mould question

Hi.

I have a home brew that is ready for bottling. For the first time ever I got my bottles "second hand" after a wedding and forgot to rinse them and they have sat in my garage for about 4 months. tonight when sanitising them I have found quite a bit of mould grown / growing at the bottom of these bottles.

I have these bottles now soaking and will attempt to remove the mould tomorrow night but my question is: If i sanitise with bleach (as usual) but fail to remove all the mould with a bottle brush will it kill my brew? It is hard to remove as it's sat in the garage for such a long time. I'm hoping that soaking in bleach overnight will kill the mould and and any remaining on the insides of the bottle wont matter but I need to know as I don't want to wreck this brew.

bleach used is sodium hypochlorite.

Thanks.

Damo

You can use a bottle brush to scrub the inside of them. If they aren't clean, don't bother to sanitize them and use them because you'll just ruin the beer you put in them.

Soaking in bleach water or oxyclean can loosen much of the crud, and then a bottle brush can get the rest. Rinse very well with hot water, and then you can sanitize them.

Soak them in oxyclean for a few days and then give them a good scrub. I found some grolsh bottles in a barn that were well over 20 years old. They had lots of things growing in them. One even had 20+ year old homebrew still in it. I soaked them in oxyclean for a few days and they came completely clean.

You cannot effectively sanitize something that is not clean.


Something clean is free of dirt, grime or other particles not specific to the container.

Something sanitary is a clean item that is has no significant exposure to harmful chemicals, bacteria or other infection agents.

Beyond sanitary there is sterile but for the purposes of beer making sterility is overkill (if even possible).

kornkob said:

You cannot effectively sanitize something that is not clean.


Something clean is free of dirt, grime or other particles not specific to the container.

Something sanitary is a clean item that is has no significant exposure to harmful chemicals, bacteria or other infection agents.

Beyond sanitary there is sterile but for the purposes of beer making sterility is overkill (if even possible).

Click to expand...

X2

For similar comparison

Washing your car = cleaning

Waxing your car = sanitizing

It would be foolish to wax before washing your car. Same applies to cleaners/sanitizers.

Welcome to the board, damo. I've cleaned/sanitized moldy bottles before with success. The first thing you want to do is get them clean. Don't rely on sanitizing to kill the mold. Sanitizing is just a necessary back-up step.

I soaked the bottles in lye (sodium hydroxide) for a few hours, then scrubbed them with a bottle brush. So, if lye is available in your country (apparently not the USA due to the "mould" spelling), that would work, but you need to take all handling precautions and wear appropriate protective gear as it is extremely caustic.

Secondarily, a percarbonate cleaner (like OxyClean) with a longer soak (as mentioned by BornInaHoller) may work too.

welcome to the board.

I got quite a few nasty bottles from a friend, i just put them in the (spare) bathtub filled with hot water and Oxyclean for 3 days, draining the tub and bottles every day and adding new oxyclean and after 3 days they all were spotless. I rinsed them 3 or 4 times with a carboy/bottle rinser, and then sanitized them 3 times (once every day for 3 days) and they worked great, some of my best beer ever was from them, no odd tastes or smells.

Over kill possibly but it worked, and i do have 2 bathtubs.