Cleaning Bottles

[OnDaReglah]

What is the easiest way to clean all of these bottles that I have laying around? I saw something at the local HBS called a FastRack, does anybody have any experience with these? Is it ok to just put them all in the dishwasher and call it a day?

 

[HumulusHead]

Soak over night in pbw

From there I would scrub each one with a bottle brush. Shouldn't take more than pushing it in and pulling out after soaking all night.

Soak in star San

Drain

Bottle!


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[bnairuni87]

I am not sure if its the easiest but here is what I have done and continue to do with my bottles.

1. Get a big storage tub from HD or Lowe's (I have several unused in the house) and I put two or three scoops of unscented oxyclean (oxyfree) in the bottom of the tub and fill with bottles and then add water. Let them sit for 12 -24 hours and the labels fall off and any "junk" in the bottles are cleaned out.

2. Fill another tub with Star-San or Iodine based sterilizer and then I sterilize my bottles.

Hope this helps.

 

[HumulusHead]

Far as I know the fast rack is for drying the bottles? But I may be mistaken.

I made a bottle dryer out of a piece of plywood and drilled holes in it with a hole saw and attached little legs to the ply wood. Insert bottles into plywood and it dries like a charm


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[HumulusHead]

Oh and dishwasher doesn't work too terribly well for cleaning. But the dry cycle works good for sanitization if the bottles are junk free


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[pricelessbrewing]

I do similar to bnair above. Tub for pbw/oxy. Soak to clean/delabel. Run through dishwasher to rinse/sanitize. Then bottle.

 

[atoughram]

I am not sure if its the easiest but here is what I have done and continue to do with my bottles.

1. Get a big storage tub from HD or Lowe's (I have several unused in the house) and I put two or three scoops of unscented oxyclean (oxyfree) in the bottom of the tub and fill with bottles and then add water. Let them sit for 12 -24 hours and the labels fall off and any "junk" in the bottles are cleaned out.

2. Fill another tub with Star-San or Iodine based sterilizer and then I sterilize my bottles.

Hope this helps.

I do this similarly, but I just have about a gallon of star-san in the bottom of a bucket. I dip the bottle in the bucket, get it about 1/4 full of star san, give it a shake, pour it out, the fill them up with brew! Dont let the bottles sit in the Oxyclean for more than a few hours otherwise some sort of scale will precipitate and adhere to the bottles.

If you have labels on your bottles, a overnight soak in ammonia solution will take them right off.

 

[flars]

What is the easiest way to clean all of these bottles that I have laying around? I saw something at the local HBS called a FastRack, does anybody have any experience with these? Is it ok to just put them all in the dishwasher and call it a day?

Dishwashers work great for plates, bowls, and wide mouth jars. They weren't designed to reliably clean the inside of a beer bottle. Soap residue and spot remover left in the dishwasher will also be in and on your bottles.

Soaks in Oxyclean and PBW will loosen labels and dried gunk inside the bottles. These two will take some brush work to makes sure no spots of gunk remain. With Oxyclean be sure to rinse and rinse and rinse. The head killing film Oxyclean leaves takes some work to remove. PBW rinses much easier. Tip the bottles upside down to drain completely and dry. Dishwasher rack works well for this.

A brush on an electric drill speeds the cleaning process.

Starsan is a great sanitizer. It is a wet sanitizer so it works best to fill your bottles while they are still wet.

Best beer drinking practice is to triple rinse your bottles as soon as they are poured. Racked to drain and dry. Bottling day they will be ready for sanitizing.

 

[atoughram]

I've also got one of these things

http://morebeer.com/products/stainless-bottle-washer.html?gclid=CKaHicTi170CFQWTfgodAZcAhw

Jet's anything loose inside out.