Cleaning/sanitizing Bottles

[howbrewyoudo]

I know that clean bottles are of an utmost importance in the carbing process. I am looking to you experienced brewers for tips on what techniques/products you have come to use to make this process consume as little time as possible while still accomplishing the desired goal. I am hoping learning from your experience will save me from having to develop my own technique through trial and error. Thank you brewers in advance for your advice.

 

[BradleyBrew]

I believe the biggest tip is to make sure you store your bottles clean with no organic materials, dry, and covered. Afterwards just submerse them in any brewing sanitizer for the allotted amount of time that sanitizer calls for, and proceed with bottling.

 

[ChessRockwell]

I soak all mine in PBW to get rid of anything that might be lurking inside. Especially since I'm lazy and some of 'em sit for days before even being rinsed. After their PBW bath they get a real good rinse, overnight upside down to dry 'em out, and into the 12 pack boxes I get from work. This I do every 2 months or so when the amount of dirty bottles starts to get out of hand. Then on bottling days just grab the required amount of 12 packs, dip in star-san and bottle away.

Nothing beats PBW if you ask me. Even an hour soak will take labels off new bottles too, and leave them without so much as a fingerprint.

 

[AdamPag]

I rinse every bottle immediately aftepouring and store them in the basement, on bottling day I fill one of my sinks with water and star san, submerge the bottles for a moment and shake them upside down like mad. They foam up inside and sit for 10 or so mins before I bottle

 

[cyclonite]

Three items I find make bottling very easy:
1) Jet rinser attached to faucet or hose. Makes it really easy to rinse bottles. After pouring a beer, just rinse it out well (5-10 seconds or so), and place it on the:
2) Bottle tree. Go for the 90 bottle one if you plan on brewing much. Then, when you are ready to bottle, mix up a little Star San and pour it into the:
3) Vinator, which sits on top of the bottle tree and allows you to shoot sanitizer into bottles to easily and quickly sanitize them. You can sanitize 50 bottles in about 5 minutes.

Also useful if you harvest commercial bottles are:
4) Friends, to give you bottles ;-)
5) EDIT NOTE: Using Oxiclean or PBW to soak bottles may not be a good idea - see comments about buildup/film in the posts below!!! An extra rectangular cooler, which you fill with water and some Oxiclean. Put the bottles in there for a few days to a week and the labels will fall right off. Then just rinse with fresh water with your (1) and put them on your (2)!

Then you:
6) Bottle up your brew with the bottles on the (2) and sanitized using the (3), let them carb up and give some to your (4) who then give you more bottles. And the circle continues!

Cheers!

 

[ScottSingleton]

+1 to a Jet Washer, Bottle Tree, and Vinator. I used to DESPISE bottling day for wine and beer, but with just a little investment the time I spend in the kitchen is now reduced dramatically.

 

[cyclonite]

+1 to a Jet Washer, Bottle Tree, and Vinator. I used to DESPISE bottling day for wine and beer, but with just a little investment the time I spend in the kitchen is now reduced dramatically.

Absolutely agreed. With the proper equipment, I can now bottle a 5 gallon batch in under an hour.

 

[Rbeckett]

Avinnator is the answer to bottle sanitizing. Clean them with an all brass bottle washer after soaking to remove labels and stone build up. Rinse well and invert onto avinnator, couple of pumps will coat insides with sanitizer, hang on bottle tree to air dry. Good sanitation practices are super important and I always always always rinse botttle before I put them back into the case for later reuse. I rinse and dry them, return them to the box they came in and accumulate enough for the next round. The vinnator will also sit atop a bottle drain tree so it uses less room on your counter. They are anywhere from 12.00 to 35.00 bucks so shop around for a good deal. Ebay has several listed now.
Bob

 

[WooHokie]

I rinse every bottle immediately aftepouring and store them in the basement, on bottling day I fill one of my sinks with water and star san, submerge the bottles for a moment and shake them upside down like mad. They foam up inside and sit for 10 or so mins before I bottle

this

 

[howbrewyoudo]

Thank you all, I knew I could learn ways from your experience to make this process as painless as possible.

 

[roxbob]

I have a different method, that has worked pretty well for me so far. I rinse out each bottle with hot water after use, and when I've accumulated a couple cases' or so worth, I wrap the top of each bottle with foil, pop them all in the oven, and bake for 1 hour at 340 degrees.

So long as the foil stays on, the bottles are sterilized, and good to go for bottling anytime, whether that day or six months later. I like this method because there's virtually no prep to be done on bottling day - just rack the beer to the bottling bucket, add priming sugar, remove foil from bottles, fill, and cap.

 

[tekkydave]

Roxbob, i like your technique, aside from the fact that i just got my avvinatore 1 week ago and dont want it to go to waste lol.

I soak my bottles in oxiclean for 30+ minutes, and then rinse the hell out of them. Then i box em up, and they wait till bottling day. I find it helps to clean all the bottles on one day, and bottle another. Breaking it up makes life a bit easier.

Bottling tree is an absolute must. my dishwasher is never empty.

 

[akervin]

5) An extra rectangular cooler, which you fill with water and some Oxiclean. Put the bottles in there for a few days to a week and the labels will fall right off. Then just rinse with fresh water with your (1) and put them on your (2)!

I would be very weary of leaving PBW/Oxyclean on bottles for more then 6-8 hours for one reason: eventually the PBW/Oxyclean will precipitate out of the water as it cools and/or becomes less effective do to the oxygenation of the water, and minerals in the water, and will settle on and in your bottles. This will require physically wiping the bottles off inside and out and can be a pain in the A**. If you don't get it all out of the inside it will ruin the head and carbonation of your beer.

From my experience, I did this once, and I will never leave bottles in a the solution mentioned above fore more then 6-8 hrs again. I still have bottles that I haven't been able to get the precipitate out of and can't use them.

If you want to confirm this feel free to try it yourself with one ore two bottles. Let them sit in the solution over night or longer and see for yourself the white film that will develop on them.

Cheers!

 

[ScottSingleton]

I never soak bottles in Oxyclean for more than an hour. Typically the Oxyclean breaks down by then as Akervin mentioned.

If I have any labels that are too tough to remove at that point I pull out a razor scraper and go to town.

 

[akervin]

If I have any labels that are too tough to remove at that point I pull out a razor scraper and go to town.

+1

I use a fork, the curve of the utensil works great on the curve of the bottle.

 

[hotpants]

Does anyone here wash the bottles on high heat with no soap in the dishwasher? I did this for my latest batch and it worked fine.

 

[ScottSingleton]

Does anyone here wash the bottles on high heat with no soap in the dishwasher? I did this for my latest batch and it worked fine.

Nah.. I just go right from the jet washer in the sink.. to two shots of star san on the vinator, to the bottle tree.

I bottle immediately.. care not about the little bit of wet star san or foam.

It's easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy and FAST.

 

[pohldogg]

Does anyone here wash the bottles on high heat with no soap in the dishwasher? I did this for my latest batch and it worked fine.

I did on my last batch after I accidently got a bretted oatmeal stout. I've now become a practicer of the two sets of equipment policy. I'll be using the dw as an extra sanitaion step until I've cycled through all my bottles. I don't think I'd do it as the only step though, the starsan and vinnator is super easy.

 

[ScottSingleton]

I did on my last batch after I accidently got a bretted oatmeal stout. I've now become a practicer of the two sets of equipment policy. I'll be using the dw as an extra sanitaion step until I've cycled through all my bottles. I don't think I'd do it as the only step though, the starsan and vinnator is super easy.

Stories like this are why I've never messed with sours... I would dread having to keep up two sets of gear and having to go through and sterlize all my existing stuff.

that must have been a pain!

 

[jbennett13]

My typical sani steps for bottling:

1. Rinse immediately after bottle has been poured in beer glass.
2. After I collect several cases of bottles, I then make a giant oxyclean batch in my 60 quart cooler. I proceed to soak overnight.
3. Rinse thoroughly, dry and place in cases for bottling night.
4. Before bottling commenses, I run the sani cylce on my dishwasher (no soap).
5. Run box fan over bottles to help speed up bottle cooling while they are still face down in dishwasher.
6. Bottle when ready.

I haven't had any infections with this method. Sample size = 5 batches

 

[Rdom]

I only have 6 batches of homebrewing experience but I usually sanitize my bottles in the dishwasher's heated dry cycle the day before I bottle (day before so time have rime to cool). I put them in cases and cover them with a big piece of plastic wrap. On bottling day, I fill them with easy clean in a tub, dump it out, and let them dry while getting everything else ready. Haven't had any problems yet.

 

[pohldogg]

Stories like this are why I've never messed with sours... I would dread having to keep up two sets of gear and having to go through and sterlize all my existing stuff.

that must have been a pain!

The stout came out awesome, just wasn't on purpose. Put the recipe in the rebrew pile and will intentionally Brett. And now that I have it two sets of plastics is no big deal, still just cleaning and sanitizing one at a time.

 

[cyclonite]

I would be very weary of leaving PBW/Oxyclean on bottles for more then 6-8 hours for one reason: eventually the PBW/Oxyclean will precipitate out of the water as it cools and/or becomes less effective do to the oxygenation of the water, and minerals in the water, and will settle on and in your bottles. This will require physically wiping the bottles off inside and out and can be a pain in the A**. If you don't get it all out of the inside it will ruin the head and carbonation of your beer.

From my experience, I did this once, and I will never leave bottles in a the solution mentioned above fore more then 6-8 hrs again. I still have bottles that I haven't been able to get the precipitate out of and can't use them.

If you want to confirm this feel free to try it yourself with one ore two bottles. Let them sit in the solution over night or longer and see for yourself the white film that will develop on them.

Cheers!

Interesting, I have never ran into this and I have left bottles in there up to two weeks. I just pulled some out after reading this thread again to check (they have been in there for 4 days) and I have no film - they are crystal clear. I wonder if it has something to do with my water mineral content - I use softened water to clean the bottles with (not for brewing ;-)).

However, I am leery now - is there something else to soak them in that you have found works? I originally tried just water, but didn't have any luck, and then read on here about the Oxiclean trick.

 

[Volvodriver]

For those of you that use the dishwasher, are you concerned at all about the Jetdry or whatever other "spot remover" you use? I thought I read somewhere that the chemicals in that could affect the beer taste.

 

[Rdom]

I don't put any detergent or soap in there when I am sanitizing and I clean the filter before running the dishwasher.

 

[duboman]

I use PBW in my dishwasher and NO rinse agents as they leave films and residue. I use the sanitizing cycle and no star San necessary, after 100's of bottles no issues

 

[geeyoupee]

I only have 6 batches of homebrewing experience but I usually sanitize my bottles in the dishwasher's heated dry cycle the day before I bottle (day before so time have rime to cool). I put them in cases and cover them with a big piece of plastic wrap. On bottling day, I fill them with easy clean in a tub, dump it out, and let them dry while getting everything else ready. Haven't had any problems yet.

Is the heated drying cycle hot enough to sanitize the bottles? This would eliminate the use of star san and a vinator. I didn't want to fork out 20 for the vinator.

 

[akervin]

Interesting, I have never ran into this and I have left bottles in there up to two weeks. I just pulled some out after reading this thread again to check (they have been in there for 4 days) and I have no film - they are crystal clear. I wonder if it has something to do with my water mineral content - I use softened water to clean the bottles with (not for brewing ;-)).

However, I am leery now - is there something else to soak them in that you have found works? I originally tried just water, but didn't have any luck, and then read on here about the Oxiclean trick.

I actually reduced the strength of the oxyclean in the solution used and found that it was less likely to precipitate. It might be my water as well. It's pretty hard and imagine that may be a big part of it.

 

[cyclonite]

I actually reduced the strength of the oxyclean in the solution used and found that it was less likely to precipitate. It might be my water as well. It's pretty hard and imagine that may be a big part of it.

I think I'll try an experiment and use my well water directly (which is very hard) with some Oxiclean to see if it precipitates in the bottles. I'll post back with my results.

 

[Stauffbier]

I would be very weary of leaving PBW/Oxyclean on bottles for more then 6-8 hours for one reason: eventually the PBW/Oxyclean will precipitate out of the water as it cools and/or becomes less effective do to the oxygenation of the water, and minerals in the water, and will settle on and in your bottles. This will require physically wiping the bottles off inside and out and can be a pain in the A**. If you don't get it all out of the inside it will ruin the head and carbonation of your beer.

From my experience, I did this once, and I will never leave bottles in a the solution mentioned above fore more then 6-8 hrs again. I still have bottles that I haven't been able to get the precipitate out of and can't use them.

If you want to confirm this feel free to try it yourself with one ore two bottles. Let them sit in the solution over night or longer and see for yourself the white film that will develop on them.

Cheers!

I always soak all of my bottles in a pretty heavy solution of oxiclean for de-labeling. I usually leave them soaking for about 5 days. I've gone as long as two weeks before, when I didn't have time to get to them. I then do a 1 hour soak in very mild PBW solution on or the day before bottle day and then rinse twice with my bottle washer and very hot water. I've never had any signs of precipitation. My bottles are cleaner than the glasses I drink out of! I did have problems with precipitation when I first started brewing, as I used ammonia for de-labeling the first time. I couldn't get that off without a bottle brush. My water is pretty hard for what it's worth...

 

[coolharry]

I know I've read on here somewhere that a soak in starsan will remove the white residue left by oxygen cleaners and hard water. I have hard water at the apartment and I've left bottles in sun oxygen cleaner for days and never had an issue.
I clean bottles in a 4 gallon frosting bucket I got from the bakery. Fill up with hot water and bottles, spread one scooper full of sun cleaner around making sure to get some in the bottles and cover loosely to keep the heat in. Labels float off as quick as 5 min sometimes. After a few hours the bottles get a thorough rinse in hot water, dried and then stored. On bottling day it's just a few quick pumps on the vinator and fill her up.