Easiest way to sanitize bottles with starsan?

[Dalymiddleboro]

Hey guys. You've already helped me so much with my home brewing endeavors. Well, now I need more help!

It's finally bottling day after 4 weeks in the fermenter for my imperial Russian stout, what's the best way to sanitize 48 bottles? Anything I should watch out for? How long should I keep them bottled?

 

[dkennedy]

I found having a tray or bucket with star-san and tossing the bottles in there worked well. Grab a bottle, drain, fill, set aside to cap. I did Oxy/PBW soaks first, rinsed thoroughly, then loaded up a bucket with sanitizer.

Re: Bottling time- general rule seems to be 3 weeks minimum to carb, after that it's going to be up to your palate...don't be afraid to leave that RIS alone for months to grow up (with occasional samples in the name of Science, of course!).

 

[TheHappyHopper]

When I have a lot of bottles to sanitize, I use my dishwasher. If your DW has a sanitize cycle, put the cleaned bottles in the DW (do not add any dish soap, Jet Dry, etc.), let it run and heat dry.

For smaller amounts of bottles, I have a 5-gallon bucket of StarSan mixed up at all times. Just dunk 10-12 bottles in at a time, leave for a minute or so, and then drain and set on a towel on the counter. I usually take paper towels soaked in Star San and then lay them over the tops of the bottles if I am not quite ready to start filling them right away.

For an RIS, I think those take longer to properly age than the low OG beers that I do, so somebody else can chime in regarding the conditioning time.

 

[DNKDUKE]

I used to do all that.
I can now sanitize in 1/4 of the time with this.
http://www.homebrewing.org/Vinator-Bottle-Washer_p_2472.html
Best investment in home brewing I've made.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

If you use a bottling bucket, what I do is fill the bucket with starsan solution and submerge the bottles into the bucket. Then you sanitize your bucket, and your bottles at the same time.

Yes, you can't start transfering to the bottling bucket until all your bottles are out, but it gives the bucket a good long soak in the starsan.

 

[Dalymiddleboro]

Would the sides of the bottles make the bucket of sanitizer dirty? Just dunking them in there?

What about dipping hand in to retrieve them?

 

[gotbags-10]

I used to do all that.
I can now sanitize in 1/4 of the time with this.
http://www.homebrewing.org/Vinator-Bottle-Washer_p_2472.html
Best investment in home brewing I've made.

What he said!! I also make wine so that really was a no brainier for me.

 

[blaster_54738]

I'll 3rd the Vinator. Works perfectly, use it for beer bottles when I bottle and wine bottles.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Would the sides of the bottles make the bucket of sanitizer dirty? Just dunking them in there?

What about dipping hand in to retrieve them?

I usually pop them in there for like 5 minutes-ish. I always mix a stronger solution than suggested and I figure my hands get pretty damn sanitize since theyre soaked to hell in the solution. I guess I don't worry about it to that extent since inside of the bucket soaks for probably, 25-30 minutes in the strong solution, and the bottles are generally pretty damn clean anyway (whenever I open a beer I wash it out with hot water so its not like a bunch of crap is on the sides of the bottles).

 

[TheCADJockey]

I always found it annoying, the entire process. For xmas this last year, my wife bought me one of those plastic bottle trays/racks that you can buy multiple and start stacking up. It has made life so much easier. I rinse and shake old bottles in the left sink, sanitize in the right sink, transfer sanitized bottles to the rack until full... then repeat the process filling the sanitized sink and fill the previously racked bottles with beer. Its pretty smooth. The racks were relatively cheap too and only need a couple.

 

[Rhaop]

I used to do all that.
I can now sanitize in 1/4 of the time with this.
http://www.homebrewing.org/Vinator-Bottle-Washer_p_2472.html
Best investment in home brewing I've made.

+4 for the vinator best piece of equipment besides my kegging set up, for the record i still bottle along with kegging

 

[Peruvian802]

Put starsan in your bottling bucket. Fill each bottle with 1/2" of sanitizer, cover the outlet (thumb for capped bottles or close the swing top) and shake like hell. Dip the neck in the bucket and move on. Takes a few seconds per bottle.

 

[NCSU_Brewer]

My process is a bit tedious but it has worked well for my first 3 bottling sessions.

First I always give my bottles a good cleaning soak and rinse in B-Brite or Oxi-Clean.

Next, I run and then empty my dishwasher to ensure I'm working with clean racks. I place my clean but not sanitized bottles on the bottom rack.

I then mix 2.5 gallons of StarSan in a 5 gallon rectangular cooler.

I sanitize bottles 12 at a time as follows:

I place the bottle horizontally in the StarSan solution so that the mouth of the bottle is only partially submerged. I then twirl the bottle 3 or 4 times. Then, I lift the bottle and gently pour out the liquid, again giving the bottle a quarter or half-turn.

I'll then place the 12 sanitized bottles on my top dishwasher rack and begin bottling. Once I have 12 bottles filled, I move on to capping, and then repeat my sanitizing process.



By using this method I am able to get StarSan on all surfaces but avoid creating a lot of bubbles in my bottles. The first time I bottled I just submerged the bottles rapidly and ended up with a lot of bubbles/foam in the bottles, which made a mess when I bottled.

 

[Bobby_M]

Vinator with a quart of starsan solution and the fastrack. There is no faster way of doing it and you don't even have to expose your skin.