Do you scrub your bottles before each use?

When I drink my home brew from the bottle, I always pour it into a glass and then rinse out the bottle very well and let it dry upside down. Once dry I move it to a box where it sits upside down until bottling.

Then on bottling day all I do is rinse out the bottle once again, sanitize, fill with beer, and cap.

The bottles look perfectly clean inside after rinsing them out the first time, I never really saw the need to scrub each time. I've done a dozen or so brews and never had an issue.

I know you should clean the bottles with a brush and soap each time, but that adds a ton of labor to bottle day. Anyone else do this?

Is there an easier way to scrub the inside of the bottles than using a hand-held brush?

Nah, I do the same exact thing as you and never had a problem. I actually put a little square of aluminum foil over each bottle after its dried as a faux cap so I can store them upside right in a box. Visual inspection for gunk in the bottle before a 1 minute dunk in a 5 gallon bucket of star san on bottling day.

Only added step I do is a rinse in Oxy Clean prior to a StarSan dunk. I've never had an issue.

I do the same thing as you and haven't had a problem. When my bottles are emptied they are rinsed and dried upside down then stored upside down. On bottling day they are filled and sunk in a bucket of Star San then emptied and filled with fresh beer. I haven't scrubbed a bottle yet but I also haven't let a bottle dry out when dirty.

After drinking a homebrew, I'll give the bottle a good scrub and rinse out, leaving it upside down in the dish drainer to dry before storing. When I'm ready to bottle my beer, I run my bottles through the dishwasher on a rinse cycle or two with no detergent, and use the heat dry setting. I then store them upside down in their cases while I'm working on mixing up my priming sugar solution and siphoning the beer to the bottling bucket. Seems to work very well, as I've never had any issues with an infection of any sort.

No, never.

If I come across a bottle with dried on junk, I recycle the bottle. I have like, 400 bottles, I don't need to waste my time cleaning out a bottle with dried on gunk.

I rinse with hot water, add a tiny bit of pbw and fill with hot water and let soak overnight. They ALWAYS have a dense layer of foam and crud on top after 2 hours and I have felt roughness in the necks of the ones I didn't do this to. A quick brush pass the next day and into the rack to dry after rinsing. I then store upside down in the boxes I have collected.

I rinse my bottles right after I've emptied (drank) them and store them upside down. On bottling day or the day before just rinse them again or a quick brush if needed. A brief moment into Star San and fill 'em up again. Same with my wine bottles.

If I'm drinking a bottle at home, I pour the beer into a glass, give the bottle a couple rinse-and-shakes and toss it on the bottle tree. Bottles from other sources get a bulk hot oxy soak when there are enough of them, followed by a scrub, a couple hot rinses, and finally an acidic squirt on the vinator before going onto the bottle tree. Everybody gets another couple squirts of sanitizer on bottling day. The new/return bottle cleaning process is a real PITA and I'd love to have an easier solution, but unrinsed bottles are really gross after a day or thirty so they need some serious cleaning before I'm willing to put my beer in them.

Glad to know I'm not the only one. I definitely soak/scrub the bottles if they dried up or sat out overnight, but if I rinse them right after drinking I don't scrub them. Just rinse and sanitize right before bottling!

Related note... if there an easier way to scrub the bottles? I feel like if there was a scrub brush with a base it would be a lot easier. Kind of like what they use in bars to clean cups.

When I empty a bottle, it gets a quick rinse and gets stowed near my utility sink. Once I have a dozen or so, they all get a hit PBW soak, rinse, then stored upside down in a crate or case. When time to bottle beer, they get a cold water rinse and a starsan soak, then filled and capped.

Yeah, I am on the same rinse after drinking method. If I get bottles from other people with questionable origins and mold growing in them, I soak them in hot oxyclean for a good halfhour or so. This loosens the gunk for a rinse out and it softens the labels for (relatively) easy removable. After rinsing, I inspect for gunk. If still there, recycle. Otherwise, off to the dishwasher for heat treatment and use. I'm too lazy to scrub and too cheap to buy a bottle brush.