Bottling questions...

I thoroughly clean and sanitize my bottles. But do I need to allow the inside of the bottles to completely dry prior to bottling or is rinsing out the sanitizer then bottling sufficient? Please help.

I would recommend using a no-rinse sanitizer.

If you rinse your bottles out with un-sanitized water after you sanitize them, then you basically just un-sanitized your bottles.

I have a lot of friends that do a rinse and haven't had many problems, but personally I would rather not take the chance on one or two bad bottles. Especially if entering a competition.

Oh yeah - your original question - they do not have to be completely dry.

Let's think about this for a second...First, why would you sanitize something then rinse it with possibly "dirty" water and thereby negating anything you just did by sanitizing?

What sanitizer are you using? I believe most if not all the possible sanitizers we use in the HB world are what are considered "no rinse" and "wet" sanitizers. Meaning it only works while the item is wet with the sanitizer.

+ 1 on no-rinse sanitizer = Star San

and:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

woollybugger2 said:

+ 1 on no-rinse sanitizer = Star San

and:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

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Another +1 for Star San & Revvy's thread. It was a life-saver for bottling my first batch.

And if you do use Star San remember you can fill the bottle with the Star San foam still in it!

The answer would be no. You do not have to let the bottles dry out - but see above comments.

I use One Step or actually now I use Dish Washer on Sanitize. Then burn my hands getting the bottles out.

Grinder12000 said:

I use One Step or actually now I use Dish Washer on Sanitize. Then burn my hands getting the bottles out.

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You aint lyin'! I have a few burn blisters on my thumb from taking the bottles out of the dishwasher after the sanitize cycle. Saved a lot of time though. Small price to pay for convenience.

I am using a one step no-rinse sanitizer by LD Carlson. If you use the dishwasher do you use the no-rinse sanitizer instead of Cascade?

if you use the dishwasher, don't put any soap in it, run it like regular and do the heat dry, make sure it's not on 'energy saver' or whatever it is called on yours... not all dishwashers have the 'sanitize' option on them, but the heat dry will get it done for you.

android said:

if you use the dishwasher, don't put any soap in it, run it like regular and do the heat dry, make sure it's not on 'energy saver' or whatever it is called on yours... not all dishwashers have the 'sanitize' option on them, but the heat dry will get it done for you.

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DING DING DING, we have a winner!

Dishwasher, no soap, maybe a tablespoon of bleach in the wash cycle and heat dry is on. Best bottle tree ever.

+1 on the dishwasher. Been using that method since my first batch and see no reason to do anything different. Never had a bad bottle and I use a mixture of flip-tops and crowns.

I am wondering how the water actually makes it up into the bottles using this method. Wouldn't it just sanitize the outside of the bottles?

brewdude25 said:

I am wondering how the water actually makes it up into the bottles using this method. Wouldn't it just sanitize the outside of the bottles?

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It's the heat that sanitizes your bottles in the dishwasher, not the water.

My dishwasher has a hot start, high temp wash, and heated dry option. I assume I can use all 3 of those without soap or anything else in the dishwasher and have sanitized bottles? I'm bottling my first batch in a week or 2.

craven_morhead said:

My dishwasher has a hot start, high temp wash, and heated dry option. I assume I can use all 3 of those without soap or anything else in the dishwasher and have sanitized bottles? I'm bottling my first batch in a week or 2.

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The only thing I would suggest is to give the bottles a nice warm soak in a tub of OxyClean first. Everything else is a "go" in my book. Just watch your hands when you take the bottles out after the hot dry. I've burned my hands several times. You'd think I'd learn.

Sounds good; I've got some OxyClean around and a big washing/sanitizing tub. I'll sanitize my caps separately. Should I let the bottles cool a bit before I start to fill them?

craven_morhead said:

Sounds good; I've got some OxyClean around and a big washing/sanitizing tub. I'll sanitize my caps separately. Should I let the bottles cool a bit before I start to fill them?

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I have to do my dishwasher cycle in 2 stages since all my bottles won't fit in one go. I'll put the bottles that come out of the dishwasher into my bottle boxes and immediately cover the tops with cling wrap and then wait for the next batch to get done. By that time the first batch has cooled and are ready to bottle. By the time you get those bottled, the others will have cooled. I wouldn't go straight from a heat-dry cycle to bottling. You may destroy the profile of the beer and those suspended yeasties are still doing their jobs in the bottles.

I wish I had a dishwasher. On the other hand, I'm finding oven sterilization with foil caps is pretty convenient. It's not something I can do on quick notice due to the slow warm up and cool down that glass needs, but if I do it when I have enough bottles to fill the oven I get a case and change of sterile dry bottles that I can keep more or less indefinitely.

A tip I've come across when trying to fit more bottles in my dishwasher is to put them upside down in the top rack and let the necks stick out from the bottom of the top rack. The longnecks fit and it can potentially double the quantity of bottles you're able to get in there.

Steam does the sanitizing and gets in there just fine, I haven't had a single bad bottle yet.

if your bottles are already clean, you shouldn't need to use the oxyclean soak... if they're dirty, definitely. just make sure you rinse them well before putting them in the DW. you really can't count on the jets to rinse the bottles as the neck opening isn't all that wide. as someone said, it's the heat drying cycle that does the sanitizing.