very old beer bottles

Hey gang. Getting ready to bottle my first batch and i found on craigslist 8 cases of the old stubby beer bottles from a guy who hasn't brewed in about 5 years. He claims he rinsed them after each use and they have been stored upside down in his basement since his last batch.

I currently have them soaking in a tub with hiot water and dish soap.

My question is: How metciulous do i have to be cleaning these bottles (most of them are upwards of 25 years old) before i bottle. I understand they need to be rinsed with star san before i fill them with beer but should i worry about scrubbing them?

any old bottles i get i soak for 2 days in the laundry sink with a good dose of bleach.
then i use the spray bottle washer and look in each one to make sure nothing is left.
if there is stuff left then i use a bottle brush.
next is a spray with a campden tablet solution to neutralize the chlorine from the bleach.
then a final spray with starsan before bottling.
maybe overkill but i have never had an infection.

Give the bottles a soak with hot water and oxyclean free for a couple of hours. The rinse them well. I love the bottle washer that attaches to the sink. Makes
things quick and easy.
Dave

I would be concerned about the dish soap, it can cause a residue that inhibits head formation.

Dave258 said:

Give the bottles a soak with hot water and oxyclean free for a couple of hours. The rinse them well. I love the bottle washer that attaches to the sink. Makes
things quick and easy.
Dave

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+1000 I had been skeptical of Oxiclean for a while, but after seeing how "stained" my carboy was (After cleaning and drying) I put some in and toppe doff with hot water. Next morning the neck had a bunch of "goop" floating on the Oxi-water and after rinsing thoroughly, that carboy was the cleanest I've ever seen it.

I've tried oxi on other things since then, and all my bottles go through an overnight soak before I use them. It even gets the thick gunk to come free.

ZombieBeer said:

I would be concerned about the dish soap, it can cause a residue that inhibits head formation.

Click to expand...

Another good bit of advice. Dish soap is not likely to do much, and maybe leave behind some bad flavor (although probably not if it's rinsed well.)

If that guy had actually rinsed them well after use, and stored upside down, they will likely be just fine with a hot rinse and some starsan (or your favorite no-rinse sanitizer).

I have 48 bottles that my grandfather used to brew with well before I was even born.
There old stubby PBR bottles. It's going to be fun cleaning them out. The only bad thing about these bottles is that I can't really bring them anywhere outside my house, don't want to risk loosing or breaking any.

I typically soak unknown (new to me) bottles in oxyxlean then brush each one and inspect each one, you never know whats in there, even if the guy said they are clean.

Bottles should be fine as long as they look clean. You will want to soak in either oxyclean FREE (don't use scented oxyclean only the "FREE" stuff) or PBW (Powdered Brewers Wash) you really shouldn't be soaking them in dish soap. It will leave a residue but not to worry the oxyclean will knock out any soap residue too.

Once they are through the oxyclean soak, if they look clean they are clean! If not, bottle brush or just shake them to dislodge any gunk and another dip in fresh oxyclean should make them good to go.

Be sure to sanitize them at the time of bottling too!