Sanitizing, drying, and tap water?

[Slive]

How much sanitization is necessary for your bottles?

With one case of bottles I have, I was bored during the brew and decided to sanitize all the bottles I had. So, I washed them, sanitized them, and put them in a closed cardboard box for the couple weeks it took for the brew to ferment (it was a great time-waster!). I took them out today and rinsed them out again with water -- are the bottles okay for brewing, or do I have to sanitize the durn things again?

A second question I have regards those leftover drops of sanitizer in the bottom of the bottle that I can't dry for the life of me. I use One-Step sanitizer (the powder). Do I have to wait for the things to dry fully before I bottle? Or are a few drops okay?

(The second question caused the first; I washed out one case because there was still a little sanitizer in...I'm staring at the second case now. Should I do a final rinse to get that sanitizer out?)

 

[Docapi]

1. I would re-sanitize. When you rinsed with water, you added nasties back into the bottle.

2. One step is a no-rinse sanitizer, no need to rinse, and no need to let the bottles dry (and get nasties back in the meantime).

They are clean, so I would just mix up some one step and give them a quick rinse with that as I bottled.

 

[Slive]

Okies, I'll re-sanitize the case I washed out.

What about drying them? Is it okay if there are a few drops of One-Step left in the bottom when I bottle? I'd hate to poison everyone with sanitizer or something like that

 

[Docapi]

No need to dry.

 

[Slive]

Fantastic! Thanks for your quick replies!

 

[macs]

I always sanitize with a no-rinse sanitizer and then go right into bottling the brew right after draining the bottles. Never had a problem this way.

 

[Beertk]

Investigate Iodifor or San-Star for your bottle sanitizing. One-Step is oxygen based and therefore not the best thing to do to your beer at bottling time.The idea is not to oxygenate your beer and make it funky fast. I use San-Star and don't worry much about the foam. I often rack right on top of the foam. The guy at the LHBS told me Iodifor is better because of the no foam but I like San-Star. It seems to work for me


By the way look at a Bottle rinser.

http://www.homebrewit.com/aisle/p/4818

This liitle baby works well- saves me a ton of time. I can do 50 bottles in five minutes. 30 seconds of contact time with san-star and it's all good.

 

[RLinNH]

I'm Anal when it comes to my bottles. I had a bad run of batches and I was getting infections from the Bottling process. So, here's what I do.

-Soak in Bleach/Water solution for at least a week.

-Rinse outside with a bottle washer attatched to my hose.

-Bottles then go through a Steri Sans Rinse cycle in my Dish Washer.

-a Tin Foil cap is then placed on each bottle, and then they are all Baked in the Oven at 350 for 90 minutes.

-I like to bottle within 24 hours of the Baking process.

Also, while I am bottling, I do one at a time. Remove the Tin Foil, fill bottle, then take a bottle cap out of the Star Sans solution and cap.


Anal? yuh. Haven't had in infection in a bit though...

 

[(nevin)]

I've been soaking 'em in iodophor, usually ends up being about an hour, shake them out then bottle, I've never had any problems with it thus far.
@RL - Thats going far beyond sanitizing... I spent 5 years working in a molecular biology lab, that process of yours goes beyond what we would do for most of our equipment. You'll never have any beasties show up from bottling, thats for-damn-sure. Well... better safe than sorry.

 

[homebrewer_99]

That style bottle washer: http://www.homebrewit.com/aisle/p/4818 works best with Iodophor. Star San just makes too many bubbles...

 

[Tenchiro]

Generally right before I get ready to bottle, I rinse mine out with clean hot tap water, then dunk em in a bucket with Iodophor in it, let em sit for a minute or so then drain em and put em on the bottle tree. I give each one a visual inspection too, just to make sure there is no schmootz in it.

 

[Kaazmar]

I'm Anal when it comes to my bottles. I had a bad run of batches and I was getting infections from the Bottling process. So, here's what I do.

-Soak in Bleach/Water solution for at least a week.

-Rinse outside with a bottle washer attatched to my hose.

-Bottles then go through a Steri Sans Rinse cycle in my Dish Washer.

-a Tin Foil cap is then placed on each bottle, and then they are all Baked in the Oven at 350 for 90 minutes.

-I like to bottle within 24 hours of the Baking process.

Also, while I am bottling, I do one at a time. Remove the Tin Foil, fill bottle, then take a bottle cap out of the Star Sans solution and cap.


Anal? yuh. Haven't had in infection in a bit though...

Dude....

I soak in TSP/Bleach mixture for 48 hours, rinse thoroughly, rinse out with no-rinse cleaner just prior to bottling, and also rinse out with cold water even though it's no rinse. I'm more anal about weird chemicals in my beer than bugs, but 4 batches and no problems.

J
:rockin: