How long will bottles stay sterile?

[EricK The Red]

Hello all!

I just joined the forum today and plan to brew my first batch next week. I'm wondering if it's possible to pre-sterilize bottles, and store them for future use.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Depends...

I read that if you clean and sanitize (using bleach) and don't rinse your bottles (plus once dry) cover the tops with some aluminum foil the bottles will stay sanitized for 1 year. Of course, you must rinse the bleach off with hot water prior to use.

I have several cases of bottles (about 6) stored that way. It does keep the dust from entering the bottles so there's no scrubbing. That's good. It's been over a year, but I will rinse the bleach off and resanitize prior to use anyway.

 

[NChomebrewer]

I have seen/heard/read one person say it is fine to sanitize your bottles in advance and another say only do it right before your are ready to bottle. I sanitize my bottles in advance, place aluminum foil tightly over the tops, and put them back in the box. I think it works fine. Plus it saves time on bottling day.

Many years ago I worked for the US Geological Survey. I used to do a lot of field sampling in streams and rivers. After we sampled we cleaned and sanitized our equipment and covered it with aluminum foil until the next time we sampled. The next time we sampled could be the next day, the next week, or the next month. The thing was that cleaning in advance and covering with aluminum foil kept out all contaminents. Our samples were not in the least bit tainted when they went to the lab for study. And with our project we were very, very concerned about cleanliness.

So if it worked then for water samples I figure it will work for beer.

I hope this helps.