Running Bottle Through Dishwasher (without soap)???

[pshankstar]

So here is a newbie question. Is it ok to run bottles through the dishwasher without soap and use the "sanitize" setting to help clean them?

I'm thinking I should clean and rinse them well with Oxi-clean Free. Then run them through a cycle in the dishwasher without soap. Then sanitize them with SanStar before I start bottling. Would this be ok? I have a bunch of bottles that have been sitting for a little while. They are always rinsed very well after pouring them but they have been sitting for a while not being used since I started kegging. I figure the steps listed above would be ok? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!!

My father in-law & I are brewing up two different batches of beer and we are going to split the amount of bottles it produces. This is why I'm going to bottle a batch in the near future. Just in case inquiring minds were curious to know why I would go back to bottles. ;-)

 

[BrewNTX]

I wash with oxiclean and put them into the dishwasher the night before bottling. Set to sanitize but no soap. Don't open the door until you are ready to bottle and work right out of the dishwasher. If you put the bottling bucket on the counter above the dishwasher the open door will catch any spills. Use a short piece of tubing between the bucket and bottling wand and the job goes fairly quick. Still prefer kegging for most of my beers but sometimes you just need to bottle.

 

[Rhumbline]

Sure, that's exactly what I do.

 

[pshankstar]

Awesome!! Thanks BrewNTX & Rhumbline!! My thought process for this one seems to be spot on for a newb!!!!

 

[Bellybuster]

be careful with dishwashers that auto add water stain stuff, its a head killer

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I'm all for cleanliness and sanitation, but I think your protocol is a bit overkill. When I do bottle, I just throw the bottles in the dishwasher on heated wash, heated rinse, heated dry (sanitize mode) with about a tablespoon of soap. JetDry is automatically dispensed. I've done this for countless batches of beer and cider and I've never had an infection or head retention issue (that's what she said). No OxyClean beforehand, no StarSan afterwards.