Dishwasher for bottles?

[chaddy68]

Is it good enough to use a dishwasher on a 70deg celcius setting to clean my bottles prior to bottling, or should I sterilise. The beer is going to be drunk within a couple of weeks, and these aren't dirty bottles, they are ones that I have used and already rinsed out?

 

[Diver165]

I use my dishwasher on pots and pans (longest and hottest) and turn on the heated dry cycle.

I wash my bottles in Oxyclean free, rinse then set them in crates coverd with a towel. When I'm ready to bottle I pull about 50 bottles out of the crates and run them through the dishwasher. They stay there until bottling time. I used to shoot some starsan in them but that was just overkill IMHO.

I've never had issues of any kind. I've beer bottled for over a year so far and its fine.

 

[chaddy68]

Thanks Diver165, I'll give it a go and then spend a couple of weeks doing quality control and taste testing. Tough work !!!! Lol

 

[jeffjm]

You can certainly sanitize your pre-cleaned bottles in the dishwasher, using the heat cycle. Diver's tip about leaving them there until ready is a good one - they'll need some time to cool off, and they won't pick up anything airborne if you keep the door closed.

Just don't use detergent when you sanitize - any residue is likely to do horrible things to head retention.

 

[Diver165]

YES, YES...I forgot about that. DO NOT use any dishwasher detergent!!! I should have been more clear! I appologize.

 

[Guidry]

And do NOT put bottles with labels on them in the dishwasher. You'll spend days trying to get the small paper remnants out of bottles!

 

[chaddy68]

Many thanks for all this help. Well the brew is on, a light IPA, with some afterboil new Zealand hops added for good measure. Looking forward to the brewing experience. I work for a large commercial brewer, but this is my first homebrew.