Bottle Cleaning Question

[WooHokie]

I inherited about 32 16oz EZ-Cap Bottles from a friend who had them in his attic for probably 5 years. They had cobwebs and crap all over them.

I rinsed all of them with warm water then ran them through the dish washer twice. I didn't use soap, just the steam setting in the dish washer.

I want to use these bottles to bottle some Apelwein and I'm wondering if you guys think I should soak the bottles in Oxyclean or if I've done enough to clean them and all I need to do now is rinse them with StarSan.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[mendesm]

I would soak them in oxyclean.

I have a big Tupperware bin, like one of those used to put crap like winter clothes into the attic in the off season, that is taller than the bottles. Fill it with enough water to submerge a bottle standing up in it, apply the correct amount of sanitizer/cleaner, then submerge all the bottles in it and leave them in there as I do other stuff around the house. All the crap inside the bottles float up to the top. I've left them in the solution overnight with just the lid over the tub.

Even better if you use cleaner/sanitizer that you don't have to rinse off. Take the bottle from tub, dump its contents back into the tub, bottle, cap, repeat.

It's more fun with 3 people working on this. One takes care of the bottle dumping, one fills bottles, the third caps them; all three drink and talk s**t all the while

 

[glenn514]

Since there seems to be a question about the sanitation of those bottles, it might be a good idea to pour or spray some Starsan into them and swish it around just prior to bottling. That way, you know they are clean AND sanitized.

glenn514

 

[mpcluever]

Even better if you use cleaner/sanitizer that you don't have to rinse off

I would not use a sanitizer to clean. Some cleaners will also theoretically sanitize, but StarSan for example would not be a good cleaner.

 

[Pappers_]

No harm in an oxyclean soak, rinse well, then sanitize right before you bottle.

 

[BrewThruYou]

I was in the same boat. I would take off the metal bales and soak just the bottles in oxyclean/pbw. Some of the bales developed a carbonate scale...probably because I soaked them too long. To prevent that, either remove the bales or use an acid soak afterward to remove the scale.