New bottled water bottles need sanitizing?

[homebrewjapan]

I'm new to homebrewing, about to bottle my first beer.

I don't have enough beer bottles so I've bought some 2L bottles of water from the supermarket.

My question is this: Is it safe to just open the bottles, discard the water, and then fill straight away with beer? Or do I have to sanitize them also?

Feedback appreciated.

 

[llazy_llama]

It's probably not a huge risk if you decide to skip sanitizing the bottles. It's much less of a risk if you do sanitize.

That being said, why wouldn't you sanitize? It takes only a few minutes, especially if you're using 2L bottles. I absolutely would sanitize them. Risk > Possible Benefit, IMHO.

 

[homebrewjapan]

So far in the brewing process, the biggest "pain" has been cleaning the bottles (it took a few hours just to clean 40 bottles).

I figure that if the 2L bottles work OK without sanitation then I could get in a routine of buying 12 x 2L bottles for each brew - perhaps using the water to start the next batch.

Maybe my absurd newbie thinking here...

 

[llazy_llama]

Honestly, just sanitize the things. Cleaning and sanitizing bottles is a pain, I agree with you there.

Compare that to the pain of dumping out 19 liters of infected beer because you skipped something so simple.

 

[EvilTOJ]

I hope you don't plan on carbonating in those. Unless the water is sparkling, those bottles most likely aren't rated for pressure and are likely to explode. Soda bottles would be better.

 

[llazy_llama]

Oh noes, the intoxicated feline is correct! PET bottles used for still water are likely not pressure rated, and probably shouldn't be used for bottle conditioning. Try soda bottles instead. I know when I was in Nippon, I never found 2 liter soda bottles, but they might be out there somewhere. If not, 1 liter soda bottles were fairly common, and .5 liter soda bottles could be found on every street corner vending machine.

Also, 200 yen for a .5 liter bottle of Coca-Cola is a freaking rip off.

Also also, I miss Georgia Coffee.

 

[homebrewjapan]

I hope you don't plan on carbonating in those. Unless the water is sparkling, those bottles most likely aren't rated for pressure and are likely to explode. Soda bottles would be better.

Thanks for that - you might have saved me from a big mess!

Now I need to quickly find some more suitable bottles!