Questions/Advice for a newbie - Sanitation, Recipe

[ajr42789]

Hey guys!

I bottled my first 5 gallon batch, which happened to be True Brew's amber ale recipe kit. I think everything went well and my bottles have been sitting for almost 2 weeks. I plan on moving them to a cooler location tonight and cracking the first one to try next weekend. Anyway, I wanted some input from experienced brewers on a couple of things:

1) Sanitizing bottles: My method involved filling each (12 oz glass) bottle individually with my B-Brite solution from the spigot on my (7 gallon plastic) bottling bucket (after letting that sit filled with the solution for about 20 minutes). This took what felt like forever, but in reality took about 30-35 minutes. Then I let them soak for about a half hour and poured them out and rinsed them. Does anyone have a better method for sanitizing bottles that is maybe more efficient timewise?

2) I'm planning my second batch and am looking at Bavarian Hefeweizen recipe kits. Any thoughts on a good 5-gallon recipe kit for a newbie? No stouts or anything super dark.

I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go! Thanks!

 

[Jeffinn]

Hey guys!

1) Sanitizing bottles: My method involved filling each (12 oz glass) bottle individually with my B-Brite solution from the spigot on my (7 gallon plastic) bottling bucket (after letting that sit filled with the solution for about 20 minutes). This took what felt like forever, but in reality took about 30-35 minutes. Then I let them soak for about a half hour and poured them out and rinsed them. Does anyone have a better method for sanitizing bottles that is maybe more efficient timewise?
!

When I was bottling, I used a Vinator and StarSan. Gave the bottles a good spray, put them in the bottling tree then started bottling.

 

[WayFrae]

Get some StarSan. It is a no-rinse sanitizer. B-Brite is a cleanser, not a sanitizer. As long as the bottles are already clean you can spray starsan and let it soak for a minute or so then dump out the residual starsan and then fill them up.

 

[ajr42789]

Thanks so far. I'll have to look into what a Vinator is. @WayFrae, it came with my kit and had instructions to use it as a sanitizer. I was wondering why I had to use so much of it!

 

[eadavis80]

Vinator didn't save me all that much time, but it did save some. I would just have a 5-gallon bucket of STar San solution, put 12 bottles in there - fill 'em up with the solution and dump the solution back into the bucket. Repeat that process 4 times to yield 48 sanitized bottles. Put them on the bottling tree and then bottle. However, filling and dumping 50 bottles got annoying on my back so the Vinator did help the back more than it saved me time, but it did save some time at least. I don't do really anything beer-related in a hurry, so while bottling isn't a thrill, I just throw on some tunes and pencil in an hour. Time could be spent doing worse things.

 

[WayFrae]

Thanks so far. I'll have to look into what a Vinator is. @WayFrae, it came with my kit and had instructions to use it as a sanitizer. I was wondering why I had to use so much of it!

Yeah my kit came with that stuff too. I'm sure it was fine to use the way you did but get some PBW for cleaning and StarSan for sanitizing and you will never look back. With the StarSan: "Don't Fear The Foam!"

 

[danath34]

my bottle sanitizing process is as follows:

1) Over night soak in cool PBW solution in a rather large plastic tote bin to clean and remove labels (if any). I only do overnight because I'm lazy and figure more time couldn't hurt anything. Also, really stubborn labels are a lot easier to remove the longer they soak.

2) Good rinse in warm water immediately after removing from PBW. Store in 6 packs/boxes until ready to use. Cover top with tin foil so dust doesn't settle inside bottle (though if I'm bottling same day or next day, I don't bother. Again, lazy.)

3) set up bottling station. This means bottling bucket on counter, towel on floor, cleaned bottles next to towel, capper and caps on towel, and a 5 gal bucket filled with star san, bottling wand, racking cane and tubing in star san.

4) Dunk about a 6 pack's worth of bottles in star san, fill them completely, then dump out, worrying about the foam absolutely none.

5) start bottling, starting with the first bottle that was dunked, as it fills, dunk and dump a bottle to replace it

6) dunk cap in star san and cap immediately.

As long as the bottles truly are clean, The bottles don't have to be submersed to sanitize. As long as the surface is wet, it is sanitizing, according to Charlie Talley (Sp?) @ 5-Star on a brew-strong episode. The foam does a good job of both keeping contaminants out and keeping the surface wet. I maintain 6 dunked and ready bottles so that 1) they sit for at least the 30seconds recommended by 5-star, and 2) so as they sit the foam has a chance to die down a little bit. The first thing I then do is put the bottling wand in (without hitting the bottom yet) and give it a good few swirls and that breaks up the foam quite a bit and I can then fill the bottle without foam shooting out the top.

Haven't had a problem yet, and it has saved me a lot of time. Besides, from Charlie Talley's comments, I believe it is a more effective way of sanitizing than to sanitize the entire batch of bottles, then let them all sit and the foam dissipate while you fill them. While there's nothing wrong with that as long as you do something to keep dust from settling in them (like keep them upside down) its just more time for the sanitizer to dry and become less effective.

 

[ajr42789]

Wow. Thanks everyone! Now how about some input on that Bavarian Hefeweizen! :-D

 

[WayFrae]

Wow. Thanks everyone! Now how about some input on that Bavarian Hefeweizen! :-D

If you like hefeweizens then brew it up! The kits you get are tried and true recipes so they should all be pretty good!