Gasp! Another newbie bottling question...

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DuallyBrew

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Sorry for ANOTHER bottling question, I'm just super paranoid about this sanitation stuff so I want to make sure my process is sound...

1.) Soak bottles in bleach water to sanatize. Should I rinse these or just air dry?
2.) Run the dishwasher EMPTY with a bleach solution.
-- If I should rinse the bottles, I was planning on a run through the sanitized dishwasher.
-- otherwise I will put them on the racks of the dishwasher to airdry upside down.
3.) bottle from the dishwasher to the case

What about the caps? Should they be rinsed after sanitizing, or go straight to the bottles?

Should they be allowed to dry?

When bottling, should I put my fementer lid on the bottling bucket or leave it uncovered? I'm worried about how long it's going to be uncovered...

I'm probably just getting over crazy about this, but just want to make sure i'm not doing anything totally screwed up.

Thanks!
 
I believe you can dry the bottles on a high heat dry setting on the dishwasher. The bottles should be completly dry and screaming hot after this. The caps you can boil in some water on the stove. I throw the caps im my sanitized strainer and shake to their dry or I wipe dry with paper towels. I havent had any infectous problems yet.
 
I new to this as well but so far I have bottled and drank 3 batches with NO problems. I use Star-San as my sanitizer....don't like having to rinse everything. Star-San works great...just have to realize that the stuff foams and not worry about it. The foam doesn't hurt the taste of the beer or the fermentation in your primary.

I soak the clean bottles in Star-San for about 5-10 minutes, drain them, put them on bottle tree. Than I put the bottle caps in the Star-San, transfer my beer from the carboy to the bottling bucket, put the sanitized lid (one with hole in it) on the bucket and bottle the beer on the dishwasher door.

Some people complain about the price of Star-San but for me TIME IS MONEY and hate bleach and Idophor..YUK!!

Just my 2cents!!
 
I haven't done this myself yet either (hopefully today's the day), but I've gathered that if you soak in bleach, then you've got to rinse. If you soak in iodophor (or other non-rinse sanitizer) then you don't have to rinse, you can just let them air dry.
 
Thanks for the replys guys!

I'll let you know how everything goes. If I remember I'll pick up my camera tomorrow morning so I can get some pictures.
 
The water from your tap is basically sterile from Chlorination.. it was clean enough to brew your beer in the first place. Yes, wash bleach soak off. I just soak my caps and rinse em one at a time when capping.
 
Sasquatch said:
it was clean enough to brew your beer in the first place.

Hehehe...

Actually my water tastes like absolute dookie... My dog give me a dirty look when he drinks it! So I used bottled water.
 
I've never rinsed out the bottles after soaking in bleach solution. Just air dry or dry in the dishwasher. There isn't enough chlorine to add any flavor to your beer.

I use iodophor now and I don't even dry them completely...

Mostly, I just keg to avoid the bottle problem altogether
 
awillis said:
I believe you can dry the bottles on a high heat dry setting on the dishwasher. The bottles should be completly dry and screaming hot after this. The caps you can boil in some water on the stove. I throw the caps im my sanitized strainer and shake to their dry or I wipe dry with paper towels. I havent had any infectous problems yet.

Most home dishwashers don't approach a heat/hold time that would come close to sanitizing bottles. I've also read that it's not a good idea to boil caps, as it can damage the plastic lining found inside most caps.

An easy method to sanitize bottles is to soak them in a no-rinse sanitizer (I prefer Iodophor, but whatever), then let them drip for a bit. You can do the same thing with the caps. I can soak two cases of bottles in the same amount of time it takes a dishwasher to cycle, but I KNOW my bottles are sanitized. A dishwasher is just a crap shoot.
 
bikebryan - yeah - i'm not expecting my dishwasher to sanitize. My plan is to use it to rinse the bottles and dry them after sanitation.

thanks.
 
DuallyBrew said:
bikebryan - yeah - i'm not expecting my dishwasher to sanitize. My plan is to use it to rinse the bottles and dry them after sanitation.

thanks.

A dishwasher won't work very good for this purpose either. The design of most bottles, with their narrow neck flaring out to the body of the bottle, prevents the water stream from coating the entire inside surface of the bottle. Hence, there will be parts of the bottle that could very well not be rinsed.
 
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