Bottle Prep

[Netflyer]

I dunno there are bacteria that live in the deepest of ocean vents where it is over 212F ... Life finds a way. But I never had an infection from the dishwasher in, ahem, thousands of bottles. I just stopped using the dishwasher cause I use mostly 1L bottles and can't fit enough in there so I just wash them all by hand now. Another fact, heh, is that the hot water out of your faucet is much more likely to give you an infection than the cold faucet. Nasties like it warm... For this reason I never fill up with hot or even warm tap water, just cold... Cold baby cold...

 

[withak]

You don't have to kill everything, that's why it is called sanitizing instead of sterilizing. Probably a dishwasher on its highest temp will do as good of a job of killing microorganisms as a coating in Starsan even if the inside of the dishwasher isn't perfectly clean of debris. Starsan can't penetrate tiny scratches on surfaces and tiny pores in dried-on gunk, but high temperatures probably can.

Another reason to not use hot tap water for brewing (or cooking) is that the mineral content is usually a lot higher than the cold water, enough that you can taste the difference. Look at the inside of a hot water heater sometime.

 

[DavidSteel]

Honestly, I've felt this way for a long time, even before I got into home brewing. If you've ever actually stuck your head inside a dishwasher a few days after a wash, you will smell organic matter. There are just too many nooks and crannies where food particle can find their way into, rather than just the drain. And some of the rubber/plastic coating the tines and all the racking can become cut or busted over time, again leaving little places where biomatter will hide.

If you read the literature on IIRC starsan they even say the you have to be clean before you can sanitize, if there's a deep scratch in for example your bucket and there's biomatter present in the scratch it even says that starsan will not sanitize that....

I know a lot of folks think it's a good idea to sanitize in the dish washer, but I've always thought they were just big breeding grounds for nasties- just too complex inside. Too many places that can't be totally cleaned out...Not matter if the antibacterial cycle is being used, I bet the top and bottom four corners of the interior don't totally get hit with enough water to actually kill all.

That's my take on it. I've never recommended it, but if folks feel comfortable risking it, that's their perogative, but I'm sticking with a no=rinse sanitizer.

Just wanted to pop in to say that I use the dishwasher on sanitize/heat cycle and no infections in the bottles so far. Though, I do run it once with nothing in it, then immediately run it with my bottles for an hour and a half. Pretty easy for me lol

 

[kyle3309]

I bake my bottles to sterlize them. The night before I bottle, I cover the top of each bottle with a small piece of aluminum foil then place into the oven. I bake them for about an hour at 330. Once the hour is up, turn off the oven and let them cool overnight in the oven with the door closed. With the foil tightly over the lids, the bottles can be stored for long periods of time before bottling.

 

[Netflyer]

I bake my bottles to sterlize them. .

I'm sorry I had to laugh at that first line and say (like an SNL sketch) well I dip mine in old faithful to sterlize them...

Seriously baking them sounds over done but genius nonetheless! I wonder how many liter bottles I could fit in my oven? Can all bottles tolerate 330F w/out cracking even? Probably, eh? I think if you bake them and really want to kill everything you need to autoclave them...

 

[AirBronto]

Just used Oxy Clean as suggested on 80 bottles. There is no reason for any one to ever use anything alse, it is the best. Hot water and and cup of oxy will destroy what ever layed on and in the bottle. And it smells great and washes out far better than bleach. Thanks agian every one.

 

[remilard]

I'm sorry I had to laugh at that first line and say (like an SNL sketch) well I dip mine in old faithful to sterlize them...

Seriously baking them sounds over done but genius nonetheless! I wonder how many liter bottles I could fit in my oven? Can all bottles tolerate 330F w/out cracking even? Probably, eh? I think if you bake them and really want to kill everything you need to autoclave them...

You can truly sterilize them in the oven, see How to Brew for guidelines.

There is one (know) bacteria that autoclaving won't kill. Not a problem for beer though.

 

[Mikethepoolguy]

I prefer to concentrate on drinking and brewing, not cleaning. I couldnt care less what the label says or how much of it is left. The beer gets poured into a glass anyway. If I want to give away some beer as gifts I will buy new bottles and make labels, until then I think I have my priorities in the right order.

When I drink a bottle of beer I pull it out of the fridge, open it, pour it, rinse it, and put it in a box. I see it for about 60 seconds. I think I can remember if I bought a sixer of Longhammer or not, if I'm wrong, I get a surprise but its still beer.