I agree with Revvy. This seems completely paranoid to me. I have brewed and bottled wine and beer for 10+ years now and have never had any sort of infection I think I would give up brewing if infections were this easy to get.
I agree with Revvy. This seems completely paranoid to me. I have brewed and bottled wine and beer for 10+ years now and have never had any sort of infection I think I would give up brewing if infections were this easy to get.
Sorry if you think it's condescending or not...But it's still the silliest worry I've seen/heard on here in awhile...... *shrug* whatever floats your boat I guess.
Personally, when I bottle, I avoid touching the inside of the bottle at all costs, and if I do, the bottle and my hands are so foaming with sanitizer I highly doubt there would be any living critters from the label making it.
The only thing that touches the lip of my bottles is sanitizer and a sanitized cap. And if I have any doubt that a finger has inadvertently touched the lip? Then my spray bottle of sanitizer gets put to use.
ACESFULL said:Again you do it this way... Others may not and having lables on the bottles pose another possibility of infection. Just because it hasnt happened to you doesnt mean its not possible nor is it silly.
Anything is possible I guess
I might be a noob, but I am having a really hard time figuring out how your bottles could get infected because there are labels on them. Do you not soak your bottles in star san before bottling? It is a sanitizer after all, right? It shouldn't make a difference what is on the outside of your bottles because it's the beer inside that you are worried about.
I usually fill a sink or tub with hot water...let them set for 5 minutes, scrape the label, put bottles back in water for 5 minutes (to loosen glue) then scrape all of it off...rinse and sanitize!
I might be a noob, but I am having a really hard time figuring out how your bottles could get infected because there are labels on them. Do you not soak your bottles in star san before bottling? It is a sanitizer after all, right? It shouldn't make a difference what is on the outside of your bottles because it's the beer inside that you are worried about.
Im not gonna go through all these pages to see if someone said this but PBW is my best friend when it comes to cleaning and de-labeling bottles.
I fill a big rope tub with about 5-10 gallons of water and enough PBW for that amount and dump like 20-30 bottles in there. They sit in there over night and the next day most of the labels are literally just floating in the water. Get the bottles out and rinse well with water. And the stubborn labels come off with a little scraping or scrubbing.
ACESFULL said:The only way I would say not to worry is when you think your sanitation is 100% fool-proof. With a 1st time bottler I would go the route of removing labels or buying new glass. Leaving labels on is to risky of a move for a beginner.
All you are doing is making the beginner more paranoid. If they clean their bottles and equipment and sanitize with starsan before bottling, they will be fine. With labels or without. You need to go to brewing tv on YouTube or Northern Brewers site. Watch episode 4 on open fermentation and watch how hard it is to get an infection.
ACESFULL said:Ok lets try this... Bugs and other wild **** to attack the label. You touch the labels when bottling which increases the "possibility" to infect your beer. ITs that simple. You wanna do fine I just feel its a bad plan.
Anger the beer gods. Revvy normal your posts are spot on but this is a tad tacky. This board and many other have facts and sometimes opinions. This is much of the same. The fact that you are condescending about this is not really that of allowing others to offer suggestion, opinion & or suggestions to other members. In doing so may upset Revvy. Not cool.
ACESFULL said:Again your opinion... All this matters not if the HB isnt clean and follows proper sanitation procedures. Labels or not. Thats my point. Yes the idea of open fermentation at home sans clean room you are asking for trouble. With the bottles its preference. Personally I just want to avoid ANY chance of my beer having to be poured down the drain due to a lack of sanitation.
Seems like you'd go thru a ton of PB. And a lot of time.
I'm amazed at the fact that noone seems to mention using ammonia to get the labels off!
I rent a local bio-lab facility for my label-removing process to ensure protection against infections, and store my bottles in a deep-freeze locker, with each bottle wrapped with a condom for extra protection. I always wear full haz-mat gear during the bottling process and incinerate all of my used equipment after every batch. So far I'm 100% infection-free.
Big_Belgian said:I rent a local bio-lab facility for my label-removing process to ensure protection against infections, and store my bottles in a deep-freeze locker, with each bottle wrapped with a condom for extra protection. I always wear full haz-mat gear during the bottling process and incinerate all of my used equipment after every batch. So far I'm 100% infection-free.
I use a baby-gate as my drying rack, then transfer them to the sixer/twelver box upside-down for storage.
I am a poor student (not starving or anything) and relatively new father. I have been using a second-hand stainless steel dish strainer for drying bottles... I can dry about 15 bottles at a time. Of course I plan on eventually upgrading to kegs but for now I have been trying to improvise something for bottle drying.
Why didn't I think of this? I have baby gates at the top of the stairs, the kitchen entryway, on the entry for the back patio. An extended baby gate would be perfect for seating an up-ended bottle. Thanks for the idea!
It's ok for the bottle tops to touch the wood?
The only reason I didn't do something similar is that I worried about the bottles touching the wood and the wood soaking up water and getting nasty over time. Being a noob I'm probably just being way too careful.
An extended baby gate would be perfect for seating an up-ended bottle. Thanks for the idea!
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