Newbie question - Sanitizing reconditioned bottles in dishwasher?

[whoward]

First off I want to say thank you to everyone at this forum, you guys are great and have helped me start to learn this craft and I am very appreciative. This site is such an amazing resource for beginners like me.

I'm bottling the second batch I've ever done, it's high ABV double IPA extract brew and I can't wait to try it.

I didn't want to buy more empty bottles so I've been saving bottles after buying commercial beer. After I drink the brew I washed the bottles out with plain old water. After I had about 50 bottles I soaked them in PBW and removed the labels and gluey gunk, rinsed and put them in a box in a dark closet where they sat for three weeks. I did not think to store them upside down so there was a small amount of water in them for those three weeks.

So now I'm ready to bottle my IPA and I'm wondering about sanitizing these bottles. My plan is to put them upside down in the dishwasher and run with no soap on sanitize setting (it's a 200 minute cycle on my dishwasher) and then letting them cool overnight in the dishwasher. Then the next day dip each bottle in starsan and immediately bottle.

Is this an adequate method? I want to ensure all of the bacteria is dead if there was any from the small amount of water that sat in each bottle for the three weeks.

What do you think?

 

[triethylborane]

I think you can skip the dishwasher. You are already doing PBW soak then starsan before bottling. As long as there are no particles in the bottles (PBW + rinse) and you are sanitizing with starsan or idophor before bottling, you are good to go.

 

[mongoose33]

I clean my bottles in the dishwasher, normal cycle.

When I've emptied a bottle I triple-rinse it. That seems to work ok.

 

[whoward]

I think you can skip the dishwasher. You are already doing PBW soak then starsan before bottling. As long as there are no particles in the bottles (PBW + rinse) and you are sanitizing with starsan or idophor before bottling, you are good to go.

My main concern is the water that was in the bottles for three weeks in storage. When I pulled them out and dumped them some had a light brown color which made me think they may have had some mold or bacterial growth in the bottle.

Will starsan kill and sanitize them if there was mold in the liquid? Not sure if there was or not, was just confused by the color of the liquid that was poured out.

 

[whoward]

I think you can skip the dishwasher. You are already doing PBW soak then starsan before bottling. As long as there are no particles in the bottles (PBW + rinse) and you are sanitizing with starsan or idophor before bottling, you are good to go.

My main concern is the water that was in the bottles for three weeks in storage. When I pulled them out and dumped them some had a light brown color which made me think they may have had some mold or bacterial growth in the bottle.

Will starsan kill and sanitize them if there was mold in the liquid? Not sure if there was or not, was just confused by the color of the liquid that was poured out.

 

[Anon111]

My main concern is the water that was in the bottles for three weeks in storage. When I pulled them out and dumped them some had a light brown color which made me think they may have had some mold or bacterial growth in the bottle.

Will starsan kill and sanitize them if there was mold in the liquid? Not sure if there was or not, was just confused by the color of the liquid that was poured out.

Run 'm through the dishwasher anyway. Better safe than sorry!

 

[eadavis80]

Yeah, I'd run those through the dishwasher if they had brown gunk when you dumped 'em upside down. From now on, store your bottles upside down like I do

 

[madscientist451]

Rinse each bottle with hot water and look inside each one.
I hold bottles up with the bottom towards a light source.
If there is anything in there, fill bottle with PBW solution and let sit overnight
or longer, then rinse again, use bottle brush if necessary. Any bottle that isn't clean after this treatment should be discarded.
On bottling day, submerge clean bottles in bucket of star san. Dump star san out and immediately fill and cap.
This method may not work for you, but its what I do when I bottle.

 

[dstockwell]

I rinse each bottle twice, then they go into the dishwasher, no soap, normal cycle, sani-rinse.

 

[violinguy]

Going forward, rinse the @#$! out of them after each pour. It takes 15 seconds and you'll be better off on your next bottling day. I rinse each bottle 4 or 5 times with a few good shakes after each pour. Then I let 'em sit and after a few days, turn 'em over to get the rest of the liquid out. Then on bottling day, a good soak w/Star-san (with an optional pre-soak in PBW) and we're good to go.