Dishwasher to sanitize bottles?

[eanmcnulty]

If you have cleaned your bottles already, the heat cycle works great for sanitizing.

New bottles get a good cleaning and scrubbing with the bottle brush in Oxyclean to wash and remove the labels.
Bottles that have had home brew in them get a rinse right after pouring, and then an Oxyclean wash later.
I dry them in a simple rack I made the holds them upside down for a couple of days.
When they are dry I use small (3"x3") pieces of tin foil to cover the tops, and I store them in the basement.
To me, this is just an every day/week process of being a home brewer. I do small amounts of bottles (12 or so) at a time. That way I have a back up of bottles in the store room. (I wish I had a store room)
When I am ready to bottle, I fill the dishwasher up, and turn it on, using the heat-dry cycle, but no soap.
Then I sit next to the DW and bottle directly for it.
I have been doing this for the past twenty batches, and have had no problem at all.

This is still my process. The foil keeps the clean bottles from collecting dust...
I am now up to batch 58. Not sure how many since I started using this bottling procedure - maybe 35-45.
I try to make all my procedures as simple as I can, so I can brew a lot and not get burned out with work. Since I have had no bottling problems, I stick with it. If I had to cook the bottles, I don't think I could keep up the rate at which I brew.
As far as kegging goes, I brew small batches (3gal) and those small kgs are expensive. I'm just not interested in stepping up everything to 5g. Plus, I don't want to carry 5g carboys. They is heavy! Also, tap beer in my house is probably a bad idea. Little bit..., little bit more..., little bit more..., oh, just one more...

 

[cadarnell]

Also, tap beer in my house is probably a bad idea. Little bit..., little bit more..., little bit more..., oh, just one more...

thats my same worry with kegging .. haha

 

[Brewham]

Rinse the bottle after you pour - while the gunk is still soft. Then run through the dishwasher on a sanitize cycle - no soap, no rinse aid. It has always worked for me. (60 batches bottled).

 

[EdWort]

I use my Bosch dishwasher to sanitize bottles when I have a large amount. It has an NSF sanitize option which heats the water to 160 degrees. I do run a complete rinse cycle through it before to make sure all detergent is gone.

It's something to set and forget for a while as if you open the door when it first finishes, you are met with steam in the face and bottles too hot to touch.

 

[eanmcnulty]

thats my same worry with kegging .. haha

Yes, I figure I would never have a big glass of beer again, just little tastes until I was wasted and couldn't even guess how much I drank.

 

[MisterGreen]

I'm not sure the water has to get into the bottles. On the heat/dry setting the heat is all that is needed to sanitize. I read (don't remember where) that it has to reach 170F for 15 minutes to sanitize. I used the probe thermometer and mine hit that.

If I remember correctly, NSF guidelines say 170F for only 2 minutes.

 

[eanmcnulty]

If I remember correctly, NSF guidelines say 170F for only 2 minutes.

Even better!

 

[blackbear219]

I rinse my bottles in the sink after pouring. I fill halfway with hot water once, shake and dump. This gets out the yeast and leftover beer. Fill halfway and shake again, store upside down to dry.

Then I throw them in the dishwasher on the sanitize setting shortly before bottling.

Hopefully, this is adequate. No problems yet, but I'm also pretty new to the hobby. Like others said, I'll probably just stick to doing it this way as long as it continues to work for me.

 

[cullen]

I rinse out bottles immediately after use, then soak them (when I get around to it) in a solution of 3 gallons cold water to 1/4 cup bleach to get any residue out (I started doing this when I started noticing a film on the inside of the empty bottles after they'd sat for a day). Soaking takes anywhere from hours to weeks, depending on when I get around to them. I sanitize the clean bottles in the dishwasher on bottling day.

 

[Tizzomes]

I rinse my bottles after ever beer I open, as long as you clean as you go using the dishwasher isn't a bad idea ( no cleaning aids of course ).

 

[MaddBaggins]

I've used one step, bleach and rinse, dishwasher and Star san over the years and only had one bad batch. I couldn't pinpoint where that one went wrong, but it was impressive when I opened a bottle and it shot 2' straight up out of the mouth.

It was a sad day.

 

[casperjah]

I rinse after drinking, then run through dishwasher, put away in cupboard American then put through dishwasher again prior to bottling.

Great thread, just git he idea to bottle from the dishwasher. I used to line them up on the kitchen counter and bottle. But I would run out of space doing this. Don't know why I never thought of this.

 

[eanmcnulty]

I rinse after drinking, then run through dishwasher, put away in cupboard American then put through dishwasher again prior to bottling.

Great thread, just git he idea to bottle from the dishwasher. I used to line them up on the kitchen counter and bottle. But I would run out of space doing this. Don't know why I never thought of this.

It is so easy. I only brew 3gal batches, so it is pretty quick from start to finish. I get about 24 12-ounce bottles from it. I would guess my fastest bottling time was one hour form pulling out the equipment to complete clean-up, but it is usually an hour fifteen or so.

 

[Warren1086]

Well I just bottled an IPA 2 weeks ago and it was the first time I used just the dishwasher for sanitary purposes. I only left them in the dishwasher long enough to cool down, so I hope they won't be sour when it comes time to drink in a week or so. However, regardless of the results I will be rinsing them thoroughly prior to the dishwasher and afterwards as well.

 

[enricocoron]

I'm thinking that just spraying a little starsan from a spray bottle into each bottle, then running the cycle would be pretty safe...then bottling right from the dishwasher. Mine doesn't have a 'sanitize' setting but it has a 'hi temp washing' and air dry cycle. Seems pretty efficient to quickly spray each bottle with star san, load the dishwasher, run it 'hi temp', but maybe air dry is a risk?

 

[djbradle]

Your "air dry cycle" is the heating element in the bottom that heats up after the rinse cycle is through. The air in the dishwasher will get plenty hot to sanitize (as stated if the bottle is thoroughly cleaned), that is, if your heating element is working. Rinsing will bring in fresh municipal water to rinse the load most likely washing away any starsan that is placed in the closed or open soap tray.

What I do is wash the dishwasher first then another with starsan and the bottles with the sanitize, high temp, and heated dry cycles.

 

[kevokie]

I would advise not putting star San in your dishwasher. Even a little bit foams up like crazy. Don't do it, just don't do it. It foams madly....like a science experiment gone wrong. Did I mention....do not do it!

 

[djbradle]

I'm sure 1 tablespoon is fine. I did it thrice. No prob with foam. Now regular liquid kitchen soap, that's a different story.

 

[kevokie]

Well, I can say from experience that I used way less than a tablespoon one time and if I had left the house, I would have had a huge mess on my hands. Do it if ya want, but at least pay attention to your machine. Those machines do not like foam, and you can tell when it gets foamy in there by the noise that it makes. At least with mine you are able to do so.

 

[Thirstin4aburstin]

Easy way...pre-scrub bottles before putting them in a dishwasher using PBW as a detergent on high heat. Put bottles on a tree that's been dipped in a brew bucket with PBW. Never had a contamination problem.

 

[Tizzomes]

By the time you get to read ALL these responses I sure you save up enough to start kegging! ..lol..

 

[trnitz]

I've been using the oven method with good results, but looks like I'll start using the dishwasher, with it's handy 'sterilize' setting.

Oven works nice, but running it for an hour costs gas, plus the extra money for the central A/C to then cool down the now-heated house, kinda makes the dishwasher a better idea.


Now if I hadn't just filled up the rinse agent reservoir LAST night I'd be a little happier right now...

 

[BronxBrew]

Tried it both ways. Starsan and dish washer with sanitize cycle. both beers come out great. I do rinse poured beer bottles " with bottle brush" and use the rack on the dishwasher to dry. My dishwasher has become a staple of my home brewing. Sanitizing to bottling.

 

[Woodyswoodchuck]

Using the dishwasher to sanitize my bottles has made bottling day so much easier. Allows me to pay more attention to other important aspects of bottling day. A tablespoon of sanitizer in the sanitize cycle. Never had any foaming problems thankfully. I would highly recommend using this method for sanitizing.

 

[tg123]

what about flip top bottles? can they be safely run through a dishwasher or sanitizing?

EDIT: Nevermind. I found the answer in another thread using the nifty search function.
For those wondering, the answer is yes but suggests removing the gasket to get a better clean behind them.

 

[moski]

I rinse bottles right after pouring then commercial bottles go into a SS pot with oxyclean to soak off the labels and clean the insides. After the label comes off they are washed well and stored until bottling day when they get a lingering dunk in starsan and drained.

Oxy-cleaned and starsan sanitized. No worries about dw jets missing the bottle neck and leaving something inside.

I thought starsan was pretty much as sterile as necessary.

 

[eanmcnulty]

I rinse bottles right after pouring then commercial bottles go into a SS pot with oxyclean to soak off the labels and clean the insides. After the label comes off they are washed well and stored until bottling day when they get a lingering dunk in starsan and drained.

Oxy-cleaned and starsan sanitized. No worries about dw jets missing the bottle neck and leaving something inside.

I thought starsan was pretty much as sterile as necessary.

Not concerned about the dishwasher jets, because it is the heat of the drying cycle that sanitizes. If you have a probe thermometer you can put the probe in the door and run the cycle to check it. I did, and mine hit 170f for 15 minutes.

 

[moski]

I just think the dishwasher is an extra step my process does not need. If they're cleaned then the glass is chemically sanitised what else is needed?

 

[eanmcnulty]

It is not an extra step. The dishwasher is in place og the Starsan step. Also, it is nice to put the bottling bucket on the counter, sit next to the open dishwasher, and pull the bottles and fill. I'm mean when you use Starsan you have to set their bottle somewhere before you fill it. With the dishwasher there is no wet mess, because you bottle right from it.
I'm not trying to convince you to use the dishwasher. It just seemed as if you misunderstood. Do what works for you.

 

[glenn514]

I definitely agree with eanmcnulty's post. I make certain that, after I empty a bottle, I rinse it THOROUGHLY before I store it. When I'm ready to bottle a batch, I load up 54 bottles in the dishwasher and turn it on. The heat of the drying cycle sanitizes the bottles. Then, I use the dishwasher door as my bottling "table." Any drips and drops are easily cleaned up by closing the dishwasher door when I'm done.

It works for me, but may not work for others. As ean said, do what works for you.

glenn514