Bottling 2 batches in 1 day

[iron_city_ap]

Without going into too much detail here is the short:

I was supposed to bottle a batch last week, but on short notice had to go out of town over the 'weekend'. Right behind that in the pipeline was a batch that is due to be bottled this 'weekend' (which starts now). I travel for work, which is why I didn't get it done earlier after getting back.

My big question is do you think I should re-sanitize the bottling bucket, hydrometer, etc... between batches? I'm pretty sure the answer is 'yes', but wanted to get other opinions. Both batches are wheats. 1 is a Raspberry Wheat (my 1st completely from scratch) and the 2nd is the AHS Sunset Wheat Clone (Raspberry/Blueberry for those who don't know it). I'm not worried obviously about 'flavor contamination'.

If I was bottling 1 tonight and the other tomorrow morning, no doubt I would resanitize. Since I'm thinking of going right from one to the other, with maybe rinsing out the bottling bucket between, boilling priming sugar for #2 as I bottle #1, etc... I didn't know if they would be close enough together time-wise to pull it off. No big deal to me if I need to resanitize other than it eating into my 1st evening at home.

Thanks guys.

 

[mosquitocontrol]

No reason to even rinse inbetween. As long as sanitized things only touch other sanitized things you will be fine. I have had way too many days of bottling more then one batch. I can't even remember a time I only did one.

After the first batch, dump the excess out of the bottling bucket. Even if you had drastically different styles the small amount left wouldn't have any flavor impact. Dump new priming sugar in and siphon on top. Keep going.

If you place your siphon or other tools down on an unsanitized table or something, then by all means resanitize.

 

[kwaidonjin]

I just bottled 2 batches today...Alot of work.

 

[avidhomebrewer]

You'll be fine.

 

[Revvy]

Why would you ever consider NOT sanitizing??? I'm sorry but if there's one thing you should never consider cutting corners with, and that is sanitization.

You are planning, I assume to rinse your bottling bucket, your auto siphon, bottling wand, so the flavors don't cross contaminate each other, and to get rid of the hopscum that gets stuck in everything., right?

If you're going to clean then How hard is it for you to run a gallon or two of sanitizer through everything? You pump it through your autosiphon, into your bottling bucket drop in your bottling wand, heck even your caps if you want, swish it around and up the sides of the bucket (or put a lid on it and give it a nice shake), and drain it out through the spigot. How long does that really take? 5 minutes?

5 minutes is too much time to insure you don't ruin your batch of beer? You ever hear the saying "It's better to be safe, than sorry?"

I bottle 2, sometimes 3 batches in a sitting, and I rinse the resanitize between each one, like I said it takes five minutes. Seven if you count running to the sink an rinsing everything out from the last batch with hot water. But no more than 5 minutes to re-sanitize everything.

If it seems too much work, than don't bottle 2 batches on the same day. If you need to cut corners, cut corners elsewhere.

But to scrimp on sanitizartion? Geez?

Enjoy playing Russian roulette with your beer. All you need is one hop particle in the wrong place to start decaying and leaving you with a nice gusher.

Your sanitizer is already mixed, even. So it's not like you even have to do that.

It's really worth gambling 5 gallons to save 5 minutes?

 

[mosquitocontrol]

Deleted. Can't deny revvys greatness.

 

[Jumbo82]

I bottle my 35 gallon batches 5-6 gallons at a time. It usually takes me about 4 hours by myself, less if I have a helper. The first time I did it, I sanitized between each round. But since there is only a few minutes between when I finish bottling and when I start racking the next beer into the bottling bucket (I heat the priming sugar while I'm bottling), I realized that re-sanitizing does virtually nothing for me. Any airborne bacteria that happened to land in the bucket while I was bottling have already been bottled. Its just a waste of time in this instance. Remember, your bottling bucket will never be sterile anyway, it will only be sanitary. A couple of bacteria will not ruin your beer, they are in every batch no matter what you do.

Now, if your bottling bucket will be sitting empty for any period of time, I would definitely re-sanitize. Even 30 minutes is probably too much time, I personally would rather be safe than sorry. Or if you are bottling two different beers, there is a chance that if your first beer had some slight contamination and you would risk infecting your second batch by not sanitizing. In these instances, we're not talking about a few bacteria, but the possibility that a significant number of them could take hold.

It never hurts to over-sanitize, but at some point it can become a waste of time. My bottling day would be 30 minutes longer if I sanitized between each round. I've never had an infection and I don't believe my bottling routine is akin to playing Russian roulette.

 

[luvhopps]

I wash everything and sanitize it in between batches on a two bottle day. I'm not taking any chances.

 

[dummkauf]

Good Luck!!! I was going to do this last weekend, however after bottling up the first batch on Saturday, I said F**K it!! and bottled the 2nd batch on Sunday. Props to you if you have the patience to get through 2 in one day

 

[iron_city_ap]

Thanks for the input everyone.

 

[zman]

I wash everything and sanitize it in between batches on a two bottle day. I'm not taking any chances.

+1000!! Exactly correct!! I do the same thing. I have a Rubbermaid rectangular tub prepped with hit soapy water and after I use something i toss it in there. Once I am ready for the next batch I quickly clean and re sanitize everything. I recently bought the Blast http://www.fermtech.ca/ because it cleans hoses as well.

 

[schadelh]

I have a related question:

If for some reason one decided not to sanitize between two batches brewed with different yeasts, is there a possibility of yeast 1 contaminating a batch (and suppose yeast 1 has higher attenuation than yeast 2) fermenting whatever is left over by yeast 2, and then causing bottle bombs?