Removing 10+ year old dirt from bottles?

This has probably been asked before, but I didn't find the answer.

I live on a farm and as such there are several sheds from previous generations of use. So far I've dug up some 16 oz pepsi bottles (thick as hell, and re-cappable) and will likely be finding more kinds of bottles since my grandmother use to make beer and wine when she was alive & younger. (talking probably 50 years ago or more)

History of acquisition aside, sitting in these falling down shed's hasn't been the most sanitary conditions for storage. The pepsi bottles have ancient dirt stuck to the bottom and seem a little bit discolored. I have them soaking in a strong bleach solution since warm water didn't seem to make the last of the dirt budge but is there anything else that'd be more effective? Dirt looks like it's still holding on.

Any tips? Or should I just give up on the old bottles? And yes I do have a bottle brush, I'm just reluctant to use it on plain old dirt...

 

I've found that an overnight soak with hot water and oxyclean will really help. Then you can rinse and use the bottle brush to work anything that is left loose.

 

Oxyclean may help. I'm not sure how effective it will be on dirt, but it's pretty good at removing organic material.

 

I don't know about cleaning out the dirt, but since they are old Pepsi bottles, they are probably clear. If that's the case, I would be worried about all of my fine beer tasting like Heineken. Stay away from the light!

 

Soak them in oxyclean for a few days. Then, scrub them with your brush and afterwards soak them in oxyclean for a few more days. The bubbling of the oxyclean really helps to break down the old grime.

 

I had an old farmer give me 3 cases of old time Lone Star long necks & 3 cases of assorted old soda bottles. The long necks came clean with a couple of soaks but 1/2 the soda bottles were goners. There are just too many groves & curves on the soda bottles. They tried to make them stylish & made them impossible to clean. Coke was the worst. Also note I spend allot of time on these bottles and did not even realize some were only 10 oz, they are so big & heavy I thought they were 12oz at least. Very disappointed when I realized the size. I did save a whole case of 7up to use for hard limeade or hard lemonade. Have a case of hard limeade carbing now in them.

 

Intend to use them, my Heineken, and other clear bottles for Apfelwein/Meads so it's a non-issue.

I'll probably try some Oxi as that seems to be the clean all around here, but I'm somewhat worried about how strongly the stuff is stuck on.

For the picture lovers.

 

We got some 40 oz Black label and some 24 oz Moxie bottles (clear)
took some doing to get them clean but the Oxyclean did the trick at 160 F.
we have one coke bottle and some old green soda bottles in the collection.
we do keep the clear ones out of the light. Its fun to serve a nice stout in the Moxie bottles.

 

They are cool looking bottles - are you going to leave the original Pepsi logos on, or try to get them off?

 

It's ACL Painted on as far as I can tell - if the label lasts through heavy bleach soaking and some light scrubbing they'll be staying.

 

Oxyclean works good for cleaning up the dirt. Vinegar will work for taking off old mineral deposits. I just filled the bottles with straight vinegar and let them set over night.

 

I had a bunch of bottles that looked like that. Full of soil, dirt, slugs, and various other crawling things.

Soaking them in a bleach solution didn't seem to do much good for me. What did work pretty well was a soak in liquid dish washing liquid and hot water. And also probably equally well, a soak in hot water with a fair amount of laundry detergent.

I also used soapy Brillo pads, bottle brushes, and a jet bottle washer.

 

A sonic bath (like you would use to clean jewelry) would probably work well, but I'm not sure where you would get one of the right size for a descent price.

 

Wow, that dirt looks old as... well, dirt.

 

How about one of those foot massage baths. I see them at garage sales for $10.00. You could put a few bottles into one of those with some oxiclean or other such cleaner.

 

I would clean them by putting them in the recycling bin, having them melted into glass slag, and conveniently returned to me containing Anchor Steam or similar.

 

Trisodium phosphate probably clean them up nice. Forget the OxyClean for now and mix up a strong diswasher soap solution and soak them.