Dishwasher to sanitize bottles?

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By the time you get to read ALL these responses I sure you save up enough to start kegging! ..lol..
 
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...
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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?
 
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.
 
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:mug:
 
I've used my dishwasher for the previous few batches with pretty good results. My next batch I'm going to try StarSan and compare. I load up the bottom rack and run it on a rinse cycle with high-temp wash and steam sanitizing finish. I haven't tried using a thermometer to test the water temp, but it's worked pretty well so far. I like being able to load it up and let it run while I do the rest of my brewing. It's pretty convenient that way.
 
I still dip my bottles in Starsan, but I use the dishwasher rack at a bottle tree. I have the sanitize cycle and could probably use it to sanitize, but dipping in starsan is only a few more seconds.

That's what I do, too, except I use iodine/water solution instead of Starsan.

-- JRB
 
What's the best way to clean bottles without a dishwasher? Will a PBW bath and a StarSan bath do the trick?
 
I have been running my bottles through the dishwasher. No soap, heated dry setting. It doesn't have a sanitize setting on it though. Seems to be working fine so far.
 
Rinse well after drinking then Starsan dip....that's all I do. No probs yet
 
Using a dishwasher with a sanitize setting is the way to go. Any dishwasher with a sanitize setting has to be compliant to NSF/ANSI standard 184 which requires it to reduce bacteria by 99.999% during the sanitize cycle. It also has to do the final rinse at minimum of 150 degrees. This is more than enough to make sure your bottles are clean and don't infect your beer. So unless your dishwasher is broken, I wouldn't hesitate to use it to save some manual labor!
 
Using a dishwasher with a sanitize setting is the way to go. Any dishwasher with a sanitize setting has to be compliant to NSF/ANSI standard 184 which requires it to reduce bacteria by 99.999% during the sanitize cycle. It also has to do the final rinse at minimum of 150 degrees. This is more than enough to make sure your bottles are clean and don't infect your beer. So unless your dishwasher is broken, I wouldn't hesitate to use it to save some manual labor!


This 100%.......And I've found that once deformed Grolsch gaskets expand back to normal with the heat in the sani cycle. I've used Grolsch bottles for upwards of 20 batches and they look good for 20 more.
 
I have had infections from using dishwasher. There was a problem with my water supply and although the boil took it out of the wort, the dishwasher put it back in the bottles. Tasted great on bottling day, but...I'll never use dishwasher again!
 
I used to use the dishwasher to clean my wine bottles, but then noticed upon closer inspection specs of sediment in a few of the bottles. Water/crud gets in, but is not always able to get out. So, despite using the dishwasher I always had to check each bottle still rinse a few.... I think the sediment would either be minerals or old soap/food that was in the dishwasher from prior washes. Make sure you clean the filter out at the bottom of your dishwasher!

Now I just avoid the dishwasher all together to save time from checking each bottle. I rinse the bottles immediately after they are empty, soak in oxyclean, and rinse with bleach or star san (depending on what i have on hand) before bottling.
 
I think hot water has a difficult time getting inside the bottles so they should be clean of any particulates and such before putting them in the dishwasher. Also most of the sanitizing comes from the heating element so you absolutely positively must use the heated dry setting. By the way I'd also recommend running some bleach through your dishwasher once in a while too in order to clean things out every now and then! It's amazing what kind of scummy stuff can accumulate in the bottoms, hoses, etc.
 
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The last reply to this thread was 3 years ago. It is effectively dead. You would have better luck getting your question answered by starting a new thread.

Since I’m here, the answer is largely based on where your from. Most people just use the tines on the bottom rack to stand the bottles on. There are some third party products that will allow you to stand bottles up but they tend to be more geared towards vases.

A better bet is a dedicated bottle washer if you have space. Pretty easy to make with PVC. Probably cheaper to buy a premade kit
https://www.northernbrewer.com/prod...MIhYyViq6q7AIVAorICh1QEQkIEAQYASABEgKyMfD_BwE
 
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