Do not sanitize oxygen absorbing bottle caps???

[TxBigHops]

I bought a bag of these oxygen absorbing bottle caps today at the LHBS. Then I'm reading in a book by Ashton Lewis, Mr Wizard from Brew Your Own magazine, and he says getting these caps wet will activate the special liner rendering it useless! Problem is, these were purchased from a bulk bin. They're in an open box and you use a tin can to reach in and scoop them out. No attempt to keep them sanitary and who knows what might be on someone elses hand that has reached in there! I'm not about to use these without sanitizing them. Is there such a thing as dry sanitation? Can I bake them in the oven??? Any other ideas?

 

[johnsnownw]

My understanding is that you WANT to activate them. You just need to use them once you've done so.

In other words, don't just dump all the caps in, just the amount you need at bottling.

 

[kevinb]

I use these caps and always sanitize in Star San. I keep a bowl of Star San handy while bottling. I dunk the cap in the Star San and then immediatly put on the bottle. It is my understanding that the chemical reaction to absorb the oxygen is not instant, so the cap still works.

 

[Croyzen]

There is a thread on this forum about this from years back. I'd say you're safe to sanitize them. Here is what one of the posts read;

"James on Basic Brewing contacted the manufacturer to ask this very question to him. He said that sanitizing is absolutely no problem, because while the caps do absorb oxygen and are activated as soon as they get moist, it takes the caps several days to do their job, so a few minutes before getting crimped is OK."

 

[TxBigHops]

You guys are the BEST! Thanks! So I'm thinking I'll just drop 10-12 caps at a time into my sanitizing solution as I'm bottling, so they will only be in there a few minutes before going onto the bottle.

 

[dsaavedra]

Shoot! I had no idea that they required "activation". It makes sense now. So I guess the left over caps from my previous two batches where I just tossed all my caps (each kit came with 60 caps) into a bowl of StarSan won't be absorbing any oxygen if I decide to put them on some bottles. I may still use them, with as much RDWHAHB that gets thrown around I can't see this being a big deal.