bottle sanitization: is it REALLY necessary?

[mtnagel]

But then you're rinsing with tap water right? Presumably your tap water is bug free (I used to top up my extract batches with tap water), but there is a slight chance that might bring an infection.

That's why the no rinse sanitizers are better than bleach.

 

[skydvr74]

Hopefully, you aren't tasting the stuff that comes out of your lab. It's great for sterilizing, but not so great on the flavor side. While it can be used successfully in the homebrewing arena, I have had beers given to me where the band-aid flavor was very strong. In each case the brewer had used chlorine to disinfect.

 

[Moriarty]

I'm relatively new to homebrewing and the only off taste that I ever had a problem with were chlorophenols (band-aid taste) in the beer.

It was a major problem for me and it took me a while to isolate the problem: rinse aid in the dishwasher. At first I thought it was the chlorine and chloramine in the water supply, then PET bottles, but I was wrong. Now I just clean the with OXI, rinse, leave to dry and then sanitize with Starsan on bottling day. It has been plain sailing ever since (fingers crossed).

 

[jrc64]

Switching to kegs this weekend, but I only gave them a good hot rinse when I finished a beer. Once I had a bunch, put them in the dishwasher on the sanirize setting, took them out, put foil on tops of eac and stored. They were ready for filling whenever needed without any addition cleaning, etc.

 

[MaxStout]

I'm relatively new to homebrewing and the only off taste that I ever had a problem with were chlorophenols (band-aid taste) in the beer.

It was a major problem for me and it took me a while to isolate the problem: rinse aid in the dishwasher. At first I thought it was the chlorine and chloramine in the water supply, then PET bottles, but I was wrong. Now I just clean the with OXI, rinse, leave to dry and then sanitize with Starsan on bottling day. It has been plain sailing ever since (fingers crossed).

I used to sanitize bottles in the dishwasher. Worked great. Then we got a new dishwasher (Bosch) that used liquid rinse aid, a function that cannot be turned off on this model. But I switched to using a vinator at about that time, so the dishwasher thing is moot anyway.

 

[jbaysurfer]

Give me a break. Starsan and it's bubbles and acid? Oh the humanity!!!!

To OP, what you're doing is applying anecdotal data to an empirical question. Can you get by with what you're doing? Sure. Is it worth the risk of a gusher when your beer makes a best of show round at a big competition, or even when that friend in the industry that you really want to impress opens it? That's for you to decide.

I rinse bottles thoroughly (immediately after drinking the contents) in very hot water then drip dry. I dunk them in a bucket of starsan before I bottle...how hard is that? Not. At. All.

 

[Cathedral]

I think if my sanitizing process was baking bottles for twelve hours, I'd be eager to get away from it, too.

You don't need to stop sanitizing, you just need to stop doing it the way you were. It isn't the function that's broken, it's the process.