Dishwashers & sanitising

[CurtTheCop]

Quick question for anyone in the know!

I'm only on my 3rd brew, and was wondering (as I'm currently only using bottles), would it be ok to use the dishwasher with nothing but sanitiser in the tablet compartment to sanitise my bottles?

It would save a massive amount of time compared to doing them in our kitchen sink 8 at a time!

Has anyone done this and not had any bad comebacks from spoilt beer etc?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[relicdog]

First, wash the bottles in the dishwasher as normal but remove the labels and washer.I like to fill my bottles with hot water and let them sit for 5 minutes on brew day. Fill ~10-15litres of water in a home depot pail and mix it with star san, Use the bottles immediately after dumping all the water into the home depot bucket.

I haven't received an infection to date on ~20 brews.

 

[juskojj]

i've washed my bottles normally with other dishes then on bottling day i spray and swish the insides so everything is coated with starsans and usually i have a good amount of starsans sitting in the bottom, i let that sit till i'm ready for the bottle do a quick swish and dump, fill with beer and cap. haven't had a problem yet.

 

[bobeer]

if you put sanitizer in the washer watch out for bubbles! Not sure what kind you use but starsan bubbles up pretty well and I'd assume it would overflow your washer. Sort of like if you put dish soap in there instead of the detergent. This might not happen but just be around when you try it with a shop vac handy.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

if you put sanitizer in the washer watch out for bubbles!

I was going to say sanitizer in the dishwasher is a bad idea because this ^^^I've seen too many times as a repair tech and this is the number cause for a "leaking" dishwasher.

When I bottle, I use the dishwasher to sanitize. Hot wash, hot rinse, very minimal soap if needed. No sanitizers before or after. Never had a problem.

After beer is done fermenting the vessel it goes in will be a very harsh environment for any sort of bug or infection to live in. I'm not saying to throw all wisdom out the window, but you don't have to worry nearly as much as pre-fermentation.

 

[iijakii]

If your dishwasher has a sanitize (extra hot) cycle then just put them in there like that, no sanitizer needed. I do that for my bottles and it works great.

Here's my bottle scenario, maybe it'll give you ideas. Extremely easy to me:
I have a large rubbermaid of strong PBW solution (oxy etc would work fine too) that I submerge and soak commercial bottles in until I get around to them again. Weeks generally since I'm a lazy mofo. I've had the same solution going for over half a year right now and it still works well. Getting chunky from all the label particles though :3.

Rinse really well, place in drying rack. Skip to this step for delabeled homebrews you just drank. Rinse well after pouring, do not let yeast/trub dry in the bottle.

Once dry I have another large rubbermaid for clean bottles. Store in there and then load up the dishwasher on sanitize cycle the morning of bottling day. Don't open til ready to go.

 

[chickypad]

Diswashers are not good for actual cleaning - with the tiny opening they won't reliably get to gunk in the bottom of the bottle. You're better of cleaning with another method like a soak in PBW (if you rinse well after pouring should need minimal cleaning). It's fine for sanitizing as mentioned, but with temps around 100* this week I would much prefer this and a couple cups of star san over heating up the kitchen any further. Not to mention the water shortage.

 

[IslandLizard]

+1^ on cleaning bottles. Before kegging, I had a cleaning tote like that too. Gross but effective. I used washing soda instead of Oxi, it's way cheaper and after 10 minutes Oxi becomes washing soda anyway as the O2 dissipates.

I would add using one of those jet bottle washers (screwed onto your faucet) to rinse the bottles out with very hot water before adding to the dishwasher rack as it is impossible for dishwasher water to reach inside the bottles because of the the narrow bottle openings.

 

[iijakii]

I spot-check bottles here and there and hold them up to the light, never have particulates. Rinsing immediately is the key. If you let anything dry to the walls it's a bitch.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I put my clean (label free) bottles in the dishwasher to sanitize. I would also recommend using the dry cycle if the bottles will not be used I imeadiately.

 

[m00ps]

I started using my dishwasher to sanitize my bottles about 2 months ago and havent had any issues. My dishwasher is pretty old doesnt have a "sanitize" setting so I was worried at the start

But all my bottles are clean before I store them and then take them out for bottling day though

 

[CurtTheCop]

Thanks everyone for your replies - really helpful.

I understand what you're saying about using a hot cycle, but the bottles I'm currently using are Coopers PET bottles (plastic), so I can't use a hot wash on them unfortunately as I guess they'll warp pretty easily. At the moment I'm rinsing them with hot water as soon as they've been drank, then putting them in the dishwasher on a 35 celsius quick wash, letting them dry and rinsing, sanitising and rinsing again immediately before the next bottling session.

I was just trying to find a quicker method to sanitise before bottling as it takes literally hours lol!
Does anyone sanitise their equipment in the bath? Would this be ok if you clean the bath and sanitise it before using it as a sanitising tub?

Just can't afford a load of big glass bottles yet. I have 48 x 330ml glass bottles that currently have cerveza carbonating in them which I saved from budweiser and corona bottles, but with them only holding a small amount of liquid it is even more tedious come sanitising time!

 

[iijakii]

At the moment I'm rinsing them with hot water as soon as they've been drank, then putting them in the dishwasher on a 35 celsius quick wash, letting them dry and rinsing, sanitising and rinsing again immediately before the next bottling session.
!

That's a little overkill. Rinse them well, dry, store. Then pickup one of those avinators and bottle tree, use some star-san solution and you're good to go. No need to rinse it out.

 

[CurtTheCop]

No need to rinse it out.

You say there's no need to rinse - would this apply to all sanitisers? I use VWP at the moment, I was under the impression that you had to buy special 'no-rinse' sanitisers if you was going to skip the rinsing stage as they may leave a chemical taste in your beer?

So would you say I could get away with just rinsing with hot water once the bottle had been drank, putting to one side to dry and then soaking in sanitiser before bottling?

 

[iijakii]

Definitely rinse if you do not have a no-rinse sanitizer. Not sure on that brand. Definitely buy a no-rinse next time around for ease and peace of mind.

And yes. Rinse well and let air-dry before storing so they don't grow mold or something, and then sanitize right before bottling. Rinse if you need to for your specific sanitizer, but if you buy a no-rinse it's helluva lot quicker and easier.

 

[CurtTheCop]

Thanks for the tips - I'll definitely look into acquiring some no-rinse when I next need to buy some. At the moment I've got a lot of VWP left, and also two boxes of tablets so it'll be a while yet - might aswell use them up!

How long do you usually leave the bottles in the sanitiser before removing? The problem I have is my kitchen sink doesn't fit a whole lot of bottles in one go!

 

[Gavin C]

@curtthecop

Use a no-rinse sanitizer.

Diswasher is great for washing (rinsed after using) bottles and removing labels. I only ever bottle a few at a time now so just have the bottles in boxes clean, and dry.

Edit: also sanitizing in diswasher as others mention is a great idea too.

 

[iijakii]

Thanks for the tips - I'll definitely look into acquiring some no-rinse when I next need to buy some. At the moment I've got a lot of VWP left, and also two boxes of tablets so it'll be a while yet - might aswell use them up!

How long do you usually leave the bottles in the sanitiser before removing? The problem I have is my kitchen sink doesn't fit a whole lot of bottles in one go!

Your specific sanitizer should say. Most are like 30sec or something. Back before I did dishwasher I'd sometimes fill my bottling bucket up, fill bottles from the spigot and then dump. No need to submerge so much, just fill the bottles some and swirl around etc.

 

[CurtTheCop]

I could probably do with an extra fermenting bucket so sanitise bottles in actually, would be a lot quicker and easier than doing it in the sink.

 

[RobbyComstock]

Here is our process.

Finish drinking a beer from the bottle and rinse it out when your done. Remove any labels by soaking in water for a bit. When you are ready to bottle, rinse the bottle again, use your scrub brush and scrub the inside of the bottle, rinse one more time. Now take a look in the bottle and make sure there is no gunk in there. Once it is clean, dunk the bottle in a bucket a sanitize solution. Once the bucket can't hold anymore bottles, empty the solution from the bottle back into the bucket and hang the bottle upside down to dry. We use a bottle tree to dry on.

I do not like to use the dishwasher because it is hard for the water to get up in the bottle when running them through a cycle. We also do not use the dishwasher rack to dry in as you do not know what kind of bacteria is roaming around in the dishwasher. Think of all the dirty/nasty dished you have put in there in the past.

Hope that helps.

 

[brewpool]

I rinse my bottles out immediately until clear. On bottling day I load them in the dishwasher without detergent or sanitizer and run the "high temp sanitize" cycle (steam sanitizes the bottles) followed by a heated dry (this alone should!d technically sanitize as well). Kind of a double whammy.

When the cycle is done and I'm ready to bottle, I open the dishwasher door and load my bottles on the inside of the door to help contain any mess I make. The whole process works well for me.

 

[CurtTheCop]

That is a great idea for glass - but most of my bottles are PET plastic so would warp at high temps. I've just been rinsing thoroughly after drinking, air drying then sanitising immediately before bottling.