Best way to sanitize bottles

[tobrew]

Been collecting bottles and if all goes well i will be bottleing my first batch next Sunday . What is the best way to sanatize them? My dishwasher has a sanatize cycle. Is ok to put them in there or shuold I use San-Star?
Thanks
TB

 

[snazzy]

The best way for sure is to use a no rinse sanitizer. I have many times out of lazyness ran them through the wash then run them through again on sanitize with no dish soap. This way I know that no soap residue is left behind.

 

[OLB]

I always rinse after emptying them and then before bottling I run them through the dishwasher with the sanitize cycle. And then before i rack to the bottling bucket I use star san and put them back on the dishwasher rack. Might seem like overkill a little bit, but it doesn't really take much more effort as long as you run the dishwasher the night before.

 

[Surly]

Bottles I want to reuse:

Removing labels & Cleaning
1) Soak bottles in a cooler of warm water and Oxyclean over night.
2) Wash bottles with a bottle brush.
3) Remove labels.
4) Rinse bottle well.
5) Allow to drain.

Sanitizing:

1) Soak bottles in Star San.
2) Drain
3) Fill with beer
4) Drink beer
5) Rinse bottle well when empty of beer.
6) Sanitize bottle using left over Star San from most recent brew day.
7) Drain
8) Store bottle.

Always keep in mind the difference between cleaning and sanitizing. They are not the same procedures.

 

[loobobone]

I'm only on my third batch, so far from an expert. I have sanitized my bottles in the oven and it is very easy and convenient. I make sure the bottles are CLEAN first, then take a piece of foil to wrap on the top. Stack the bottles on their sides in the oven racks. I raise the temp slowly over the first hour until I have it at 350. Keep it at 350 for 2 hours and then turn it off. Don't open the door while cooling, just let them cool slow so nothing breaks.

The great thing about this method is you can do the bottles days ahead of when you want to bottle. Just leave the foil on until you are ready to put the beer in and cap.

I got this from John Palmer's site and he has a temp chart for reference. I also know several friends who use the dishwasher and have had good success

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

The dishwasher will work great!

I use the over to heat sanitize my bottles.

1. Make sure all your bottles are clean.
2. Seal each bottle with tin foil
3. Place bottles in cold oven and turn on to lowest setting.
4. Turn timer on to 1.5 hours.
5. Come back when you here the alarm and turn off oven.
6. Wait a while for the bottles to cool, then box them up.

This way, my bottles are ready to go whenever I need them. It is easy for me.

 

[fratermus]

I sanitize bottles with either iodophor or starsan at no-rinse concentrations, injected with a vinator.

A bottling wand (very cheap, like $2) will also transform bottling for the better.

 

[EdWort]

The dishwasher will work great!

I use the over to heat sanitize my bottles.

1. Make sure all your bottles are clean.
2. Seal each bottle with tin foil
3. Place bottles in cold oven and turn on to lowest setting.
4. Turn timer on to 1.5 hours.
5. Come back when you here the alarm and turn off oven.
6. Wait a while for the bottles to cool, then box them up.

This way, my bottles are ready to go whenever I need them. It is easy for me.

How long have you been doing this? Any problems with infections ever?

 

[Sampten]

I use the dishwasher and put sanatizer in instead of soap. After they're dry, I then use the sanatize option on the dishwasher again.

Probably overkill but so far it seems to work.

 

[Hammy71]

I sanitize bottles with either iodophor or starsan at no-rinse concentrations, injected with a vinator.

A bottling wand (very cheap, like $2) will also transform bottling for the better.

A big shout out for the vinator.....used to just soak in a bucket of starsan...but wow...this thing kicks butt....Very little sanitizer to waste and works fast....

 

[argyle]

Bleach and water solution soak works great for me. Just a little rinse after.

 

[Moonpile]

A big shout out for the vinator.....used to just soak in a bucket of starsan...but wow...this thing kicks butt....Very little sanitizer to waste and works fast....

+1 to the Vinator. Very awesome.

Squirt your pre-cleaned and pre-rinsed bottle with StarSan or whatever and then put it on a bottle tree to drip. StarSan doesn't even need to dry. Iodophor, does, I think.

If you lack a bottle tree, then your diswasher rack will work nicely for holding the bottles after sanitizing.

 

[Bills Brew]

Ditto on the Vinator!!!!

You can sanitize a complete batch of bottles in 10 minutes..

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

I'm only on my third batch, so far from an expert. I have sanitized my bottles in the oven and it is very easy and convenient. I make sure the bottles are CLEAN first, then take a piece of foil to wrap on the top. Stack the bottles on their sides in the oven racks. I raise the temp slowly over the first hour until I have it at 350. Keep it at 350 for 2 hours and then turn it off. Don't open the door while cooling, just let them cool slow so nothing breaks.

The great thing about this method is you can do the bottles days ahead of when you want to bottle. Just leave the foil on until you are ready to put the beer in and cap.

I got this from John Palmer's site and he has a temp chart for reference. I also know several friends who use the dishwasher and have had good success

Remember too that this is not sanitation. This method is Sterilization. i.e. All living organisms inside the bottles will cease to exist. This method is my preferred method thus far. I FEEL better doing it this way. I know that there is no risk of contamination when you have made absolutely certain that there cannot be any living bacteria etc. in your bottles come bottling day.

 

[Dadrick]

My method is:

Pre-bottleing Day
1. Soak the bottles a day or six in oxyclean. Make sure that the bottles don't have air pockets that miss the soak. Old labels float off.

Bottleing day
2. As I take the bottles out of the tub of Oxyclean I give them a quick brush scrub.
3. Rinse in tap water
4. Place in the diswasher rack to drain. (my bottom rack hold 50+bottles on the little pegs)
5. Sanitize the transfer syphon, bottlebucket, filling wand and caps
6. Pour the remaining sanitizer into a seperate bucket.
7. Transfer beer from fermenter to bottling bucket.
7. Each bottle then is dunked in the sanitizer, poured out, shake the drips off and filled with beer. The bottle stay wet as the Star-San is a wet sanitizer and doesn't hurt the beer.

Rick

 

[mikefranciotti]

I'm on my first batch and am trying to figure the best way to sanitize bottles too. At the moment all I have is C-Brite. After soaking in C-Brite w/ the correct amount of water, rinsing and drying, is there anything else that I should do? For the next trip to the LHBS, I'll grab some Star-San but for now I'd like to stick with what I've got.

Suggestions?
(sorry for the hijack although it's at least on the same lines )

 

[Homercidal]

I've tried using the dishwasher for this and it worked very well. I usually do up the bottles ahead of time, and then take a break before getting ready to bottle. I'm usually whipped from removing labels and my break consists of reading the forums and planning the next beer. Then when the washer is done, I open it up and let the bottles cool down while I get the bottling setup ready. Works nice.

However, I have seen the vinator, and heard lots of good things, so I might decide to buy one, and then place the bottles in the washer to drip. Seems like it will save more time, and I think I've got lots of bottles de-labeled now to avoid that step.

 

[HoppyDaze]

I sanitize bottles with either iodophor or starsan at no-rinse concentrations, injected with a vinator.

A bottling wand (very cheap, like $2) will also transform bottling for the better.

Does anyone actually put the vinator on top of the tree while cleaning bottles. It looks like there is a cheaper bottle tree that wont fit to the Ferrari vinator. Im just wondering if it even matters...

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

I use the oven to heat sanitize my bottles.

1. Make sure all your bottles are clean.
2. Seal each bottle with tin foil
3. Place bottles in cold oven and turn on to lowest setting.
4. Turn timer on to 1.5 hours.
5. Come back when you here the alarm and turn off oven.
6. Wait a while for the bottles to cool, then box them up.

This way, my bottles are ready to go whenever I need them. It is easy for me.

How long have you been doing this? Any problems with infections ever?

Hey Ed, sorry I missed this.

I started sanitizing this way and always used it for my bottling. Maybe 12 batches before kegging.... I still use this method for my occasional bottling and have never had a bottle infection (knock on wood). That's why I do it this way, it is fully uniform and there is nothing to forget or screw up.

 

[Papinquack]

The only way in my opinion is dont drink out of the bottle, rinse it out after pouring it into a glass and let your empty bottles build up. Once your old lady ******* about all the bottles on the counter, use a jet washer with hot water to break up stickyness if any,Then follow up with the Vinator full of sanitizer; let them dry on bottle tree then place the back in the empty case till next bottling day. See your already ahead of the game!:rockin:

 

[ak47clown]

Does anyone actually put the vinator on top of the tree while cleaning bottles. It looks like there is a cheaper bottle tree that wont fit to the Ferrari vinator. Im just wondering if it even matters...

I just bought a vinator and tree before bottling my first batch and it took about 10 seconds to realize that the vinator had no business being on top of a wobbly bottle tree. There's just no point. For me what worked was to put a box of bottles on one side, the vinator in the sink and the tree on the other. Like someone else said-you can sanitize an entire batch in 10 minutes with this thing

 

[Hegh]

I've only done one batch so far, but here's how I did it:

1. Double rinse bottles immediately after use and turn upside-down in dish rack over night to dry.
2. When bottling day is approaching, soak bottles in hot oxyclean solution for 30+ minutes, pull off the labels, triple rinse, turn upside-down to dry.
3. On bottling day, make sure the dishwasher has recently run and been emptied, and spray all of the racks with sanitizer.
4. Sanitize bottles in bottling bucked full of no-rinse sanitizer, about 6-8 at a time.
5. Place bottles on dishwasher pegs, upside down so nasties can't float in.
6. Dump sanitizer out and fill bucket with beer, and attach a bottling wand.
7. Fill bottles in the dishwasher door to avoid mess, lifting the bottles from the dishwasher racks as needed.
8. Rest caps (which have been sitting in some sanitizer) on top of full bottles until later, when they will be clamped.

If you're trying to figure out how you want your procedure to go, any of the suggestions is fine. Just pick the one you're most comfortable with and use it.

Now, of course, somebody is going to post about how they prepare their bottles by having the dog lick all the beer out because his tongue is long enough to reach all the way in. I wouldn't recommend that method.

 

[Homercidal]

Hmm... never thought to spray the rack with starsan, but it makes sense. I'll have to start doing that.

 

[Homercidal]

Ha, also I've always bottled on a chair with a plastic bag under a towel to catch the drips. I'll see about using the dishwasher, but wouldn't the bottles on the rack be in the way? Or do you remove them after they've dripped a few minutes?

 

[Hegh]

I push the racks in a bit to give myself a bit more space, but you really don't need much, since you're just filling one bottle at a time. For efficiency, I'll be filling one bottle while moving a new empty into range of the wand, and setting a cap on the last one.

I think at first I just pushed in the bottom rack a bit and worked around the top rack until I'd used enough bottles to be able to push it in.

 

[MacGruber]

Does Iodophor have to dry before bottling? I've been bottling directly after emptying the solution.

 

[joydivision]

My friend gave me a bunch of dusty bottles. I also have collected about 30 of my own but about 5 of them I didn't rinse immediately after using.

My plan:

1. Rinse all the bottles at the sink to get dust and possible gunk out.
2. Let them soak a day in oxyclean.
3. Soak them in iodophore
4. Bottle

Is using a bottle brush a must? If so when do I do that?

Also how long should I wait to bottle after soaking in iodophore?

Thanks!

 

[Alucard1983]

Well what I do is a little different... Don't hang me for this. A lot of my brewing buddies said you can't get an infection where I live because the air is to dry to support the infections. I usually fill my bottles up with boiling hot water and then let them sit till I can handle them and dump the water out about 30 min this will allow my plastic bottles to clean there selfs.. The trick is to make sure that you rinse out the bottles and get the crud out befor putting them away. I now keg sink use oxy and a little starsan. Then most important time I've been told is when you are working with the wort befor you add the yeast. I've done numerous beer kit and wine and have never got an infection.

 

[ajlee]

Bleach and water solution soak works great for me. Just a little rinse after.

From what I've read you usually need to rinse bleach a lot... and any rinsing can reintroduce bacteria. You should really switch to a no rinse sanitizer like StarSan.

 

[amandabab]

Does Iodophor have to dry before bottling? I've been bottling directly after emptying the solution.

no, it doesn't need to dry.