Using dishwater to sanitize?

[Beerisnom]

The worst part of bottling, of course, is the hour and change spent cleaning and sanitizing all the bottles. Love having bottles on hand in addition to kegs , but it's very time consuming. Someone asked me why I didn't just put the bottles in the dishwasher, since it gets hot enough to kill any beasties in your bottles. I wasn't sure about this tactic - does anyone do this? I would still spray with starsan after the process.

 

[AnOldUR]

I would still spray with starsan after the process.

It's just the opposite. Bottles have to be clean before going into the dishwasher, but don't need sanitizer after, if you bottle right from the dishwasher. When I did that I ran the bottles with no soap, never used Jet Dry in the dishwasher and never put dirty dishes in with the bottles.

Not enough water makes it up in through the neck of the bottle to really clean it, but the temperature will sanitize.

Fill the dishwasher before you leave for work. Bottle right from the dishwasher when you get home.

Bottling bucket above dishwasher. Sit on a low stool and use the door as a platform for bottling. No clean-up. Any overflow goes right into the washer.

 

[EcuPirate07]

I don't do this because I mostly keg, but yes you can. If you have a sanitize mode that obviously is best.

 

[dk21]

You can, but our dishwasher takes 2.5 hours to run the sanitation cycle. I can use a vinator in a fraction of the time.

Also, if you use a rinse aid you'll have head retention problems.

 

[estricklin]

It takes me less than an hour from start to finish to bottle beer. My bottles were rinsed well when I stored them. I get them out, quick look in the bottom up at the light on each one as I sanitize them. I used to dunk them in Star San but now I have one of those pump things (forget the name), they are like 15 bucks.

To answer your question though I used to use the dishwasher to sanitize them. Never had any problems doing it that way except waiting on the dishwasher. I would just put them in there, no soap. Hi Temp Wash>Sanitize>Start.

After you bottle enough times it gets easy, you develop a process. A lot of homebrewers go to kegging because they can't get the bottling process down, but it can actually be pretty fun. I really enjoy bottling, I try to remember I got into this hobby because I enjoy making my own beer and bottling is part of that. I have a nice kegging system but I still bottle a lot for the enjoyment.

Best of luck!

 

[estricklin]

You can, but our dishwasher takes 2.5 hours to run the sanitation cycle. I can use a vinator in a fraction of the time.

Also, if you use a rinse aid you'll have head retention problems.

Vinator, that's the name of it.