Is this a sufficient way to clean and sanitize bottles?

[WortCarboy]

I am about to start bottling and I currently have a stockpile of used bottles that I need to clean, sanitize, rinse and dry.

I am thinking of putting the bottles into the dishwasher and then adding dish soap and sanitizer into the cleaner compartment and running a heavy duty wash cycle.

Is this enough to get sanitized bottles? It would make life a lot easier.

 

[Yooper]

You can sanitize the bottles in the dishwasher (no soap!) if it gets hot enough but definitely not for cleaning. The water can't wash inside of the bottles well enough, and you may need a bottle brush for stubborn deposits.

My dishwasher doesn't get hot enough to sanitize, only to 140 degrees, so I can't use it for sanitizing either but if yours gets hold enough to sanitize, it would work for that.

Clean the bottles well, rinse, and let sit until bottling day. On bottling day, just sanitize them.

 

[mitrrek]

Do not use dish soap in a dishwasher, you will end up with soap suds all over your kitchen floor!

If your dishwasher has a sanitize setting, use that. It heats up the bottles hot enough to sanitize it. The soap is really unnecessary as the chances of it making it into the bottles is slim to none. Also, use the heat dry setting as well. You can also run them through the heaviest cycle with the highest heat then place them in the oven to sanitize them.

 

[unionrdr]

I use a 5G homer cheapo bucket with about 4 galons of PBW solution in it to soak recycled bottles clean in a couple hours. As said,that's if they've been de-labeled already. The a bottle brush & dobie get them clean quick. Then onto the next batch. After scrubbing them,rinse under the faucet & put on bottle tree to dry,if you have one. If not,get a bottle tree & vinator to fit on top of it. The footprint will be smaller,about 2.5 feet. And the vinator makes sanitizing with starsan way easier & faster.

 

[DoubleAught]

My dishwasher doesn't get hot enough to sanitize, only to 140 degrees, so I can't use it for sanitizing either but if yours gets hold enough to sanitize, it would work for that.

Our dishwasher broke a while back. After putting it off for several months the wife finally talked me into buying another. So there we are in the store looking at dishwashers and she isn't really sure which one she wants. I see one that has a "sanitize" option and quickly helped her make her decision...lol.

 

[zacjack]

Grab a bottle brush and get busy. Once you have any sludge out of your bottles you can do a cycle in the dishwasher, but I would still recommend submersing them in a sanitizing solution prior to putting your precious brew inside

 

[beergolf]

A soak in Oxyclean for a few hours, a good rinse, then a shot of Starsan at bottlong time.

 

[WortCarboy]

Thanks for the quick replies,

My dishwasher has a sani-rinse option. So my plan now is to soak the bottom of the bottles in oxyclean/dishsoap/sanitizer solution for a couple hours. Then pop them in the dishwasher and run a heavy duty cycle with dishwasher soap (the powder), and then finally run a sani-rinse.

Sound alright?

 

[helibrewer]

Thanks for the quick replies,

My dishwasher has a sani-rinse option. So my plan now is to soak the bottom of the bottles in oxyclean/dishsoap/sanitizer solution for a couple hours. Then pop them in the dishwasher and run a heavy duty cycle with dishwasher soap (the powder), and then finally run a sani-rinse.

Sound alright?

Just use OxyClean for the soak, it works wonders....skip the dishsoap completely....dunk in StarSan after the OxyClean.....that is it....you can run the dishwasher cycle too but there is really no need after the OxyClean and StarSan

 

[Grumpybumpy]

Sounds like everyone is putting you on the right track. I rinse every bottle after I've emptied it. After my counter is overrun by bottles, I then soak them in oxyclean (cheaper than PBW) for a bit to get the labels off or any yeast residue that may be left on my older bottles. Come bottling day I quickly rinse them out with water to get the dust out then send them through the dishwasher (no soap!) on sanitize and heat dry. No problems with this method yet.

 

[WortCarboy]

Just soaked with oxyclean and it worked really well. Thanks for all the tips, this method is even simpler.

 

[IanPC]

I rinse my bottles after use. Before bottling I fill 3 ten gallon plastic bins with non fragranced soap-cold water-and a properly mixed iodophor solution. Doing this hasn't failed me yet and isnt all that time consuming