Bottle Cleaning

[eqttrdr]

Geez... its time consuming.. I must be doing something wrong?


How do you guys clean and sanitize your bottles? Seems to take forever if I am doing 48 12oz ones..


thanks for any suggestions

 

[Dutchbier]

I soak them for a few days in a large plastic tub with some scent free oxy clean and the labels and glue come right off. Sanitize with a vinator. I have not figured out a faster way to sanitize them.

 

[pgrebus]

Switch to 22s. Rinse after use, soak in oxy cleaner, rack dry.

 

[eqttrdr]

what if I could find a product that would perfectly clean or sanitize 12 bottles at a time in less than 10 seconds, remove the labels with ease and could also be used to sanitize the rest of your brewing equipment as well??


Experimenting at home with some stuff to make my stupid life easier because is becoming too tedious for me.. feel like I am wasting too much time cleaning..LOL


Do you think people would pay $100 for something like this? $150? $200?...Someone would only have to buy the product once though


thanks again for the help.... my wife keeps laughing at me cleaning bottles all day..

 

[Black Island Brewer]

Geez... its time consuming.. I must be doing something wrong?

How do you guys clean and sanitize your bottles? Seems to take forever if I am doing 48 12oz ones..

thanks for any suggestions

The guys at my HB club give me crap for it, but I'm the rare person who gave up kegging and went back to bottles. Several things led me to it, from a divorce that had me selling off most of my brewing equipment, a smaller house with no practical place to store or serve kegs, to drinking less, and liking the convenience of bottles. So, I try to make it easy on myself.
When I get new bottles, I soak them in the kitchen sink in a little oxyclean, which usually lifts off the labels. I use a bottle brush to clean the insides, and a jet washer on the faucet to rinse the insides. Then I put them in the case upside down to keep out the dust, and to let me know they are clean. On bottling day, I set up my starsan in a vinator pump on the top of my bottle tree. Three pumps, then onto the tree while I sanitize the rest. As I drink the beer, I rinse right away, wash the empty bottles with the rest of our dishes, and put them upside down in their box again. Even my wife will wash them and box them. If I don't get a bottle washed out right away, and it dries out, I use the bottle brush.

I do bottle half in 12 ounces bottles, and half in 22s. The bombers definately speed up the process.

I just like the Zen of Bottling. I can bottle and listen to the *ssclowns on The Brewing Network, and it goes fast.

 

[whoaru99]

For cleaning I have a plastic tub where I put the bottles to soak, don't recall for sure around 15 bottles at a time I think.

Rinsing I use a jet washer.

Sanitizing I use a vinator, but I only sanitize maybe 6 - 12 at a time, then fill and cap those. Repeat.

Here is one way people have tried to make it less manual labor. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/bottle-washer-sanitizer-project-98932/

 

[Hello]

My first bottling session was indeed a chore. In spite of having the majority of my bottles already cleaned, I still had to sanitize everything. Using two cases of 12 oz bottles can get tedious, but I like that I can share and transport at will. I've already started to figure out ways to make my life easier. This thread helped a lot in that process.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

It touches on sanitation. Despite the poor reviews on Amazon, I'll be buying a Vinator for sure.

 

[Chadwick]

I use bottles and for the last year this is what I have done and it has worked perfectly.

When I pour a bottle I always rinse it out immediately with hot tap water. On bottle day I rinse again with hot tap water and load them into the dish washer and set it on sanitize. I allow the dishwasher to do its thing and presto. I bottle. My dishwashers sanitize cycle gets them steaming hot.(too hot to handle) I don't use any detergent in the dishwasher either.

I haven't had a bad bottle yet. The key is rinsing your bottles out immediately after pouring your beer. If I have guests that don't rinse the bottles, I throw them away. I hate bottle brushes too.

 

[glenn514]

The "secret" is what you do after you empty the bottle. I always...ALWAYS...A-L-W-A-Y-S thoroughly rinse the bottle after pouring the beer. I let the bottle dry and store them in homemade wooden cases. On bottling day, I load 54 bottles into my dishwasher, turn the "hot-air-dry" option ON and start it up...WITHOUT any detergent or rinse. After the dishwasher finishes its complete cycle, I allow the bottles to cool a bit, and immediately begin bottling. The dishwasher and hot dry effectively clean and sanitize the bottles.

glenn514