Can you sanitize bottles, cover with foil, and keep them sanitary?

[dsaavedra]

I've read about the technique of covering bottles with foil and baking them to keep them sterile pretty much indefinitely before bottling day.

I just stumbled across these http://www.savebrands.com/beer-c-1/beer-savers-homebrew-set-54-pack-p-7[1] and it seems to be the same concept, except not for baking.

Then I thought, what if I sanitized my bottles after drinking and rinsing and just shook out the excess StarSan as best I could, and covered the top with a piece of sanitized foil? Think it would keep the bottles sanitary? This could save a pretty big chunk of time come bottling day.

 

[Hello]

What do you sanitize with? If it is star san then nope. That is a wet sanitizer and loses its ability to sanitize when it dries. Loses or reduces but either way.

 

[Paradingbull]

I often sanitize bottles, with StarSan, 24-48 hours before bottling. I put a clean towel in the bottom of the bottle box, and turn the bottles upside down until bottling. Maybe I have just been lucky, but I have never had a problem. Although I know we are to "not fear the foam", I prefer to have none, or little. Nasties float down, they don't crawl up.

 

[Hello]

Well star san is a wet sanitizer. That's not something home brewers came up with, I believe that is what star san says. Maybe you're onto something though, who knows.

 

[cburt21]

A have a friend that I brew with who rinses and sanatizes his bottles immediately after drinking. Then he leaves a enough sanitizer in the bottom of the bottle that it will not evaporate prior to his next brew session. He has never had any off flavors or contamination that I am aware of. I have always been weary of this technique so I haven't tried but give it a shot if your willing.

 

[Chadwick]

I immediately rinse bottles with tap water after I pour a glass. On bottle day I simply load the empty bottles into the dish washer and set it on a normal wash, sanitize, and heated dry. I've never had an infection in any of my bottles. Once the heated dry cycle completes, I need to wait at least 30 minutes before I try to handle them. They are like a hot potato. I usually let them rest for several hours before I bottle though. I don't like the idea of new beer going into hot bottles.

 

[zeg]

If your bottles are clean, I think it ought to work in principle, but I think it's probably not a terrific idea. Whatever method you use to sanitize, if long as you seal the container, nothing is going to find its way in. Sanitized foil tightly on top is probably good enough for this purpose. It won't be air tight, but it's not likely anything will find its way in.

This will probably work better with baking than it will with Star-San, because I think the baking kills a larger proportion of the contaminants than most chemical sanitizers. The reason Star-San and its ilk are called "sanitizers" rather than "sterilizers" is that they don't kill everything, just enough to prevent infection. It's conceivable that the remnants will reproduce back to a problematic level if you wait too long, and that's why I say "if the bottles are clean." If there are nutrients left behind in the bottle, it's more likely that a colony will re-establish itself.

I don't think it's a good idea simply because there are things that can go wrong, especially if you're leaving the bottles sitting around for longer than a couple days. I think rinsing, sanitizing, and sealing is a great way to store bottles. However, I would still re-sanitize immediately before use. It doesn't take long to spray/squirt some sanitizer in, and it's a lot less prone to failure.