Cleaning beer bottles

[JackDatBoi]

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty sure my beer is ready to be bottled!

I just bought 40 new bottles from the local beer brewing shop, he said they don't need to be cleaned but said to sanitise them first... doesn't that mean to clean them?

I have a powder sanitiser which I used for my equipment, do I just chuck the rest of that in a bucket and add all the beer bottles one by one, then dry them in the oven?

Any help would be great!

Cheers

 

[jwalk4]

Lots of bottling solutions out there but let's address a few issues.

First, there is a difference between cleaning and sanitizing (and sterilizing, for that matter). Homebrewers define cleaning as removing all visible materials from beer contact surfaces (usually via vigorous scrubbing, no dish soap). Sanitizing means to kill any remaining microbes or bacteria on any beer contact surfaces, within a certain range.

Cleaning alone cannot kill bacteria, and sanitizing alone cannot clean dirty surfaces. Think of dirt/gunk buildup like an ant hill: sanitiving will kill the ants on the surface, but many live on down below. You need to scrub away the ant hill first.

As for your sanitizer, most people on here prefer either star San or iodophor, which are diluted and used. But you should follow your instructions and you'll do just fine.

To dry bottles, you can buy a bottle tree, or providing that your sanitizer is a no-rinse sanitizer, just dump out the sanitizer from the bottle, give it a shake, and bottle your beer.

Should all be good.

 

[jalc6927]

Most sanitizing solutions you buy from brew stores are no rinse if mixed properly and as stated above bottles can be filled without drying as long as you let them drain a bit

And again as stated above cleaning and sanitizing are two different steps

I use my sink when I bottle

I fill it up and dip my bottles in then hang them on the tree to drip dry as I'm filling

Make sure you sanitize the caps as well

 

[stz]

New glass doesn't need to be cleaned or even sanitised. We certainly don't at the brewery. There is however a difference between new glass delivered to the brewery ready for filling in fairly sealed packaging and glass which has sat open in a dusty warehouse/on the shelf and they could likely do with a rinse and you might as well make that rinse one with a no rinse sanitiser. Yes I know that new glass and caps are not as sanitary as they could be if rinsed with a no rinse sanitiser, but really what lurks on them in sufficient quantities to spoil beer within the typical time frame before consumption? We get through stock very quickly. Of greater concern is the purity of the house yeast over subsequent generations.

I used to 'clean' bottles for reuse for home brew, but now I'm not exactly short on them I ditch anything quite as troublesome as dirty bottles. If you rinse them well immediately after use the only step required is sanitation prior to filling. I rinse then box then when the box is full I close the box and store them until needed. When using them if they are dusty from storage I'll use two buckets, one water, one peracetic acid solution. Dip in water, drain, dip in peracetic, set on the bottle tree. Once I've enough on the bottle tree I'll start filling.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

Just put them in your dishwasher on high temp scour setting.
Then while bottling fill a tub with Starsan and submerge the bottles. As you fill them just pull one out of the starsan and drain it. The. Fill with beer.

 

[C-Rider]

Now that you have bottles full of beer it's time to think about what to do when they are empty and getting them ready to refill. This short video is my system:

 

[JackDatBoi]

Thanks for all the tips!

Unfortunately I was only given the one bucket for the beer brewing, so I'm gonna buy a new one as well as a tube to transfer the beer from one to the other.

I've attached a picture of the sanitiser I use, it's powered based and a friend of mine used it when bottling his beer (from the same kit), so I'm guessing this will be ok?

I was thinking of sanitising a bucket, filling it with the powder sanitiser, washing the bottles then pouring the beer in.. Let me know if that's a good idea. My dishwasher stinks, so I'll avoid that..

Cheers

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks for all the tips!

Unfortunately I was only given the one bucket for the beer brewing, so I'm gonna buy a new one as well as a tube to transfer the beer from one to the other.

I've attached a picture of the sanitiser I use, it's powered based and a friend of mine used it when bottling his beer (from the same kit), so I'm guessing this will be ok?

I was thinking of sanitising a bucket, filling it with the powder sanitiser, washing the bottles then pouring the beer in.. Let me know if that's a good idea. My dishwasher stinks, so I'll avoid that..

Cheers

Try to get a bucket with a spigot installed near the bottom as it will make filling bottles much easier. Along with the tubing, an autosiphon will make the process of starting the siphon much easier and a bottle wand will help with filling bottles. If you are going to keep making beer these will be welcome investments.

 

[jalc6927]

A bottling bucket with a spigot and a doting loaded bottle filler are essentials to bottling

I wouldn't try it without these

 

[Burndog]

Got these all clean for bottling Wed