General flip top bottle sanitizing question.

[noddin]

Hi guys,

Bit of a silly question perhaps but I’m wondering if anybody sanitizes their bottles in advance of bottling day? I use flip top bottles and was hoping I could sanitize them and put the lids down to seal them. That way I could shave quite a bit of time off when I bottle next week.

I use Star San. Anybody have any experience sanitizing in advance?


thanks.

 

[greenbirds]

I don't see why that wouldn't work.

 

[Revvy]

I guess sealing them with starsan in them would work, if you used Distilled water, not tap, where the minerals could render the starsan dead.

But typically you should always sanitize fresh.

If not you are playing Russian Roulette with you beer, eventually it will bite you in the butt.

You should sanitize on bottling day (or brew day if you are brewing.) It only takes a few minutes. If you let a no-rinse, wet contact sanitizer like starsan or iodophor, dry your are reducing it's efficacy by half. If it is dry, any micro organisms that touch the surface render it no longer sanitized. If the walls are wet with sanitizer, that organism would be toast. But dry it would still be alive.

It shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes to sanitize 2 cases of bottles.....Read this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/ It takes me about 45 minutes to bottle 5 gallons of beer with the system I've outlined in the above thread. And that includes sanitizing my bottles.

 

[Vector]

I sometimes sanitize my swing-tops and regular bottles in advance. I line a bottle box or crate with several layers of paper towel. Spray StarSan in the bottles, swish it around, turn them over and let any excess drain out, and put them in the box upside down.
I also clean and sanitize my tops separately. StarSan will wear down the finish on non-stainless steel swing-top wire brackets.

They are ready to go when bottle time arrives.

One of these days I'm going to buy a bottle tree.

 

[noddin]

thanks guys, appricate the tips. Revvy sounds like a need to get myself a Vinator.

 

[TheSeether]

I use a vinator and a tree and I also use a lot of swing top bottles.

With the vinator you have a handy pool of sanitizer to dip the lid into right before or after you hose out the bottle. You can also toss your caps in there if you are using some regular bottles as well.

The Ferrari trees will easily hold nothing but swing tops, including the bigger 32oz ones.

 

[Revvy]

The only trouble though with the vinator and swing tops is the desire for the swing top to swing down while you're lowering the bottle mouth down to the spigot thingy. It's a little awkward. I tend to hold back the swing top with my thumb, get the bottle sanitized, then after I pull out, dunk the swingtop and gasket into the bowl of the vinator to make sure that is sanitized as well.

 

[TheSeether]

Interesting, I just bring the bottle down next to the top of the vinator so that the mouth is just above it and the lid is touching the spigot then just move the bottle over the spigot and the spigot performs the same function as Revvy's thumb. It sounds weird to type it out but it is the most natural movement in the world in practice.

I have more issues with trying to make sure the swing top doesn't swing down on the tree and touch a potentially unsanitized outside surface of a bottle below (which it will do). My trick is to flick the bottle so that the swing top falls back on top of the bottle so that when I place it on the tree it swivels back down and rests on the tree pointing up instead of down. Again a picture would be worth a thousand words.