bottle cap sanitize

ruprplxd · Jan 18, 2010

I was planning on bottling by 4th batch of beer tomorrow. (Honey Weiss) But I'm all out of sanitizer and don't want to drive an hour to get more. I have my bottles in the oven after a thorough rinse with my jet thingy. But I obviously can't put the bottle caps in there. I've been reading on here about sanitization methods and a lot of people do the dishwasher thing. Do you think I could just put the bottle caps in the silverware bucket and run the wash cycle (without soap) But then some of them might get stacked on top of each other in there. Or should I make a bleach solution? But then I'd have to rinse them and I'm concerned about missing a speck of bleach and ruining a bottle of beer. What's your opinion?

klyph · Jan 18, 2010

I never sanitize my caps.

Probably bad procedure, but I always store them in a sealed bag.

rcreveli · Jan 18, 2010

I thinkyou can boil them. stop by a hardwar store and get a caning magnet. it's a long plastic shaft with a magnet at one end perfect for pulling hot metal caps from hot water. It's used in canning for the same purpose.

Edcculus · Jan 18, 2010

Soak them in properly diluted bleach for 5 min. Rinse each cap before sticking it on.

pinkfloyd4ever · Jan 18, 2010

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to boil or bake bottle caps. I've read that no commercial brewers sanitize their bottle caps at all.

I remember seeing a post somewhere on here from the owner of Austin Homebrew Supply about this subject...[looking for it]...

mordantly · Jan 18, 2010

i always starsan mine. but boiling for 5 minutes would do it too.

Palefire · Jan 18, 2010

I used to boil water, then turn off the heat and throw caps in. Now I just toss them into the little bowl of starsan that I use to sanitize tubing, etc. (put some starsan and water into bottling bucket, drain out into bowl). Seems to work fine. And my hand is being put into the starsan literally before every bottle gets filled, which can't be a bad thing.