Best Way to Clean Bottles?

[thewarmachine]

I have seen a few different methods for cleaning bottles before bottling a batch, but wanted to know what you all suggest as the most efficient and fastest way? Thanks!

 

[cdubbaya]

I typically rinse my bottles out after each use and then store them with my equipment. When I need them again, I put them in the dishwasher on full cycle with no detergent. This cleans and sanitizes them with little hassle. Just make sure there is no detergent or you might get stains, particles, and off-scents in the bottle. Not to mention soap and detergent are known to hinder head retention.

 

[ThickHead]

I always rinse them with with hot tap water, drain, and store. When I am ready to use I give them a soak in Star San and hang 'em on my bottling tree. Works a treat.

 

[snccoulter]

Make your kids do it for you.

 

[megalomani]

Fastest and most efficient; don't do it at all and instead use a keg.

I know that is not really what you are asking but I don't really know of a fast and efficient way to clean bottles. I used to obsessively save bottles even if had some crud in them. I have probably spent the equivalent of a full 40 hour work week meticulously cleaning bottles if you added it all together. Eventually I decided to only save bottles that I was able to rinse immediately. Now I have gotten rid of all my 12 ounce bottles and only kept 22oz bombers.

When I do bottle, my method is oxyclean soak, hot water rinse then I use the spray thing on the top of the bottle tree to sanitize them. Definitely is not a quick process, that is why I ended up investing in some corny kegs. Even using kegs it seems about a two hour process to clean, sanitize, rack to corny, and clean up the carboy and other mess. When I bottled an entire batch, the process was easily twice that to make sure i used non-contaminated equipment and bottles.

If you have a dishwasher with a sanitize cycle that would work but the bottles are difficult to keep from falling over, and really they still need to be clean before going in. If I ever need to bottle 12oz again I am just going to buy brand new bottles and not worry about it.

 

[unionrdr]

And we have a winner! someone always comes into a bottling thread & says how kegging is faster. you still have to clean & sanitize it,the lines,taps,etc.
Anyway,at least you gave a regime for bottling. I take my newly emptied bottles & toss'em in a waiting bucket of PBW for 2 hours to soak. Then take a bottle brush to'em,rinse,& onto the bottle tree to dry. Then into covered boxes till needed.

 

[mux]

Rinse after use, then before I bottle I run them in the dishwasher with no soap.y dishwasher has a sanitize setting. Works great.

 

[badbrew]

Whatever you do, don't over apply oxyclean to clean them. The film dust will coat the bottles and make you paranoid. Didn't ruin the taste when I did it, but probably isn't smart.

 

[JoshuaW]

I rinse them when I am done with it, let them soak in hot water (our hot water heater is HOT! like 135*). When they have cooled down, I dump the water out, and pump a squirt of Starsan into the bottle, wipe the outside down, put it in a box. When it is time to use them, I rinse them in hot water again, then a few squirts of Starsan, then let them dry.

 

[corn]

Whatever you do, don't over apply oxyclean to clean them. The film dust will coat the bottles and make you paranoid. Didn't ruin the taste when I did it, but probably isn't smart.

this happened to me on my secondary, I have a batch in there now. will this residue come off with proper cleaning? the dust is on outside and definitely had made me second guess, check and recheck to make sure that the beer isn't cloudy.

 

[philjohnwilliams]

As others here have suggested, the best way to clean your bottles is to not let them get dirty to begin with. Rinse them out after use so that at bottling time they will only need to be sanitized. On bottling day, my clean bottles just need a quick sanitizing and they are good to go. I can bottle a 5 gal batch start to finish in about an hour. One trick I learned is to store your empty bottles upside down in the case. It makes it easy to see how many empties you have and (most importantly) keeps the spiders out.

 

[steve09]

Whatever you do, don't over apply oxyclean to clean them. The film dust will coat the bottles and make you paranoid.

My Oxiclean jar says to never let oxiclean dry on anything, perhaps that is what caused the "film dust"? I always make sure to soak the bottles in a Rubbermaid container that allows my to submerge them so it can't dry on the glass. I do ~48 at a time.

Also you should rinse with cold water, it's cheaper and faster (no foam). The label says that too

 

[spenghali]

Rinse and store upside down. On bottling day I usually submerge them in starsan and then hang them on the bottling tree. If i am cleaning commercial bottles I soak them in straight-A and the labels fall right off after a few hours.

 

[goingmad]

I usually use this to fast wash the bottles with the sanitizing solution

and then leave the bottles upside down on this, plastic tool, good for 80 bottles

I'm much faster from the time I've bought those tools. Hope this helps


cheers


gm

 

[geniz]

I soak bottles in oxyclean, remove labels (if needed) rinse well, dry on bottle tree and then cover top with piece of foil and put into boxes. When I need to bottle they are clean and just need a couple of spurts of starsan. Good to go

 

[solbes]

Just rinse them out with hot water really well before you go to bed. The next morning tip them over again to make sure all the water is out. Store them in the 12 packs.

On bottling day I use one of those vinators (or sulphiter) and bottle tree as shown above. Very easy and effective.

 

[Henry22]

Soak them in oxyclean to remove lab els, them rinse them out. Cover the top with foil and bake them at 270-280 for a good hour. Then they stay sanitized until you remove the foil.