Noob bottling Day

So i've made up my first beer (Brewhouse IPA kit) and now i'm ready to bottle, but I just wanted to make sure I understand the bottle cleaning process. I have 50 used Grolsch bottles that I need to clean. I have taken the lids off and soaked them in OxiClean for about an hour, then went straight to the bottling tree to dry (didn't rinse out).
Now, i'm going to soak them again in a PBW cleaner for another hour then rinse and onto the drying tree again. Next, I will run these through the dishwasher (no soap) on the highest heat setting. Finally I will give them a quick spray with Starsan (inside and out) just before bottling. For the caps, I was just going to boil them for 5 minutes then soak in Starsan.

Am I missing anything?

I plan to start with a couple of kits, them onto extract for a bit, then finally go for the gold....all-grain.

Sounds good, if they are dirty I would use a bottle brush with the PBW.

That seems a bit like overkill.

I'm not a fan of bottling starsan wet bottles. It does effect the taste when you do it that way, no matter how small.

For my past 4 batches I've done nothing but soak them in Oxiclean for a few hours, shake each bottle well and then rinse well by hand, sit them on drying tree for 20 min and then stand them upright in your oven at 180F for 30 min...This is more than adequate to sanitize and dry them well. I bottle them straight from the oven, just leave them out of the oven for a few minutes until they are no longer too hot to touch....this method only takes me about 20 minutes of work to prep 50 bottles, never had an infected beer yet. Your method sounds like it would take all day!

People have been sanitizing canning jars with heat and hot water for 100's of years, should work the same with beer.

Danarchy-

Sounds like your going above and beyond as far as cleaning and sanitizing (not a bad thing just maybe not needed) but you do what you feel comfortable with.

I am also a n00b so take this for what it is worth. I typically soak bottles overnight (minimum) in oxyclean to remove labels and clean. I dont have a bottle tree so I typically remove the label, shake the bottles with oxy solution like crazy after they have soaked and then rinse and drain overnight in dishwasher rack.

When it comes time to actually bottle I fill my bottling bucket with sanitizer solution and fill each bottle about a third of the way full. This serves to santize bottling bucket and bottle filler attachment as well and getting sanitizer in each bottle. When I'm done filling bottles I dump remainder of solution from bucket and then shake each bottle for a few seconds to get coverage on the entire inside of bottle. This may not be ideal but I havent found a better method. Also I just soak my caps in a solo cup of sanitizer prior to applying to each bottle.

One comment on the dishwasher is that even with no soap you want to make sure you dont have jetdry or something similar in there because it can affect head retention (not sure how big of a deal this is).

Overall you dont seem to be missing anything but as I said you might not need all of those steps, but if you feel safer this way then by all means continue.

I used the method that I laid out above for three batches with no bottle bombs or infection issues.

This thread helped me a TON :https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

Kudos to Revvy

i just rinse out bottles as they get drank, stick them on th tree to dry and then back into a case of empties. When bottling time rolls around i put 24 into a bucket of star san, grab one, dump it and bottle. When that 24 is gone, put in another 24 and do it again. Have yet to have an infected bottle in 14 batches.

Since I don't know where all these bottles have been (bought them from a bottle depot), I would rather go with the overkill the first time. The next time will just be a PBW rinse and Starsan I think.

For the starsan, does anyone just use the sulphiter on top of the tree to spray inside, or do you all dunk and shake?

Danarchy said:

Since I don't know where all these bottles have been (bought them from a bottle depot), I would rather go with the overkill the first time. The next time will just be a PBW rinse and Starsan I think.

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You'll be fine! Nothing was discussed about the actual bottling process:

Be sure to also sanitize the bottling bucket, spigot, hose, racking cane an filler as well!

Dissolve priming sugar in 1-2 cups boiling water and boil 5 minutes, cool and pour into bottling bucket, then rack beer into bucket, the swirl into the bucket will self mix the sugar. Bottle away!

Be sure your caps seal well, box them up and let them sit 2 weeks, chill one or two for a couple days later and check for carb, oh, and enjoy!!!

Definitely overkill. You don't want any of those chemicals potentially affecting the taste of your beer when you use that much.

I use Oxyclean when I take the labels off and then just just the sanitize setting on my dishwasher. No PBW unless there are crusty gunks on the inside.

This thread has me excited because I have 2 batches (100 bottles) of bottle conditioning beer right now and I just know these are going to be my best recipes to date!

Kegger's complain about bottling but I actually enjoy it. I even got my wife into it last time we bottled, she only did the fun part though (capping).

Beerbro, what would you recommend to keep the chemical flavor out?

Makes me feel inadequate lol. I only rinse my bottles and then fill them with Iodophor solution and leave them upside down to dry. I dont even sanitize my caps lol. Never had a problem.

Spencecore24 said:

Makes me feel inadequate lol. I only rinse my bottles and then fill them with Iodophor solution and leave them upside down to dry. I dont even sanitize my caps lol. Never had a problem.

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Santitation is less important after fermentation. Not many bacteria like to live in an alcohol rich solution with minimal food.

Jayhem said:

That seems a bit like overkill.

I'm not a fan of bottling starsan wet bottles. It does effect the taste when you do it that way, no matter how small.

For my past 4 batches I've done nothing but soak them in Oxiclean for a few hours, shake each bottle well and then rinse well by hand, sit them on drying tree for 20 min and then stand them upright in your oven at 180F for 30 min...This is more than adequate to sanitize and dry them well. I bottle them straight from the oven, just leave them out of the oven for a few minutes until they are no longer too hot to touch....this method only takes me about 20 minutes of work to prep 50 bottles, never had an infected beer yet. Your method sounds like it would take all day!

People have been sanitizing canning jars with heat and hot water for 100's of years, should work the same with beer.

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that also sounds like overkill.

Danarchy said:

For the caps, I was just going to boil them for 5 minutes then soak in Starsan.

.

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You'll risk damaging the caps boiling them. Both the plastic gasket causing sealing issues and the edges rusting during storage.

I just wash em with brush (when its even needed), a couple drops of dish soap in the water. dunk them in rinse water and put them on a tree. a fast squirt with a sulfinator before bottling.

all these elaborate oxyclean soaking regiments sound like a pain.

atom said:

that also sounds like overkill.

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Maybe but I don't like starsan flavored beer.

unless you're leaving a quarter bottle of starsan in there...there should be no taste.

Spencecore24 said:

Makes me feel inadequate lol. I only rinse my bottles and then fill them with Iodophor solution and leave them upside down to dry. I dont even sanitize my caps lol. Never had a problem.

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I'm with iowabrew & Spencecore24 on this one. I rinse my bottles in hot water as soon as they're empty, then just stick them in an empty case. When its time to bottle I sink them all in a bucket of StarSan, then dump them out and stick them upside-down on the drying rack. These two- and three-step procedures give me some insight into why other people seem to dislike bottling so much.

Wow a lot of these methods sound like overkill. I just rinse the bottle after I use it and then store it until I need it. On bottling day I put some starsan in the sulphiter give it a few squirts and let it drip dry for a bit. Never had a problem doing this and I've certainly never had any starsan flavor. I've won competitions with beers bottled this way. The starsan floats on the beer and comes up out the top as you fill the bottle, so there can't be much more than trace amounts in the bottle.

Everybody has their own system, this is mine. My bottling process starts when I pop the top off a full one. I pour out the beer, pour in a few oz of tap water thumb over the opening and shake to suspensd yeast. Dump. repeat. Then it goes upside down in the dishwasher to drip dry intil the next day. From there it goes into the pack 6 rack in the fridge and when that is full, into the case in the basement until bottling day. If it has a label it gets soaked in hot tap water 24 hours and the label peels off. Another 24 hours in the same water and the remaining paper and glue residue comes off with a fingernail. The night before bottling day, the bottles come out and get run through the sanitize setting in the dishwasher with no soap and no jet dry. Bottling day, the bottles get a squiret of starsan with a vintinator, then fill, cap, condition, repeat ad infinitum.

atom said:

unless you're leaving a quarter bottle of starsan in there...there should be no taste.

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Probably true, it has to effect PH some though.

I still prefer dry bottles to slippery starsan soaked bottles, much easier to handle during filling and capping.

I rinse my bottles as I use them.

Before bottling, I give them a shot with the jet bottle cleaner and submerge them in star san for a few minutes (you only need 30 seconds of contact). I make the star san solution in a carboy and then dump it into a bucket.

I pull them out and put them upside down in a case. I get between 50 and 60 bottles ready. Depending on what's going on, I either boil or star san the caps. Meanwhile, the racking cane, hose, and the bottle filler are in the star san. I also sanitize a funnel.

Then I boil my primer.

Once that's all ready, I rack into the clean carboy and add the sugar. I usually do this with a buddy. He usually fills the bottles and I cap. We go through it very quickly. The slowest part is cleaning everything.

The fermenting beer is going to be kegged. When I eventually bottle it, I'll use the beer gun.

Thanks everyone for the tips. It sounds like i'm doing a bit of overkill if these were my own bottles. Now that I have 50, filled with my delicious (I hope) beer, I will rinse when they are empty and place back in the box.
Question....when you are done with your Grolsch bottles....do you store them with the cap on or off?

Danarchy said:

Question....when you are done with your Grolsch bottles....do you store them with the cap on or off?

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bails left on the glass, caps open

Your own bottles are easy to maintain. Its only the freebies that you get that need lots of attention and the harsher methods first time around.
The bottles that make you wonder if they had beer in them or were used as planters or Kimchi pots.

So just an update....first batch has been in the bottle for three weeks and i'm happily cracking into them. The taste isn't as great as I hoped, but definitely drinkable. I can't complain for my first ever batch. Today I am also bottling a Mango-Peach Hef that bastardized from a kit. This one should be better than the first. Once I move in a month, I will start on extracts. So far so good.

Danarchy said:

So just an update....first batch has been in the bottle for three weeks and i'm happily cracking into them. The taste isn't as great as I hoped, but definitely drinkable.

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They're likely to improve if you wait a few weeks.