Sanitizing bottle caps

Are you supposed to do it or is it ok to use them straight out of the bag?

I've always sanitized mine but I read last night that it was unnecessary to do so. Truth or bad advice?

Thanks,

Nick

 

I boil mine then was in star san and dry on cheesecloth. It's a sanitizing thing for me.

 

My caps seem to have a waxy layer that probably wouldn't respond well to boiling.

I just rinse mine in sanitizer and have been good to go.

 

Never have had any problems. I was wondering if I was wasting my time boiling though. Since I have discovered star san my sanitizing methods have changed dramatically from 6 years ago. Used to be a light mix of bleach to a crap load of water then a hot water rinse and dry. Now it is oxy clean and star san for the most part.
Guess this is what happenens when one steps away for a while. I have gained so much already in the few weeks I have been on this site my head hurts from all the learning!

 

Modern caps you should not boil, you run the risk of warping the gasket inside them.

As to sanitizing them or not, why would you ever consider not sanitzing something that could come in contact with your beer????????? I mean most of us haven't mastered levitation of our beer, which means that more than likely at some point we're going to slosh the contents of the bottle around and it's going to come into contact with the underside of the bottle cap....wouldn't you feel a little better thinking that was sanitized????


I dump mine into the bowl of my vinator when I start bottling....

 

i dump mine in the bucket i use to sanitize my bottles and just take them out a couple at a time when i'm bottling.. don't fix what isn't broken

 

McLompoc - By drying out your caps on a cheesecloth, you are defeating the purpose of Starsan. It only works when wet, so if you are using Starsan to sanitize caps, you need to use them wet. That is what I do with no problems.

 

It's not that it doesn't work if you let it dry, it still has killed off what's on the surface, it's just that when dry it won't still be working. Anything that comes in contact with it after it's dry renders it pretty much un sanitized. If it is wet, a microorganism touching it is toast. So you could say that letting it dry reduces it's efficacy by 75%.

 

I lay mine out on a plate or tray and spray them with Star-San from my spray bottle. Then I let them sit while I'm filling bottles and use them as I go.

 

- Revvy, that statement only makes sense if the bottle caps are contaminated with microbes to begin with. Since they are manufactured under high temperatures, they will be clean to start with, so your only contamination is from the air in your house once they come out from the bag. Letting them dry after using Starsan is exactly the same as taking them fresh from the bag and using them immediatly.

 

I'm talking about letting starsan dry in general whether it's a bottle, your spoon, whatever. When you submerge it, in theory, you are killing off anything at may be on there to begin with...THEN a wet surface will indeed prevent any further contamination from any airborn or otherwise contamination in the house.

Besides once you've opened that package you can't really say their going to remain that way anymore. I buy my caps in a plastic bag a gross at a time, so once my grubby little hands have gone it their to fish out the 54 or so that I'm going to need, I'm not going to be all that confident that they aren't going to be contaminated after the fact.

Hell even with opening a virgin pack, I would have just jammed the afore mentioned "grubby little hands" in there to get the first ones out. You bet your bippie I'm not going to trust that they are still unblemished.

 

Thanks for the info. What about when I wash out my carboys or bottles and tree them before filling. Should I wait for them to dry or fill even if there is moisture inside of them?

 

Hmm. I stopped sanitizing bottle caps a while ago. I remember a thread on here where a guy who made or sold O2 absorber caps was saying that you wreck the absorption properties when you dunk them in sanitizer. So I stopped, and it never seemed to cause any contamination issues.

 

I used to sanitize my caps every time by using iodophor but one day I was brewing and capping at the same time and I just plain forgot to sanitize. I had no contamination. So then I started to cap without sanitizing and so far I've capped about 8-10 different batches without any contamination. I think I'm playing with fire here but so far so good. Something to think about, after I cap the bottle the beer actually never comes into contact with the cap as they are being stored upright. Again, I'm playing with fire here

 

This statement assumes the packaging process after the caps have been built is as germ free as the caps themselves. Dumping them in a bowl of Starsan prior to use is no extra work and just makes sense.

 

Has anyone had issues with bottle caps that spin after capping. I tested some on my first batch and most were tight, and some spun with a little effort. I am assuming the bottles may have a roll in the problem, but all were 16's and 24's I bought from a LHBS.

 

Maybe not necessary but I soak my caps in a glass of vodka and pull them out one at a time when bottling. Sanitized caps and hands...

 

Wow, no. That should not happen. You probably won't have carbonated beer seeing as if they're lose enough to move freely like that, they're lose enough to let out gas. I've never seen that happen and I can't think of why it would unless you have caps and bottles each from different regions of the world and pertain to different standards.

Best. First. Post. EVAR!

No seriously. I do the same thing with star san.... why would anybody not?

 

Sometimes a little bit of sanitizer between the bottle and the cap will make it able to spin. This is pretty normal. I believe you'll find that once they dry, the caps stop spinning.

 

Personally, I can't see a bottle cap production line working that sanitary. A little logic would tell us for a cap stamping company to work "clean" the caps would cost more...

I soak my caps till needed in the process. I look at this like when I can. Sanitize lids and jars and work clean.

 

When I bottle I usually splash some cheap vodka in a small bowl and swish the caps around in it pulling them out a couple at a time as I need them.

 

Well like what was said earlier, how about the O2 absorbing caps that are activated by being wet? I stopped sanitizing them, thinking that they would lose/decrease their 02 absorbing properties. I only use them for beers that I plan on aging for a long time, but I sanitize the normal caps. Isn't it kinda hard to infect a beer once it is fully fermented anyways? That being said my hands are always sanitized during the bottling phase.

 

Boy you guys got that wrong...I thought I've caught and corrected that whenever I've seen that little bit of mis-information...

Soaking them is what activates the oxygen absorbing magic. It actually takes a week for them to do their job on the bottle.

On Basic brewing James Spencer contacted the maker of Oxygen Absorbing Caps (Crown Beverage), and actually recommended you santize them quickly, evidently the "Oxygen Absorbing Effect" of the caps is not immediate and they need to be wet for a period of time before the magic happens, like days.

Click to listen

It's within the first few minutes of the podcast.

They recommend sanitizing ONLY the caps you are using, and sanitizing just before bottling. But you do need to wet them, and it's probably the smartest idea to go and do it, with the sanitizer

 

It's possible to wind up with a stray wild yeast infection. Wild yeasts can ferment stuff that Saccharomyces can't. A few months ago I opened the last bottles of my first 2 batches (3 years old). Apparently it had picked up some wild yeast along the way because they were both gushers and all the original flavor was replaced with general unpleasantness.

 

Well I stand corrected on the O2 caps then. Like I said, it was what I read way back a long time ago and never really questioned it because it never really hurt my beer. For whatever reason, I seem to recall sanitizing caps being a controversial issue back in 2008.

 

+1,000

I don't understand why there's EVER a question that involves the statement "should I sanitize x..." If it's going to be something post boil that will come into contact even remotely with out beer. Santizing is not some arcane/time consuming process that requires a lot of steps, you just get the object wet with sanitizer for a few seconds, that's it...why do people ever consider fluffing off something so simple, that insures our beer will not get ruined?????

 

I see. I did the exact same thing bernerbrau did, looked at a thread and they recommended flipping the bottles after they were capped to activate the caps. It seemed kind of odd to me, but then again I had never used these types of caps so I decided to take the advice of someone that had used them. I just assumed they became active as soon as they were in contact with a wet source. Thank you for enlightening me Revvy.

 

Found the thread. Turns out it was our friend Forrest from AHS offering this tidbit of misinformation:

 

Ya I figured it could be done, but was rather difficult. Could aging a normal gravity beer that long have an effect on the taste? I'm simply asking because I do not know, I just noticed that on most bottled beer the have a label that says consume with in 3 months or so?

 

yeah it was controversial because until James Spencer actually called the manufactures, noone bothered to ask anyone who really knew what the heck they were talking about....Just like so much of brewing "culture" people just did what they believed was right and convinced others that was the "right way."

 

In a perfect sterile environment aging a normal gravity beer 3 years would probably see it go stale. However, the extreme overcarbonation I experienced after 3 years is more likely due to a couple viable wild yeast cells getting in there at bottling time and left undisturbed for a long time to do their thing.

To be clear though, that was before I stopped sanitizing my caps. I didn't have my sanitation regimen down at the time though, so it's possible the wild yeast got in at another point.

 

There is absolute guarantee that the caps you buy in a package are sterile or even clean for that matter. Mine come in a large plastic bag. Most of the time the rough edges of the caps have chewed little holes into the bag. Plus Starsan is cheap insurance.

For me on bottling day, I count out the caps needed and they sit in a dish with Starsan until ready to be used. They go directly from their Starsan bath to the bottle where they are promptly capped. I've never had an issue

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I see. I know people age barley wines and what not for very long periods, but wasn't sure what happens on "normal" beers.

 

LOL. I wouldn't know. My "normal" beers never make it much past 6months! I do have some barley wine that is over a year old and tastes awesome!

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I have to chime in on this one. In 23 years, I've had one infected batch. That was the time I forgot to sanitize my caps. Over the years, I've realized brewing is really easy if you follow two rules:
1) sanitize everything that will touch the beer
2) relax

 

Lol I'm the same way. I try to only keep two in the fridge so I'm not tempted to drink more than that in a night. Especially since I don't have a LHBS, I have to wait on everything to get mailed in so I can brew, by the time one batch is carbed and ready to drink the previous batch is gone... So sad