Is it ok to use bottles that have been sitting around for a while with mold and who knows what else growing in them if i wash them, soak in oxy clean, then sanitize with star san ? I've heard of infections hanging around in buckets and carboys but didn't know if it was the same for bottles ? thought i'd ask before i go through the trouble of cleaning them.
Mold in beer bottles
- Thread starter ks_medic
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That's what I use...then sanitize of course.
yeah i need to invest in a jet carboy or bottle washer. looks like all the fuzzies came out when filling and shaking with hot water. Looks clean anyways but dark bottle are kinda hard to see inside. I would hate throwing 30 bottles in the trash, especially if they are still good.
You still should use soomethig like oxyclean to clean out the bottles...or a bottling brush...it may look like shaking did enough, but you really need to make sure you get every organic particle out of there.
Plenty of folks have dumpster dived or gotten them from bars that were in worse shape than those, and still after cleaning them thoroughly and sanitizing were successful.
SevenFields
Well-Known Member
I wouldnt risk it!
Where in KS are you located?
Where in KS are you located?
Wouldn't risk what???????
Thoroughly cleaning out glass bottles, then sanitizing and using them???? That is what MOST of us do all the time.
Very few people buy virgin bottles at the LHBS....they get bottles EVEN MOLDY ONES and clean them out...they are glass afterall, there's not really anything that can penetrate it's surface.
oh Duh, I forgot i even had a bottle brush from my starter kit. I'm usually pretty good at rinsing right after opening so never had to use it. This batch i got from a friend so its free bottles.
Wichita
I have even had small maggots in bottles... Pretty nasty I know. My wife thought I was crazy for even bringing them in the house. Came out clean as a wistle.
One bottle I was filling up with oxyclean, a cigar came shooting up out of it.
We should start a thread:
What is the craziest thing you found in a bottle you got from the "wild" while cleaning it.
One bottle I was filling up with oxyclean, a cigar came shooting up out of it.
We should start a thread:
What is the craziest thing you found in a bottle you got from the "wild" while cleaning it.
Thanks for all your help. I probably would have never got into home brewing if it wasn't for you guys. now i'm obsessed with it.:rockin: I'm still an extract noob, but am looking into getting into AG soon. 
LOL, thats great. My SWMBO would freak out if i brought a bottle with maggots inside the house.
Really huge dead spiders in some awesome 1970's era carling black label pint bottles I bought dirt cheap out of the backroom of my lhbs...I got 3 cases for 10 bucks, and the probably had been sitting there for 15-20 years anyway. Soaked them in oxyclean and saw several floating spiders in the liguid.
But the bottles are awesome...I don't use them a lot, usually for special beers.
Eigenmusic
Well-Known Member
I'm expecting someone to say something like "I found a smaller bottle!" :fro:
...hmmm...
When I was getting ready to bottle my first batch of beer; I spent a whole weekend delabeling and cleaning about 25 dozen MGD bottles. Wow did that suck. Tons of them had mould inside, but I got most of them spotless (though there were a few I had to give up on). Now I occasionally give people beer and get the bottles back without the person having rinsed them (even though I always plead with them to double-rinse after using). No more beer for those folks who give me mouldy bottles back!
As an aside it turns out I made the worse possible choice--only thing harder to delabel than MGD bottles are stupid Aussie wine bottles. Every type of bottle I've used since has been easier--with some the labels fall right off in hot water!
As an aside it turns out I made the worse possible choice--only thing harder to delabel than MGD bottles are stupid Aussie wine bottles. Every type of bottle I've used since has been easier--with some the labels fall right off in hot water!
dunnright00
Well-Known Member
I had a cockroach come floating out of a bottle as I was trying to clean it. The little buggers legs were stuck to the bottom! Hot water soak + jet bottle wash STILL couldn't get them out! Finally just tossed the bottle.
Bob Mould was in your bottles?!?! Cool!
torque2k
Well-Known Member
torque2k
Well-Known Member
or a three-masted schooner...
robtotten
Well-Known Member
</begin hijack>We had bottles with 2 year old beer residue in the bottom of them... I soaked them in Oxy Clean for an hour or 2 in very hot water, put them through the dishwasher with no soap and they are spotless... I'll also sanitize them again before bottling obviously... If there are no visual signs of crap from the residue, do you think its possible there is still some "stuff" hanging around that will cause an infection?</hijack>
slowbie
Well-Known Member
I would be really REALLY anal about making sure that you got everything out if you're using bottles that old. On my first batch I got some moldy bottles from a friend and I tried to be really particular about making sure they were clean but still had two infected bottles out of 12ish that were moldy. That being said, the lighting in my apartment is terrible so I had a hard time seeing if they were clean anyways. But if you are careful they should be fine.
Hang Glider
Beer Drinker
Bleach kills a lot - you could do a
bleach soak,
rinse,
OxyClean soak,
rinse,
sanitize...
type of cycle
bleach soak,
rinse,
OxyClean soak,
rinse,
sanitize...
type of cycle
jturie
Well-Known Member
I just recently had a case of mold in my bottles. Cleaned the crap out of them with super hot water and oxyclean, rinsed them really well, and sat them in a bucket of star san for a good 30 minutes. Bottled the brew about 4 weeks ago and it's fine.
O_16581_72452_5
Well-Known Member
I had a keg with beer so old that it turned in to green slime, lol. I'm drinking a batch from it now. I soaked it in bleach water, boiled a ton of regular water and rinsed multiple times. Seems to be okay, haven't gotten sick...yet.
May I ask what your username stands for?
ReeseAllen
Well-Known Member
I've had some pretty massive mold growths show up in old bottles and a 24-hour oxiclean soak plus a vigorous hot water rinse has never failed to do the trick. If it doesn't work for you, try again with more oxiclean.
O_16581_72452_5
Well-Known Member
May I ask what your username stands for?
Please PayPal $1 to [email protected] for the explanation.
No refunds though.
Dynachrome
Well-Known Member
Dad used to have us collect little 1/4" gravel and swish it around inside to blast off the particles. Stuff usually doesn't stick too well to glass.
AnthonyD
Well-Known Member
:cross: I've found dead mice in a couple of bottles. I didn't bother keeping them.
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