Saving Bottles

[Scottatron]

I have been saving up standard beer bottles to reuse for my first brew which will be sometime next week. I brought in some from a neighbour but they were dirty so I decided to take them back to the store. That promoted me to look at the ones I have been saving up so far (maybe 20 - 30 or so) and some were definitely growing something. The really bad ones I just added to my pile to return.

So I sprayed the remaining ones down with the hose and took them into my basement from my garage but some are still a little bit dirty. So I have a couple of questions:

1. Will cleaning these out with soap, bottle brush and sanitizing them before putting my primed beer in be good enough? (I assume so).

2. Is dish soap ok to clean with before sanitizing? I don't have a dishwasher.

3. I bought a rinse santizer because I couldn't find any no rinse around my area. Will rinsing with tap water be alright or should I rinse with spring water? (ie. will the tap water add any flavouring to the beer just from rinsing?)

4. Should I clean these bottles with soap now and again before brewing or is it ok to just leave them there?

 

[nebben]

Cleaning the bottles entails scrubbing or using a caustic cleaner with the purpose of dislodging any bits of crud and dirt. If the bottle looks clean, and doesn't have cobwebs, mold, sediment or dust in it, then you're ready to sanitize. Oxy works even better than soap for this since if you let the bottles soak, it will eat off some of the gunk without even scrubbing.

What kind of sanitizer did you get?

 

[DaveMcPhee]

I got a batch of bottles off craigslist one time, for free fortunately. I soaked them overnight in a bath of oxyclean, and the next morning found a bath with several mold mats floating in it. Be selective with which bottles you use.

In fact, good bottles are an investment. I'd recommend buying enough six packs of your favourite beer, drinking them, and rinsing them straight after emptying them (or within a few hours at least). At least then you know they are clean enough (and only need to be sanitised before use). And a bunch of free beer!

Rinsing with tap water is fine unless your tap water tastes of crap. Do you drink it straight without gagging? Then it's fine.

 

[dotnetdotcom]

my 2 cents:
1 - Cleaning and sanitizing should be good enough, as long everything gets cleaned out of the bottle. But if the bottle had something really gross in it like mold or a cigarette butt, I'd soak it with some bleach after cleaning. That's what I did - no problems yet.

2 - Soap will work as long as you can rinse it all out with no residue. I've used bleach on some bottles I got that had mold in them and it worked fine. I'm sure OxyClean, StarSan, et al. would be fine too.

3 - I've been rinsing my bottles and even topping off my wort with tap water with no problems, but that depends on your local water supply. As Mr. Palmer says, if your tap water tastes fine it should be fine for your beer. If you don't like your tap water, use an alternate source. I don't know about Canada, but here in Ohio the local county water department is required to publish an annual water quality report. I got it from their website. They also list any alerts about contamination on their website. The state department of natural resources also had a lot of information about the mineral content of our local water supply. I was pleased to find out that we have pretty good water for brewing.

4 - After I open a bottle, I just rinse it out good, making sure that no residue is left and put it in the dish rack to dry. Then sanitize before bottling. No problems yet.

 

[Dunerunner]

I soak my bottles in 10 gallons of hot water and 5 TBS. of PBW. This practice cleans, removes most labels with little scrubbing and after triple hot rinsing, they are ready to sanitize. I use StarSan for that and triple rinse with cold water before filling.

 

[SumnerH]

Soak for an hour in oxiclean to clean. Rinse with starsan to sanitize.

If the oxiclean soak fails, scrub with a bottling brush or do it again--or chuck the bottles and use the ones that did get clean.

 

[Chudz]

I second . . . or fifth, Oxiclean Free as a great cleaner. And like others have said, it also helps with label removing. Plus it leaves my sink bright and shiny!

 

[dshaggy]

Here's what I've been doing - When I first started, I went to the old store where I used to work and bought cases of pop top bottles to use (could be pretty gross, since they're from random people). I then soaked them in Oxiclean free (no perfumes, dyes, etc) for an hour or so. I then bottle brush the inside and scrubbed and residing glue from the outside. Then rinse and store. This is what I do for "new bottles"

On bottling day, I sanitize these same bottles in a diluted bleach solution (inside the bottling bucket) and then rinse with one of those bottle cleaners that hooks to the faucet.

Between soaking in the oxiclean, then the bleach water everything is clean and sanitary. I haven't had any infected bottles or anything, but only done about 7 batches. I have just been learning what bottles are best for capping. Sam Adams and Michelob are prob my two most common. Anything brown with a wide top is best.

 

[rico567]

I soak my bottles in 10 gallons of hot water and 5 TBS. of PBW. This practice cleans, removes most labels with little scrubbing and after triple hot rinsing, they are ready to sanitize. I use StarSan for that and triple rinse with cold water before filling.

I use the first part on new bottles. I use a vinator to spritz the inside of the bottles with Star San, put them in the dishwasher and run it. I've done this for three years, no problems. For every other filling, I only do the last part, since I rinse the bottles immediately after pouring. Only sanitizing required thereafter.

 

[TheBroonery]

Get a 5 gallon bucket (or use a large utility sink) and add about a cup of clorox to 4-5 gallons of hot water. Submerge the bottles and let them soak in that for a day or so and then use a brush or jet sprayer to clean out the inside. When there's no residue left inside or outside the glass is clean.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

You'll find that simply rinsing out (double rinse with cold tap water) bottles as soon as you empty them will save you a LOT of work later on when washing & sanitizing. Regards, GF.

 

[fugazzi]

I would highly suggest getting something like
http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/products/Jet-Carboy-&-Bottle-Washer.html

Pop that on your sink and blast the gunk out! That will likely take care of cleaning the majority of your bottles.

 

[BellTap]

Bottle brush + power drill.

 

[xoltri]

I soak my bottles in 10 gallons of hot water and 5 TBS. of PBW. This practice cleans, removes most labels with little scrubbing and after triple hot rinsing, they are ready to sanitize. I use StarSan for that and triple rinse with cold water before filling.

You're not supposed to rinse StarSan. I heard it from the horses mouth (Five Star company founder) on a brewing network podcast.

Also, from their techsheet:

Directions: A dilution of 1 ounce to 5 gallons of water, STAR SAN will provide 300 ppm of dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid. After 1 to 2 minutes contact time, drain sanitizing solution equipment thoroughly. Do not rinse.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I rinse bottles immediately after use. Then I run them through the dishwasher and store them until they are needed. Then they get another run throught he dishwasher (or washed by hand if necessary), checked for mold/sediment and then sanitized. If there is mold, it goes out for recycling. I have enough bottles that I'm not going to mess with mold.

 

[Scottatron]

Thanks alot for the replys everyone