Rusted bottle caps

[jsaxon90]

I'm getting ready to bottle my IPA on Thursday. I looked at my leftover bottle caps from my last brew and they have seemed to rust between now and then. I soaked them in vinegar for about two hours, and then let them sit in rubbing alcohol for sanitation. I am using a clean wire brush to scrap off the rust, and it's coming off with ease. However, I'm still worried about sanitation for my beer, and proper sealing when bottling. Anybody have any insight on if I need to buy more caps? Or will this be good enough?

Thanks guys!

 

[m00ps]

Just buy more caps. Totally not worth the work to clean them, and especially not worth the risk of using them. THey are dirt cheap

 

[HopHeavy]

...and store opened, but unused, crown caps in a ziplock with a teaspoon or two of rice to lockup any moisture.

 

[brandonnys]

I have this happen from time to time, because I boil my caps immediately before bottling and usually put the leftovers back in the batch. I just throw them away. The worst thing to have is that rust flavor when you put your lips to the glass.

The process you talked about seems okay, but I still wouldn't use them. scraping off the surface rust and passivating the cap seems like it should work, but caps are super cheap. I wouldn't risk it, personally.

Can I recommend that you don't use Isopropyl alcohol anymore and go get yourself either some grain alcohol (ethanol) or StarSan to do spot sanitation? You can go to your local liquor store and get a fifth of Everclear 190-proof (or the cheapest 190-proof in stock) and it will work. Just my $0.02.

 

[Jim311]

If it's just surface rust it's really no big deal. But I certainly wouldn't put the work into wire brushing them either, they're cheap.

 

[jsaxon90]

I'll just buy some more caps. I use Star San to sanitize them before bottling every time. I just have them in rubbing alcohol because of the rust.

Thanks guys!

 

[wilserbrewer]

I used to boil bottle caps years ago, now I just use them out of the package and hope they are sanitary enough, I think they are. At least good enough for me. Maybe if I planned on cellaring some beer for a long time, but that's not my thing.