Dishwasher sanitize

[Brewjitsu]

So i brewed my first batch of beer this month and i thought it was a genius idea to use my dishwasher to sanitize my bottles. My dishwasher is a stainless steel bosch with a sanitize button. I threw in 3 Tbls of powdered santize and the bottles came out clean. I followed up with the bottling process. The beer taste fantastic. My questions are can this concept fail? Does anyone else do this?

 

[SillyBeer]

I've used the dishwasher before with no problem, but nothing else. The heat from the drying and sanitizing seems to be enough.

 

[hikemor]

I use the sanitize cycle on my dishwasher also. Says "antibacterial", actually. No detergent/sanitizer in the dishwasher. Inspect and clean the bottles beforehand.

 

[Rockn_M]

I'll do that to help clean them but I will drop them in some Starsan. No sense in ruining a batch.

 

[Brewjitsu]

Thanks!

 

[SillyBeer]

Another thought...I also put my bottling spoon, lid, and any thing else DW safe in if there is room. As long as it is clean before going into the washer.

 

[TheHappyHopper]

Another thought...I also put my bottling spoon, lid, and any thing else DW safe in if there is room. As long as it is clean before going into the washer.

You should be good - I have used my new-ish Frigidaire DW that has a sanitize cycle on it to sanitize my bottles for the past 1.5 years and haven't had an infection. As long as they are clean before going in, you should be good. You really don't need to add any additional sanitizer to the DW, the heat takes care of that.

 

[Andyoesq]

I'm glad this came up - my plan was to start putting them in dishwasher, and then a quick soak in Starsan. Do you think I can do that a couple of days in advance of bottling? or should I do it all the same day?

 

[firerat]

I'm glad this came up - my plan was to start putting them in dishwasher, and then a quick soak in Starsan. Do you think I can do that a couple of days in advance of bottling? or should I do it all the same day?

Well how do you intend to store the bottles once you sanitized them?

If you store them in some sort of sanitized sealed container, then a few days ahead should be fine.

Otherwise, they won't be sanitary a few days later.

Does that make sense?

 

[Brewjitsu]

Awesome thanks sillybeer thats a good idea. Thehappyhopper thats the answer i was lookin for!

 

[passedpawn]

Dishwashers that can be used for bottling should have a NSW sticker on them or in the manual. This indicates that they have a mode that reaches the time and temperature to properly sanitize stuff (it's meant for baby bottles, but works for big people bottles too).

Here's what the label looks like on mine. Also, I put a temp sensor in my DW and logged the temps. You can see it hit and maintained about 150 for a while. That's all it takes. The third picture shows the pastuerization curves (time vs temp) for beer-spoiling bacteria.

 

[Brewjitsu]

Thanks passedpawn! I did some research and my dw is nsf certified. Good work on the data too!

 

[passedpawn]

Thanks passedpawn! I did some research and my dw is nsf certified. Good work on the data too!

Thanks. Here was the operation in progress. Once I got the vinator and bottling tree, I stopped using the dishwasher. I think that way is superior. Though, I haven't bottled in years ( kegging now).

 

[Brewjitsu]

I want to keg but thats not in the budget in the next six months.