Is just Starsan okay?

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nwbrewing32

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Hey everyone,

Typically after I open a bottle, I rinse it twice with water and set it down to dry. Then on brew day, I usually clean with Oxiclean, rinse and then sanitize with a soak in Starsan.

My question is this - there is no visible residue after I initially rinse with water. Do I even need to clean with Oxiclean then before Starsan?

What I Do Now
Open bottle - rinse 2x with tap water - (on brew day) clean with Oxiclean - sanitize with Starsan

What I'd Like to Do
Open Bottle - rinse 2x with tap water - sanitize with Starsan on brew day
 
Hey everyone,

Typically after I open a bottle, I rinse it twice with water and set it down to dry. Then on brew day, I usually clean with Oxiclean, rinse and then sanitize with a soak in Starsan.

My question is this - there is no visible residue after I initially rinse with water. Do I even need to clean with Oxiclean then before Starsan?

What I Do Now
Open bottle - rinse 2x with tap water - (on brew day) clean with Oxiclean - sanitize with Starsan

What I'd Like to Do
Open Bottle - rinse 2x with tap water - sanitize with Starsan on brew day

I never use oxyclean after the initial cleaning to get the label off.
Rinse when finished drinking and store. Brewday, check the bottles for residue, if present get another bottle, sanitize and fill. Oxyclean the dirty bottles then store them.
 
I agree. This is what I do.

As far as label removing, this has came in pretty handy.

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I got mine from AiH.
 
Same here, but I use hot tap water, and I do a partial fill, swirl around the bottom, and dump twice before the full fill and dump (to swirl up any stuck sediment). And if they won't get the hot rinse immediately, I let them soak in cold water until the hot rinse (usually a couple of hours) to make sure nothing dries on the bottom.
 
Hey everyone,

Typically after I open a bottle, I rinse it twice with water and set it down to dry. Then on brew day, I usually clean with Oxiclean, rinse and then sanitize with a soak in Starsan.

My question is this - there is no visible residue after I initially rinse with water. Do I even need to clean with Oxiclean then before Starsan?

What I Do Now
Open bottle - rinse 2x with tap water - (on brew day) clean with Oxiclean - sanitize with Starsan

What I'd Like to Do
Open Bottle - rinse 2x with tap water - sanitize with Starsan on brew day
This is EXACTLY what I do, with the addition: stored in the case neck-down to keep anything from getting into the rinsed bottle.
 
Get a bottle jet. I bought mine about 20 years ago and it is still functioning perfectly. You go through a case of bottles in no time and it gets the crud. It also is good for carboys.
 
i oxyclean after brew day/ bottle conditioning is complete, i sanitize prior to starting brew day/ bottle conditioning. that way stuff is clean when i am ready to use, and sanitize just before using. Plus it limits the potential of attracting fruit flies from the storage of potentially unclean equipment.
 
I have had problems with Oxyclean rinsing cleanly. I stay away from it all together.

Cue the chorus of "I use Oxyclean all the time and never any problems" or "I use the homemade TSP Oxyclean formula. It is much cheaper!"

Even if Oxyclean always risned without problem, Oxyclean is a cleaner, not a sanitizer. You would have soak to the bottles for a while and then rinse to remove the dirt and the Oxyclean

I always give my bottles a cleaning step of a PBW soak & a shot with the jet bottle washer. I see no reason that this step has to be done on bottling day. I do it when I have time and put the bottles in a box covered abd with a hunk of paper that identifies them as been PBW'ed.

On bottling day, a shot with the jet washer to knock off any dust and wet the inside of the bottle then pumped up with StarSan to sanitize the bottle.
 
I used to only rinse very well with hot water several times as soon as I drank the bottle, then just starsan on bottling day. That worked well for a long time, but then after a while I started getting the occasional gusher or two.

Basically, I think that typically just that rinse will do, but every few batches now I do a pbw soak and quick bottle scrub before bottling day. It's a little extra work, and I really don't think it needs to be done every time if you are otherwise clean, but it has saved me some headaches.
 
What I'd Like to Do
Open Bottle - rinse 2x with tap water - sanitize with Starsan on brew day

This what I've always done. Rinse 2-3X immediately after pouring with hot water. Drain and store upside down. Brew day, quick rinse in case any critters got up inside. StarSan. Never a problem.
 
Basically, I think that typically just that rinse will do, but every few batches now I do a pbw soak and quick bottle scrub before bottling day. It's a little extra work, and I really don't think it needs to be done every time if you are otherwise clean, but it has saved me some headaches.
This seems completely reasonable to me. I have so many bottles in constant rotation that I have only encountered the occasional off bottle, but I might work this into my bottling practices.
 
Usually what I do before bottling time, just to be sure everything is as sanitary as I can realistically expect, is to soak my bottles in a bucket of One Step sanitizer solution and then give them a quick rinse with warm water and store them upside down in their cases after they've dried. If I find any bottles that look questionable I'll soak them overnight in a bucket of mild bleach water, give them a good scrubbing with a bottle brush, rinse them well and return them to their case after drying.
 
One afternoon I was sitting in the living room and heard a bang come from the kitchen. Sounded like somebody took an unopened bottle of beer and slammed it down onto a sidewalk.

Inspection showed one of my bottles of stouts turned into a bottle bomb and spontanously exploded. No tother bottles in that batch had any problems. Most likely? One bottle was not as clean as it should have been, got a significant inection. Lucky for me, the wife was out of town and I did not have to explain why a bottle blew up in her pantry.

Since then, I have been stubborn and dedicated in my bottle cleaning regiment. Before the bottle bomb, I thought my procedures were pretty good.

Everybody has never had a problem until they have a problem.

History tells me: Error on the side of caution and over clean instead of under cleaning and thinking that is "good enough."
 
Oxyclean needs to be the versitle version with lime green on the container. The others are meant more for clothing stuff and they don't rinse as well.
 
I do the rinse after opening and store upside down trick as well. I usually bottle in the mornings so the night before I load up the bottles in the dishwasher and run it on the "sanitize" setting with heated drying. Then the bottles get a soak in Starsan right before bottling the next morning.
 
My OCD method is immediately after pouring, fill 1/2 or 3/4 full and dump twice as the hot water is getting hot, fill about 1/2 way, shake vigorously and dump 4 times, fill all the way up with hot water and sit it next to my coffee pot.
The next day, or whenever a few have accumulated, I dump them fill and rinse once more, take them outside and store on one of my bottle trees.
Bottle day I fill my dedicated 5 gallon bucket with 4.5 gallons or so of star San solution, refill my spray bottle with fresh, fill a bowl with the caps covered, soak all bottling parts, valve, seals, nut, wand etc, assemble the bucket, siphon 2 or 3 gallons to it, dump back into the sanitizer bucket rotating to get all surfaces then submerge 10 bottles, take them out, dump the star San back in, line them up on the counter, submerge 10 more, fill the ones on the counter, repeat.
 
Personally, I'd say its better to clean first, then sanitize; I always use PBW followed by StarSan, though I understand that for cleaning Oxiclean is just as good as PBW. Occasionally mixing it up with different cleaners and sanitizers is a good idea, too, as it lessens the chance of something that resists one approach getting a foothold.
 
One afternoon I was sitting in the living room and heard a bang come from the kitchen. Sounded like somebody took an unopened bottle of beer and slammed it down onto a sidewalk.

Inspection showed one of my bottles of stouts turned into a bottle bomb and spontanously exploded. No tother bottles in that batch had any problems. Most likely? One bottle was not as clean as it should have been, got a significant inection. Lucky for me, the wife was out of town and I did not have to explain why a bottle blew up in her pantry.

Since then, I have been stubborn and dedicated in my bottle cleaning regiment. Before the bottle bomb, I thought my procedures were pretty good.

Everybody has never had a problem until they have a problem.

History tells me: Error on the side of caution and over clean instead of under cleaning and thinking that is "good enough."

I've had a few bottle bombs myself, most likely due to glass fatigue from oven sterilization. Hate the resulting clean up. I've found that storing my newly bottled cases inside a large garbage bag, makes it easier to sleep at night.
Naturally, I haven't had any bottle bombs since I started doing that... It's like bringing an umbrella to insure it won't rain :)
 
I own a jet sprayer, and use it for the final rinse, before Starsan. But I still prefer to run a bottle brush inside each bottle after having them rinsed out twice. I fill the bottles half to 3/4 way with warm water that has some washing soda in it. The Oxiclean products are overrated IMO. PBW is not, but overkill for routine "clean" bottle washing unless they are dirty, grimy SOBs, which you may as well recycle, unless they are good flip tops.

One note, after PBW/oxiclean/washing soda, the bottles should be rinsed out well, to remove the alkaline solution clinging to them, before entering Starsan, which has very little buffer capacity.
 
I open, rinse twice set aside and wash with my normal dishes (first before any dirty plates etc) and air dry. Vinator with Starsan before bottling.
 
If my bottles haven't been used in awhile i fill a cooler with hot oxi water, soak about a case of bottles for 15min or so then empty out the bottles back into the cooler

Then lay them in my kitchen sink with hot water and jet washer ready to go so i can spray each one and rinse the outside of another

Then blast each bottle with sanitizer from the vinator and place on the tree to dry
 
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