Bottling

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daveooph131

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I've read a lot about sanitation and cleanliness. My question is, when bottling how do you avoid infection?

I haven't started brewing yet and am just curious about that process. Is the beer relatively stable at this stage? Thanks.
 
Iodophor soak followed by upside down on bottling rack, and add brew then cap. No problems.
 
Basically the same thing joker said. However, I use star san. Soak the bottles spray down the tree and spray or soak down the caps, bottle cap, wait.. wait some more, wait some more, wait... why cant it be done already??? drink!!!
 
I typically use my dish washer for my bottles (mine has a good sanitation cycle.) I use a good sanitizer on the bottling bucket and racking equipment, sanitize the caps (usually by boiling) and boil the priming mixture. I fill every bottle then place caps on them, crimp the cap on them them and box 'em up.
 
I use BTF iodophor cleaner then rinse the bottles in boiled water just before bottling. BTF says just to let them dry, but I don't want to risk any iodine flavor in my beer.
 
Perhaps I'm just a time-bomb waiting to happen, and many people will probably thumb their noses at this, but I don't sanitize my bottles at all.

When I'm finished drinking a bottle, I rinse it with the hottest water my tap spits out. When it comes time to bottle, I rinse my bottles in the hot water from my tap once again and then bottle. No cleaning, no sanitizing.

Knock on wood, I've done this for 12 batches so far and no infection, no off-flavours, just good beer.
 
it's easier for water to get into jars - the mouth of a beer bottle is too thin to allow much circulation

easiest to use a no rinse sanitizer like star san (great stuff)
 
Perhaps I'm just a time-bomb waiting to happen, and many people will probably thumb their noses at this, but I don't sanitize my bottles at all.

When I'm finished drinking a bottle, I rinse it with the hottest water my tap spits out. When it comes time to bottle, I rinse my bottles in the hot water from my tap once again and then bottle. No cleaning, no sanitizing.

Knock on wood, I've done this for 12 batches so far and no infection, no off-flavours, just good beer.

If that's been working for you so far, then kudos. Still, I wouldn't be giving this advice to new brewers. This is some borderline Craigtube stuff, to be honest.

To the OP: I've found it's easiest to just drop the 10-15 bucks for a vinator. It's a handy little pump that sprays sanitizer all throughout the bottle, coating the entire interior. I spray my dishwasher (don't own a bottling tree) with Star San, then give the bottles a few pumps in the vinator, and stick them in the dishwasher to air dry. If you're using a no rinse sanitizer like Iodophor, Star San, or IO-Star, you'll get a bit of harmless residue inside the bottles. Don't be afraid of that stuff, it won't affect the beer in any way.

And once you've sanitized them, please don't rinse them out. Seriously, please don't.
 
Some people bake the bottles in the oven to sanitize them, whether due to lack of space for a bottling tree, paranoia about sanitization :), or just because they want to get the bottle sanitization out of the way before bottling day (you can do the baking a couple of days in advance). I've used this technique a couple of times with excellent results. The reason I used it is because I'm a noob and was a little intimidated by bottling for the first time and wanted to do as much as possible in advance. Here's how I did it:
* Wash, rinse and allow the bottle to dry overnight.
* Wrap 3 inch by 3 inch squares of aluminum foil tightly over the bottle mouths.
* Place bottles lying down in cold oven (I can do about 60 bottles at a time in my double oven, using the top or #1 rack position and the #3 position, but not the #4 position closest to the heating element).
* Bring the temperature up slowly to 350 degrees F - I was worried about direct radiant heat from a red-hot heating element cracking the bottles, so I actually sat in front of the ovens for 25 minutes, turning them on for 30 seconds, then off for 30 seconds - maybe overkill, but I did two batches of 60 bottles that way and had no cracked or broken bottles.
* Once the oven reaches 350 degrees, leave it for three hours
* Turn off the oven and allow the bottles to cool overnight
* Remove the bottles and put them in a box
* On bottling day, once you've got your bottling bucket filled and primed and bottling wand attached, just grab a bottle from the box, remove the foil, fill it and place a sanitized bottle cap loosely on it. When they are all filled, cap them tightly.
 
I've heard pro and con about boiling the bottle caps - some say you shouldn't do it because it can ruin the plastic seal. I just put the caps I'll need plus a few spares in a bowl with some StarSan solution to cover. So far (two batches bottled), no problems.
 
I do the oven method but instead of leaving them in for 3 hours I just do 1 hour. I did rinse with star san when I first started but find it easier to fill the oven and forget about them. Plus I dont make as much of a mess with the oven.
 
Howdy,

My first ever batch has been in the carboy for 12 days and I'm planning to bottle tomorrow :ban: .

I've got ~50 resealable bottles; some are Grolsch bottles I've been collecting forever the rest are a mix of Grolsch and some unknown to me but very similar to Grolsch but brown glass bottles I've purchased used from a local want ad.

So far I've hand washed them all with dish detergent, scrapped as much scuzz out as possible with a chop stick, scraped off all the labels, soaked them all in a light bleach mixture for ~ 20 minutes, rinsed/dried, then yesterday I dipped them in a proper mixture of pink sanitizer (purchased from local home brew shop) and water mixture, then rinsed with cold tap water (by filling each bottle once and dumping) and set them on the kitchen counter right side up over night to dry.

Am I okay to bottle? Should I do any more bottle sanitizing steps?

Thanks!
 
To sanitize everything i use Iodophor. You have to sanitize your bottling bucket, so what I do is bring out my cases of bottles and put them in the bottling bucket. I can generally get 16-18 bottles in at a time, just let them soak for 15 min or so, then pull them out and set them upside down in the boxes.
 
I soak bottle in Straight-A (kind of like Oxy Clean) then I dip them in a bucket of Star San shake them up and let them sit out for a day..

then I boil about 3-4 gallons of water to sanitze the water.. let it cool off.. then I take the bottles dip them in the water and shake them out.

Kind of a pain, but its worth it.
 
yesterday I dipped them in a proper mixture of pink sanitizer (purchased from local home brew shop) and water mixture, then rinsed with cold tap water

The cold tap water likely negated some of the efforts you put forth sanitizing them. If you have a dishwasher, I'd give them a run through it before bottling.
 
Right after I pour a beer, I rinse with very hot tap water, then I rinse with the Vinator Bottle Rinser with Star San, and then put on the tree to drain. I store in the 6 pack holders holders basically upside down or in boxes with the lids closed and then hit it one more time with the Vinator Bottle Rinser with Star San before bottling.
 
Bottling is the devil. Lots of good advice, but I rinse my bottles out after use so there's nothing solid in there. When it's time to bottle I throw 50 in the dishwasher. Right before I bottle I take them out and use the following device to get StarSan inside and use the bottle tree.

I take the bottom thing off and put in the sink. Double pump each bottle, drain and put directly on the tree. It gets done quickly and is ready to fill with warm, flat beer.

yhst-17254560480715_2047_2673359


EDIT: Oops, just what KerryD said.
 
To the OP,

To answer your question, I don't actually boil the bottles, but I rinse them in water that I've boiled (I start it at the beginning of my bottling day, let it boil and then let it cool down a bit). They've already spent time in BTF, so they're sanitized. I just rinse them out in the boiled water and try to get as much of the water out before bottling. I don't wait for them to dry, but the hottish water I rinse them in evaporates pretty quickly.
 
Dave, you'll find a lot of good info/tips on bottling in my thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

Also if using Starsan or Iodophor, if you allow your sanitizer to dry you reduce it's efficacy. when it's wet anything that touches it will die...if it's dry, anything that touches it will pretty much desanitize it.

If you want more info aboutsanitizers and sanitizing in general, I put a lot of info, tips, and podcast links here..
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/sanitizer-question-54932/
 
Perhaps I'm just a time-bomb waiting to happen, and many people will probably thumb their noses at this, but I don't sanitize my bottles at all.

When I'm finished drinking a bottle, I rinse it with the hottest water my tap spits out. When it comes time to bottle, I rinse my bottles in the hot water from my tap once again and then bottle. No cleaning, no sanitizing.

Knock on wood, I've done this for 12 batches so far and no infection, no off-flavours, just good beer.

Well, if you do have a problem one day, at least it would be contained at the end of the process in a particular bottle (or several), rather than at the beginning of the process which would in theory contaminate the entire batch! :)
 
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