cleaning bottles with oxyclean

[twd000]

Those of you who use Oxyclean to de-label and clean bottles: what mixture ratio do you use? I used Oxyclean Free last time, and although it did a good job cleaning, it left plenty of white film residue, so I assume I used way too much.

 

[rustbucket]

last time i did it i gave about 1/2 scoop for a full sink full, i made sure to rinse out the oxi, by swishing new water in there 3-4 times each bottle.

 

[itsbeeryo]

dunk em in Sanitizer after the oxy bath, it removes the film.

 

[LarryC]

You can't let them sit for days or the soap film on the surface of the water will harden on floating bottles and it is almost impossible to get off. I try to get all my bottle to sink and only leave them soak overnight.

 

[count_dookie]

last time i did it i gave about 1/2 scoop for a full sink full, i made sure to rinse out the oxi, by swishing new water in there 3-4 times each bottle.

+1

about half a cup of oxi free in a full sink of warm to omg how is tap water that hot water will de label almost anything. Then they are rinsed and put into boxes until they are needed.

 

[jeffd10]

1/2 scoop in the sink ...multiple rinsings..

 

[osagedr]

How much I use depends on how dirty the bottles are and/or how tough the labels (varies by beer brand) are to get off.

Film? Who cares? You're rinsing them anyway (I hope).

 

[stanley1271]

I fill up my 6.5 gallon bucket and put in 1/2 scoop and leave them over night. The next day I take them out and rinse them in hot water as occasionally they get the film on them and they sometimes have a bit of glue residue that come off with just a wipe.

-Stanley

 

[brewmcq]

Right now I have a 30 gallon Rubbermaid trash can full of (pre-rinsed) bottles and just plain water. In the course of the next week or so, I'll start removing bottles, peeling labels (most of the labels are falling off at this point), and giving them all a quick bath in oxyclean.. a quick rinse, then storing them upside down in milk crates on my brew shelf.

On bottling night, they all get rinsed again, sanitized, and hung on my bottling tree to drip while I get everything else ready.

This works well for me.

 

[twd000]

thanks - I will try a 1/2 scoop in my outdoor sink full of hot water

I care about the film because it stays on even after rinsing - I think the problem was that I let them dry in between. I will make sure to rinse them immediately after removing from the Oxyclean.

 

[BeerWars]

I use about 1/2 a scoop and a little scrub brush to get any left over glue. Rinse them out.

Then I toss them in the dishwasher with 2 cups of vinegar and they come out sparkling.

 

[Randar]

cleaned 5 dozen bottles last night... hot water and oxyclean for a few hours, and then a thorough rinsing inside and out with hot water. I always give them a squirt of star san solution before bottling, but I still try to get all visible film off when rinsing.

 

[Acoma]

I do a scoop and a half to a 5 gal bucket. Really dont even have to wait 24 hours. They come off pretty easily and then I use a green scrubby to get the glue residue off. Rinse them out really well and hang em upside down. Then on bottling day I do a rinse bucket then a sanitation bucket. Slap them on the bottle tree and they are good to go.

 

[Malintent]

Right now I have a 30 gallon Rubbermaid trash can full of (pre-rinsed) bottles and just plain water. In the course of the next week or so, I'll start removing bottles, peeling labels (most of the labels are falling off at this point), and giving them all a quick bath in oxyclean.. a quick rinse, then storing them upside down in milk crates on my brew shelf.

On bottling night, they all get rinsed again, sanitized, and hung on my bottling tree to drip while I get everything else ready.

This works well for me.

the quick bath in oxiclean would remove the labels just fine. You're wasting your energy with the plain water. I find a bath in oxiclean has ALL the labels floating on top of the water after about 30 minutes.

EDIT to add: oh.. and use hot water.

 

[Pappers_]

After the soak in the oxyclean bath, to remove any of the white film or scale, I soak the bottles in a mild solution of vinegar and water. Anything a little acidic should do the trick. I soak them in the vinegar solution for maybe 10 -15 minutes and then rinse well afterwards.

 

[rico567]

If I use Oxy-Clean with our well water, it will leave the white film. I understand this to be due to the extreme hardness of our water. I use PBW with no problems, as it has ingredients to handle the water minerals.

 

[edgeofblade]

After a soak in Oxyclean, I'm going to run the bottles through the dishwasher anyway, so I'm not all that concerned with dried Oxy. I let'em soak until I have time to deal with them.

 

[threeeight]

I do a sink full of hot water with some pbw, 20 min soak for bottles without labels, 30-40 min soak for bottles with labels, scrub them with a bottle brush, a few rinses with clean water, let them dry on a bottle rack, then just sanitize them on bottling night.

The 30 minute soak seems to remove all but the toughest labels.

 

[DeafSmith]

PBW doesn't leave a film like OxiClean (at least with my water). Somewhere on HBT is a thread about making your own PBW, using, IIRC, 70% OxiClean and 30% TSP/90 (not the regular TSP) from Ace Hardware. I haven't tried it so can't say if it works.

 

[JohnTheBrewist]

PBW doesn't leave a film like OxiClean (at least with my water). Somewhere on HBT is a thread about making your own PBW, using, IIRC, 70% OxiClean and 30% TSP/90 (not the regular TSP) from Ace Hardware. I haven't tried it so can't say if it works.

I use this mix @60/40, about 1.5 scoops per 5 gals of hot water. Soak for 30 mins or so and most labels slip right off, even that stupid foil stuff comes off pretty well. I just rinse with water, and have had no residue.

 

[msa8967]

You can't let them sit for days or the soap film on the surface of the water will harden on floating bottles and it is almost impossible to get off. I try to get all my bottle to sink and only leave them soak overnight.

Wish I would have read this sooner. I had about 3 cases of bottles needing to have their labels removed and I decided to soak them in oxyclean in a plastic washtub on our back porch. I got sidetarcked that day taking care of the baby and did not get back to finishing the bottles for two weeks. I did hook up my bottle jet washer to triple rinse the bottles but that may have not been enough. (I was using the older faucet with cold water)

Now I am not very confident in how ready these bottles are to use. Any suggestions as to what can be done at this point to insure the bottles will be OK to use? I always soak them in Starsan prior to using them and try to bottle wet.

 

[Pappers_]

Wish I would have read this sooner. I had about 3 cases of bottles needing to have their labels removed and I decided to soak them in oxyclean in a plastic washtub on our back porch. I got sidetarcked that day taking care of the baby and did not get back to finishing the bottles for two weeks. I did hook up my bottle jet washer to triple rinse the bottles but that may have not been enough. (I was using the older faucet with cold water)

Now I am not very confident in how ready these bottles are to use. Any suggestions as to what can be done at this point to insure the bottles will be OK to use? I always soak them in Starsan prior to using them and try to bottle wet.

MSA, I routinely let my bottles soak in oxyclean for days with no bad results. Rinse them well (which it sounds like you did) and if you are worried about scale or film, briefly soak them in vinegar and water as described in my earlier post. Easy as pie

 

[emjay]

Not sure what LarryC is talking about. I have had no such problems with OxiClean, even leaving bottles for up to a weak, and I don't have the slightest idea why he seems to have a problem with floating bottles - seriously, if you find that you're having trouble ensuring that bottles sink, you're doing it wrong.

But it sounds like the residue possibly an issue with the cleaner not being fully dissolved (even if you think it is!) This can be a result of using too much, or mixing it with cold to lukewarm water, or even if your solution partially evaporates. OxiClean works best with hot water, and dissolves easier, so mixing with hot water is highly recommended. Also, the amount called for by the directions is overkill in most applications, homebrewing and otherwise. For the purposes of cleaning bottles and other equipment, you really only need less than a quarter what's called for, and in addition to dissolving and staying in solution much more easily, it saves a fair bit of cash as well. Lastly, use a lid on the vessel you use for soaking the bottles in OxiClean, especially (but by no means ONLY) if you live in a very hot and/or dry area, since evaporation can leave crud on your bottles and equipment.

Really, the only weird (though I would argue good( thing I've noticed by leaving bottles in OxiClean for a long time (and even overnight, but not as severely) is that the "label" on bottles which are directly printed on instead of having a glued-on paper or foil label (e.g. Corona) get ruined, and can continue to be messily rubbed out a fair bit after pulling it out (sexual innuendo not intended). After cleaning several of times, these labels probably disappear entirely.

You may wonder why I choose to use Corona bottles, and it is this: I bottle a single beer - the very last bottle - in a clear bottle for every batch. The reason I do this is to monitor clarity, and I fill it last because the last bottle, filled with only the bit of beer left at the bottom of the fermentor, will suck up the more trub and yeast than any other bottle, 99% of the time. Which means I can really rely on it to tell me when all my other beers clear up, since the one in the transparent bottle will, if anything, be the very last to fall clear.

 

[Rich711]

thanks - I will try a 1/2 scoop in my outdoor sink full of hot water

I care about the film because it stays on even after rinsing - I think the problem was that I let them dry in between. I will make sure to rinse them immediately after removing from the Oxyclean.

I usually rinse by bottles as I use them and then just do a Star-San soak. Now I have gotten lazy and I have bottles with yeast residue and sometimes some mold. So I am going to soak the bottles to get out the residue. All of these bottles have already been de-labeled.

So it looks like I should use Oxy-clean to remove the residue. Should I use 1/2 scoop per 5 Gallons or less because I don't need to remove the labels. I would be rinsing them with a Jet Carboy cleaner. I will be cleaning the bottles ahead of time and then give them a Star-San dip on bottle day.

2nd Question. Should I rinse the bottles after the Star-San dip?

Thanks

 

[bendog15]

1 scoop oxyclean per 50 bottles. Let soak overnight. Labels usually fall off or scrub with a sponge. Rinse well and hang to dry. I also use a spray bottle filled with star San to sanitize. Couple squirts per bottle and hang to dry.
Been using this method for 3 years. Zero infections, zero problems.

 

[sketchykg]

1 scoop oxyclean per 50 bottles. Let soak overnight. Labels usually fall off or scrub with a sponge. Rinse well and hang to dry. I also use a spray bottle filled with star San to sanitize. Couple squirts per bottle and hang to dry.
Been using this method for 3 years. Zero infections, zero problems.

I've done a similar method - including some used bottles I've acquired that were disgusting. Works well and no infection problems.

 

[seatazzz]

I got me one o' them fancy new-fangled bottle-washing thingamajigs that works like a bidet. I rinse my bottles in hot water when they're empty to get rid of the yeasties/crud, then use the bottle-bidet to flush with sanitizer and put them on the tree. Less mess and use less water. I gave up on de-labelling a while ago, it's kinda like the beer lottery when I pull one of them from the box. I make a game of trying to remember when I had the original beer.

 

[Rich711]

Regarding the rinse: it seems you never know when the rinse is good enough when the cleaning agent leaves the bottle slippery. Think a few seconds of power spray from the carboy jet should do the trick for the rinse?

 

[Rich711]

To rinse or not to rinse.

Ok ... Just before I bottle, I give my clean bottles a 20 minute StarSan soak.

I have been giving the bottles a quick Jet rinse after the Star San soak.

Many say there is no reason to rinse after the StarSan soak.

Should I give the bottles a final rinse or not?

Thanks

 

[Erik_Mog]

If you rinse after the starsan, you wash it away and your bottles pick up any bugs that may be in your water. Starsan only works when wet and in contact with the surface. Font rinse it away. Don't fear the foam.