Dishwasher Sanitation

I will be bottling this weekend. I want to try using my dishwasher with a sanitized cycle. My question is how long can I wash my bottles before I bottle? I'm thinking the day before and allow time for them to cool. Would I need to cover the bottle openings? I also want to use my dishwasher as a rack to bottle.

 

I did this. I think if I were to do it again, I'd still have a bucket of starsan around to dunk the bottles in before bottling. The sanitation cycle is great but I trust starsan much more in the end (after cleaning).

 

What I do know is mix up a 5 gallon batch of sanitizer and soak 4-5 of my bottles for about 3-5 min. Empty them back into my bucket and repeat. Works fine, but always looking for a faster bottling day.

 

I'd say use only star san. What you can do though is fill the bottles partially, shake them to produce lots of foam, pour liquid back into the bucket, and then use your (clean) dishwasher rack as a way to drain bottles. If you're doing a 5gal batch, by the time you're finished sanitizing the last bottles, the first ones will be ready to fill.

 

I usually run the bottles on the sanitize cycle with no cleanser/sanitizer, let the bottles cool, then dunk in starsan and back on the rack, Just before being filled and capped.

Probably overkill, but I can run the cycle anytime during the day.

 

It works fine, provided your dishwasher gets hot enough. I switched to just using a vinator and Star San, though. I had head retention problems, presumably because of years of residue buildup in the dishwasher. Your mileage may vary.

 

Also, do not do this the day before. That gives time for bacteria to set in. You want it to finish as close to bottling time as possible, while the bottles are still hot. Do not use dishwasher detergent and/or rinse aid. Doing this to far in advance will up your chances of an infected batch.

 

As long as your dishwasher is sealed and has gone through the dry cycle, I'm not sure that you'll be increasing the likelihood of infection. But I wouldn't bottle into a hot bottle...

 

I know of people who did have infection problems from doing this too far in advance. I can only speak to my experience, but I've had no problem bottling shortly after the dishwasher finishes.

 

One word: never. Star San dunk, fill while wet. Easy and foolproof. My insistence on drinking while I work requires foolproof.

 

My bottling day goes like this:
1. gather bottles
2. soak bottles, remove what labels still need removing (we rinse all bottles after opening)
3. Rinse quick with tap water
4. put in dishwasher, hi temp sani rinse no soap
5. Then let cool for 20 minutes, we set them up on towels, organise, etc
6. fill up bottling bucket with 4 gallons of star-san
7. fill up every bottle 1/4 to 1/3 of the way with star san as if bottling beer, kids (hands soaked in star-san) cover and shake, then dip the tip of the bottle into the bottling bucket draining the bottle and getting the first 2 or so inches wet.
8. line them back up on a separate towel

This way I know without a doubt that every single bottle has been rinsed, cleaned, sanitized, star-san'd, and within 30 minutes of bottling. I know that the bottling bucket, the wand, the spigot, etc etc has all been sanitized.

 

I would say that if left closed the dishwasher sanitize cycle should be safe with cooling overnight.

If using Starsan, get a Vinator. Spritz a bottle put it on the dishwasher rack, continue with the rest. Proceed to filling.

 

Thanks for all the feed back! I will try this out next weekend. I did bottle this weekend but was still unsure so I bought a couple plastic milk crates, sanitized them and my bottles. Filled the crates with my empties, placed it on a chair, pulled up another chair, and bottled. It worked out pretty well. Each crate held 16 22oz bottles. Also worked well for transfering the bottles to another room for carbonation. I love this forum!!

 

Anyone ever try using B-Brite cleanser/sanitizer in the dishwasher? Well I just did. Ran my bottles through a "heavy" wash cycle with B-Brite and gave it the "heated Dry"... Will advise of any ill-effects, although I don't foresee any; Those bottles were sparkling clean!

 

I've only been brewing about a year (7 batches) but that is the way I bottle. I soak in Oxyclean and water, rinse, put in the dishwasher with no soap or anti-spot and run on sanitize. I run it in the morning and bottle that evening. I set my bottling bucket on the counter and fill the bottles on the door. Fill a dozen and cap them and then repeat. Never had a problem. My dishwasher has a sanitize cycle.

 

Not sure about B-Brite but most of those one step cleaning/sanitizing products are not really best for sanitizing. I like Starsan.

Using the cleaner in the dishwasher probably did little in the way of cleaning. The water/cleaner will not get up into the bottles.

The heat of the heated dry cycle will probably have done what was needed for killing the nasties.

 

I agree with several of the people above. Since I started brewing 1.5 years ago, I have used my dishwasher to sanitize bottles (no soap or Jet Dry stuff) - I usually put the clean bottles in the night before (or the morning before work) and then come home and bottle (right when the DW finishes, they are super hot, they need a few hours to cool). The longest that I have left them in the dishwasher was from Friday night - Sunday afternoon.

Of course, I have a fairly new dishwasher that has an actual "Sanitize" cycle on it - YMMV depending on your dishwasher.

 

I agree too. Before I got a bottle tree with an injector, I used the dishwasher method successfully plenty of times. I'd usually just try to bottle on the weekends, so I'd run the DW first thing in the morning, and then bottle a couple hours after it was done. Never had any problem with infection.

I will say that the bottle tree/injector was my #2 favorite equipment purchase ever before I started kegging (#1 would be fermentation control).

 

So I have experimented with this dishwasher process and it just in not worth it for me...it takes the same amount of time, there is a chance you are not getting the bottles sanitized (low), and you are "heat cycling" the bottles.

I have used many different methods in the past but this weekend I am trying my new Vinator with Star San and bottle tree. It just seems to make so much sense. I only bottle rarely unless it is a single 6-pack form a batch being kegged.

 

I think you're going to love the Vinator (has it always been called that? I have one and had to look it up!).

 

Vinator and starsan and bottling tree. It is the best way. I did the dishwasher method for a year, but it's actually easier to just use the vinator.

BTW, put your caps in the vinator reservoir with the starsan solution. Sanitized. You can see the yellow caps in the top of my vinator in the pic.

 

You, sir, are a genius. I don't have a bottle tree but I do have a vinator which I love...but never thought of putting the caps in there (always used a separate bowl). And dual bottle wands! Genius. I wonder if I'm coordinated enough to do two at once.

 

The vinator is the way to go. The FastRack works super well for me when I bottle as well. I much prefer it to a tree, but different solutions work better in different situations.

 

And yet he did not thing to flip a Homer bucket upside down to put the bottling bucket on so he would not have to squat!

The dual bottling wands requires a zen-like balance of the flow rates or really good multitasking skills.

 

What I do is soak the bottles in a large sink with Oxyclean Free and hot water for a few hours to get the labels and any gunk in the bottom out as most of my bottles are donation bottles and who knows where they were stored (bottles fully submerged)
Rinse with clean hot/warm water to knock off the oxyclean(inside and out),

Put a half scoop of oxyclean free into the dishwasher and run it on heavy/sanitize.
Once the dishwasher is done and the bottles are still warm(but not blistering hot), I cover them with sanitized foil(individually).

Have not had an issue with this process as I usually put the foiled bottles into my freezer for a day to get them good and cold before bottling.
I also bottle these days directly from the keg with a beer gun so getting the bottles cold helps keep foaming from being a problem along with reducing the Co2 pressure before starting up.

Zero infections/skunk beer to date.

 

Or maybe I was sitting on a chair? Genius!

I bottled a ton of beer this way. No problem. Have you tried this?

 

I like the version in my head better...you were using it as an excuse to do lunges!

I have not done it this way but I built a buddy a "bottling station" out of crap in my garage that basically made the process an assembly line where we could bottle 10-gallon batches in no time. Its main flaw is that you had to have the same size bottles...and we never found a way to automate the cap dispensing.

I hate bottling with such a passion I do very little but I am stock piling and consume at the same time so I have run out of non-bottle receptacles. I will solve this problem by polishing off a keg this weekend. I do need to bottle some of the beer I am brewing tonight and a portion of the next batch as well.

 

I haven't bottled in several years. Lost interest in competitions, and kegging is much easier. I do want to get Blichmann beergun though so I can make some specialty beers that I don't want to keep in the keg. I made my own contraption and it was a POS.