Bottle Cleaning Questions

[FastEddie]

I think I may have been going about this all wrong. I am super fussy with making sure my bottles are clean before sanitizing and bottling. With new/unused bottles it's just an easy sanitize and rinse process. But with recycled bottles I have been laboring through the cleaning process. With bottles that I use, I rinse with hot water immediately after I pour a beer, but even hot water leaves some residue on the sides of the bottles. I also have trained my friends to save their commercial beer bottles for me. While they are free, they are not always rinsed and often come with molds, critters, etc inside.

My cleaning process has been to soak about 50 bottles in a 30 gallon Rubbermaid tote with a bleach water solution for a day or two. Then I take each bottle and run a bottle brush down each one thoroughly to make sure any crusties/residues are totally removed. Finally I rinse (probably over-rinse, truth be told) with a bottle jet. Takes so much damn time, but I have never had an issue with a bad bottle.

After reading the sticky that covered the variety of other cleaning products, I wondered if there is a product that will completely remove crusties and residues during the soak process alone -- effectively eliminating the need to run a brush through the bottles. That would just leave a good rinse and storage until the time to sanitize for bottling.

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Homercidal]

My process has changed a bit over the past year. I now take all empties that I KNOW were never fully cleaned, and soak them in Oxiclean overnight, or 24 hours. That stuff will generally do the trick, but if you want to run a bottle brush in there and let sit another few hours, feel free.

I then rinse with starsan before packing away or using. The Starsan will neutralize the oxiclean, which can tend to leave a residue for some people.

 

[weirdboy]

I soak my bottles in hot water and oxyclean, it does wonders. There are occasional stubborn bottles that I'll have to soak a couple times, or use a bottle brush on, but that's like 1 out of every 100 or 200 bottles. I think the residue problem is related to your water source. I personally don't experience any problem rinsing with tap water, but it's not hard to fill a bottling bucket with starsan solution, and rinse using that.

 

[levon15]

I'm finishing up a batch of bottles in oxyclean tonight, 24 hour soak. Found a mouse in one bottle. I suppose the smell of beer in a bottle in a garage was too much for the little guy.

I'll rinse out of the oxyclean and use a bottle brush to ensure no crustiness. Starsan rinse on bottling day.

 

[krenshaw]

i've found that if you just rinse them out with hot water after using (especially necessary if its a bottle conditioned beer) then all you need to do is do a short soak in oxy then a short soak in sanitizer.. i haven't gone too crazy and never had any problems, though i've also never used any questionable bottles as well.. YMMV i guess

 

[glenn514]

Several months ago, one of my daughters brought me about sixty bottles that needed cleaning and de-labeling. Even after soaking them in oxiclean, some of the crusties just would NOT budge, even with a bottling brush. So, those bottles were relegated to the recycling bin! But I am amazed at what kinds of s##t people will put in empty beer bottles! Once I had the bottles clean, the sanitizing process prior to bottling is simple: run them through the dishwasher on high-temp dry!

glenn514

 

[gbx]

Get large bottles and keep them clean- preferably all the same size because it sucks to always have to be adjusting the capper. I have more than 2 batches worth of growlers and 1 litre bottles and I hit them with the bottle jet as soon as they are empty. It still takes more time than I'd like it too and its the one step in homebrewing thats hard to do while drinking. I will get some kegs as soon as the budget allows but having only 15 bottles per batch to clean is the next best thing.