Sanitizing bottles with Starsan

[MrBJones]

Brand new never-been-used bottles have been washed/soaked in Oxiclean, then rinsed with Jet bottle washer, then dried on a bottle tree.

Now it's time to sanitize. Should I fill the bottles and submerge in Starsan, or could I just spray a few ounces into each bottle and swirl it around?

Thanks

 

[Erik_Mog]

Some people keep them submerged in a 5 gal bucket of StarSan, pull them out, drain and fill with beer. When you run out of bottles, add more to the bucket. You can also use a vinator (sulfiter). It is a self priming pump with a bowl to hold your sanitizer. Invert a clean bottle on the pump, press down and it sprays the solution into the bottle. The bowl is also handy for holding your bottle caps in sanitizer. I just used mine for the first time, and it made bottling much smoother. The vinator can be placed on top of a bottle tree or set on the table.

http://shop.greatfermentations.com/product/vinator-bottle-rinser-sulfiter/beer-bottling-accessories

 

[kh54s10]

I had a Vinator that squirts sanitizer in the bottle - until it broke. You want the sanitizer inside the bottles. Use a bucket or large pot. Dunk the bottles and drain. I put the bottles on the bottom rack of my dishwasher as I sanitize them, then I start filling them. Dunking and swirling is easier than spraying into each bottle.

 

[brewerJase]

Vinator and a bottle tree makes bottaling super easy.

 

[IslandLizard]

+1^ Dunk and drain.

Squirting Starsan may not cover all areas adequately or long enough. The lip should be wet too.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Vintator. Squirt, place on counter. I have one I'm not using. Do you want it?

 

[fuzzy2133]

Another user of the Vintator, I blast my bottles twice and dip the neck in the bowl. +2 on bottling over an open dishwasher door and using the rack to hold bottles.

 

[TenaCJed]

Another user of the Vintator, I blast my bottles twice and dip the neck in the bowl. +2 on bottling over an open dishwasher door and using the rack to hold bottles.

This, except I use a bottle rack and not dishwasher.

 

[Erik_Mog]

This, except I use a bottle rack and not dishwasher.

I do both. Keep the bottles on a tree and use the dishwasher door to catch an drips.

 

[seatazzz]

All I do is rinse my bottles out 3-4 times in super hot water once they're empty, spray them with sanitizer and put them on the tree. When it's time to bottle, I rinse again and spray again, then fill them up and cap immediately. Haven't had an issue yet.

 

[jamina1]

I scrub used bottles with oxyclean and a bottle brush, then rinse with a bottle washer and allow to drain. When needed, I use the vinator to squirt starsan up there, and it doubles for cap storage while bottling. Haven't had any issues yet.

 

[mattdee1]

Make sure you clean the gunk from the bottoms of bottles before it dries. On bottling day, dunk 6-8 bottles in a bucket filled with starsan, make sure they fill up.

Remove from bucket, empty, fill with beer.

Honestly, if you're using Starsan you really need to try hard to get a beer that is infected from your bottling process.

 

[Jwin]

Vintator/starsan user here, when I still bottle.
Dunk the neck in the bowl after 2-3 squirts. Then put the bottles on the tree. I also spray down the bottle tree prior to rinsing any bottles, since it is stored in my musty dirty basement.

The key to a smooth bottling bay is developing a consistent work flow at a proper working level.

 

[Atlmustang]

I fill my sink with star san and water and dunk the bottles. Wait 5 minutes. Pick bottle up, drain and fill. Done. No need to rinse out. Literally out of the star san solution and right to the beer. Never had a problem. Easy.

 

[eigua]

I just pour a bit of Starsan inside each and shake around a couple of times over the course of a minute. Then I flip the bottles over and submerge the first inch or so of neck in a bowl of Starsan. I only work with 3-4 cups of Starsan at a time so I can't submerge.

 

[kristiismean]

Well, I just bought a Vintator, but normally my process is:

Wash my soaked clean bottles in the dishwasher on high temp with sani rinse. Then once dry, I fill up my bottling bucket with the star san needed for that day. Then hook up my cleaned and santized bottling wand, then fill up all 110 bottles with 2 inches of star san from the bottling wand.

then shake, and dump back into the bottling bucket. making sure to get everything, including the neck sanitized as well, then put them in my sanitized fast rack.

I use the fast racks over the trees because I don't like anything but beer or a bottling wand going in my bottles after they have been sanitized, and they are made to go into a 5 gallon pail to sanitize the whole thing at once.

it's overkill, but not 1 bad bottle. yet (i know it's coming)

 

[MaryB]

Bucket of StarSan, I put in as many bottles it will hold then start pulling out the ones I added first and place them i the bottle rack. Repeat until I have 48 upside down bottles waiting... I toss a few extra bottles in the StarSan just in case I need 50-52

 

[Northbank]

I don't fill up a bucket and dunk, I make up about a gallon of starsan in a milk jug that I use time and time again during each brewing cycle and fill bottles with it in a bucket and then when they've sat for a minute or two pour them into other bottles.

By the time Ive filled enough bottles to fill the bucket the ones have sat for a minute or two and I just fill others with that bottle and stick them on the rack ..... about half way through I funnel all the drippings from the bucket back into the gallon bottle and start again. It was really quick and I use less water, and less Starsan this way....

 

[Jwin]

With the Vintator and spraying down the racks, i use about 16 Oz solution in a 10g bottling day.
It's up there with pumps and auto siphons on the list of brew toys that made my life easier

 

[edb]

Take your cleaned bottles fill them with an ounce or 2 of starsan take a sanitized cap hold it over the top with your thumb shake the bottle dump the starsan back in your starsan bucket and dunk the top of the bottle in the solution to get the neck of the bottle sanitized.

Get yourself some disposable gloves from Harbor freight starsan is tough on the hands.

 

[kh54s10]

When I use Starsan either in the bucket or in my Vinator (when I get a new one) I lose only the amount of Starsan the drips off the bottle. Anything that is left after sanitizing the bottles gets poured back into the water jug that holds my Starsan for the next brew day. I do this unless it gets really dirty for some reason. I have 2-4 gallons in the jug at all times. I just top up when it gets low. Adding more to the same jug now for 4 1/2 years.....

IMO, if you are going through any steps other than thoroughly wetting the inside of the bottle and the neck then draining the excess, waiting for about 1 minute then filling the bottle with beer, you are just wasting time and effort.

 

[kh54s10]

Get yourself some disposable gloves from Harbor freight starsan is tough on the hands.

Either you have sensitive skin, my skin is extraordinarily tough, or you are mixing your Starsan too strong. I have never used gloves and have never had anything happen to my hands other than wrinkling from being immersed in liquid.

 

[brandonnys]

Build yourself an extremely elaborate system of nozzles, tubes, and pumps to spray Starsan in the bottles for two minutes, being sure to spray for NO LONGER THAN 30 SECONDS at a time. Make sure the Starsan is at room temperature, and the bottles have previously frozen (This is important, I can't stress this enough). You'll want a chamoise (the kind you use to dry your car) to make sure the outside of the bottles are completely dry, because bacteria can travel from the outside of the bottle and back inside, rendering the whole process useless.

In all seriousness, you can dunk them, or you can use a Vinator. I've used both, they are both effective (I've never had a beer go bad as a result of using a Vinator). Don't buy more equipment if you don't have to. Don't have a bottle tree? Use your dishwasher rack, or just set them on a clean towel on the counter. Pour out the Starsan and fill with beer. A little bit of Starsan in the bottle isn't going to hurt anything.

RDWHAHB. Cheers.

 

[brandonnys]

Either you have sensitive skin, my skin is extraordinarily tough, or you are mixing your Starsan too strong. I have never used gloves and have never had anything happen to my hands other than wrinkling from being immersed in liquid.

I always use gloves when I use Starsan, but it's mostly because the Starsan will eat your skin and leave the skin in the Starsan. It doesn't hurt my hands either, but I notice that Starsan that has met ungloved hands has a significantly shorter life than one that I've only used my gloves in.

I use the Blichmann brewing gloves. They are outstanding.

 

[molder]

To clean dirty used bottles, I soak in a mix of hot water with oxyclean/dishwasher powder. Scrub then rinse and rinse again. Immediately before bottling, I fill a group of bottles with star san using a picnic tap connected to a keg filled with a few gallons of star solution. Empty san san into another keg or bucket before bottling and reuse the star san, until cloudy, precipitate indicates loss of activity. I also have mixed priming sugar and ready to bottle beer in a keg and filled bottles. My brewery uses kegs for more than serving.

 

[kh54s10]

I always use gloves when I use Starsan, but it's mostly because the Starsan will eat your skin and leave the skin in the Starsan. It doesn't hurt my hands either, but I notice that Starsan that has met ungloved hands has a significantly shorter life than one that I've only used my gloves in.

I use the Blichmann brewing gloves. They are outstanding.

Maybe it does. I will say that the skin that might end up in the beer will be well sanitized.

I have never noticed that it in any way shortens the life of the Starsan mixture. As I have said, I only top up what is already in my jug. It has never gone totally empty and I have never dumped it in almost 5 years.

I have never had an infected batch and I would rate some of my beers as better than many commercial beers. All but one (a very high gravity experiment) has been good.

I would just as soon have a little sanitized skin in my beer as sanitized plastic from the gloves. To me it makes no difference, I don't fear either....

 

[brandonnys]

To me it makes no difference, I don't fear either....

To each his own. From both of our experiences, it appears there's really no difference to gloves or no gloves. I also use a 5-gallon bucket, so I'm literally dipping things all the time in my Starsan.

Hopefully our collective $0.04 will help others.

 

[Patcreery]

I have a sanitizing cycle on my dishwasher, I clean all of my bottles in the sink, load into dishwasher, run sani cycle with no detergent, and bottle in open dishwasher

 

[eigua]

I reuse my Starsan all the time. When I notice any particles on the bottom of the bottle (skin or whatever is in there), I filter it through a coffee filter. As the Starsan gets used up (loss due to dripping, etc.) I just top it up with another small batch (I use 7 drops per cup of water).

 

[PADave]

I make a big tub of starsan and submerge the bottles and let them soak for a few minutes. Then I dump about half of the starsan out, shake the remainder in the bottle, then dump out. Then the bottles go on my bottling cart. Same thing for the next dozen or so. Once I get enough bottles I give them another quick squirt or starsan and then dump that out right before filling.

 

[edb]

I make a big tub of starsan and submerge the bottles and let them soak for a few minutes. Then I dump about half of the starsan out, shake the remainder in the bottle, then dump out. Then the bottles go on my bottling cart. Same thing for the next dozen or so. Once I get enough bottles I give them another quick squirt or starsan and then dump that out right before filling.

Thats pretty wasteful.

 

[Erik_Mog]

Thats pretty wasteful.

My guess is that it gets dumped back into the bucket. No waste there.

 

[kh54s10]

Starsan is amazing stuff! You can use it in many ways some are tedious, some are quick and simple. The main thing is thoroughly soak for a minute or more and fill before it dries and you should have no problems. As long as the pH stays below 3.0 it is still good, even if cloudy. So keep it and use it.

 

[MaryB]

I also use starsan on my cutting board... makes a good general purpose sanitizer...

 

[PADave]

My guess is that it gets dumped back into the bucket. No waste there.

Bingo. Also gets used for the bottling bucket and the rest of the equipment for bottling day.

 

[edb]

Ah good to hear that your not dumping it down the drain. Excellent!