?

I've seen a few people in this thread say they don't use the full 5 gallon water for star san. Can I ask what ratio of water to star san solution you guys use if you're not doing the full 5 gallons of water per 1 oz of star san? I'm assuming you just divide the solution by two, so 2 and a half gallons of water per 1/2 ounce of star san. Thanks.

kyle6286 said:

I've seen a few people in this thread say they don't use the full 5 gallon water for star san. Can I ask what ratio of water to star san solution you guys use if you're not doing the full 5 gallons of water per 1 oz of star san? I'm assuming you just divide the solution by two, so 2 and a half gallons of water per 1/2 ounce of star san. Thanks.

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That works for me.

kyle6286 said:

I've seen a few people in this thread say they don't use the full 5 gallon water for star san. Can I ask what ratio of water to star san solution you guys use if you're not doing the full 5 gallons of water per 1 oz of star san? I'm assuming you just divide the solution by two, so 2 and a half gallons of water per 1/2 ounce of star san. Thanks.

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I use 1/5oz per gallon. I fill up the reservoir to just below the 1/4oz mark than mix that in 1 gallon of distilled water.