Sanitizing bottles with distilled white vinegar...

[jawb1206]

Today I'm bottling a Belgian tripel and started the process of cleaning and sanitizing my bottles. I started by adding an ounce or so of vinegar to each bottle, then shaking the bottles. Next, the bottles were placed in my dishwasher set to "sanitize" and were run through a full cycle. I only used some additional vinegar, no detergent. I will bottle tonight and use some food grade sanitizer called Steramine on the bottles and caps. Is this an adequate practice for cleaning and sanitizing? Is the vinegar really necessary, or for that matter, is it effective? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dobe12]

I've never heard of using vinegar. I personally wouldn't. PBW or Oxyclean Free are good cleansers, but both need to be rinsed thoroughly. Starsan is for sanitizing and does NOT get rinsed.

 

[BigFloyd]

Don't know about the vinegar. My gut reaction is to not let it anywhere near my beer.

Most home brewers sanitize bottles and other items using Star-San no-rinse sanitizer. It's great stuff, fast-acting, reusable and an 8oz (small size) bottle of the concentrate will make 40 gallons of sanitizer. I always have a few gallons mixed up plus a spray bottle full.

 

[vraftsman]

I've never actually sanitized bottles, just made sure they were clean and free of any residue. I never let them sit either, they get hot water rinsed right after pouring my brew. I only put them in the dishwasher on high heat pots and pans (my dishwasher doesn't have a sanitize setting) and I've never had a problem. I have had infected batches before, but only the whole batch, and we knew before bottling, never just a bottle or two. I know sanitizing is more standard practice and probably better. I'm just saying I haven't had any problems and sometimes my bottles are stored empty for a few months. So what you're doing with the dishwasher is probably just fine. I haven't used vinegar before so can't speak to that.

 

[StLouBrew]

I would be worried about residual aromas and flavors the vinegar would leave behind. With all the good & cheap cleaners and santizers out there I would be hard pressed to take a chance with vinegar.

 

[smizak]

$/gallon of Star-San is crazy cheap, less than vinegar for sure, and tasteless and no aroma. Get some.

 

[jawb1206]

Thank you to all who posted a response to my question. Very helpful. Think it's about time to buy a bottle of Star San. Happy Brewing!!!

 

[sumbrewindude]

I have used white vinager, but not as a sanitizer.

Using any of the oxy-style cleaners can leave a residue on your bottles, making the cloudy or gritty feeling if left in solution for a while, and a quick easy way to clean that off is to use a slightly acidic solution. Since I use Idophore for sanitation, I use a water/vinager (very LOW amount of vinager, like a splash to a few gallons of water) solution to rinse off the oxy-clean before going into the idophore.

If you're using Starsan, it's already an acid based sanitizer, so the vinager wash is unnecessary.

I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND USING STERAMINE TO SANITIZE YOUR BOTTLES.

Steramine is Quaternary Ammonium, which will leave a film on your bottles, kill any chance of head, and is generally regarded as okay for surface sanitation (tables/counters/equipment/etc), but not something I'd want in my beer bottles.

For sanitizing Idophore and StarSan work great.