Quick help! Sanitizing my bottles

[jjwineaux]

Couple quick questions before I get goin' bottling my first batch.

I am sanitizing my bottles using the hot sanitize cycle on the DW, do I need to remove the swing tops before I wash the rest of the bottle. I would hate to hurt the gaskets...

I have 8 24oz and 8 1L swing tops...if I run short on bottles (which my math says I will) what other bottle options can I employ since I dont have time to run out of the house right now....

After priming my brew, how much time do I have to get it all in bottle. Is it a time sensitive process.

Thanks in advance...these are questions I forgot to ask at my brew class last night

 

[velosim]

I would definitely recommend sanitizing with starsan or iodopher. Not sure if the hot cycle in the DW will actually sanitize your bottles or just clean them, but I personally prefer to sanitize my bottles before filling. Your beer is alcoholic at this point so somewhat more immune to infections than your wort was initially, but it would suck to have come all this way only to get infections in some/all of your bottles.

I have run short on bottles before too My solution was to empty out 1L o 2L plastic soda bottles, wash well, sanitize and fill those up. I always use at least 1 plastic bottle now so that I can check the carbonation level over the next threeweeks by just squeezing the bottle. I have never had any problems using plastic soda bottles (aside from the aesthetics of course).

As far as timing goes, I would think just 2 issues: sanitizing and oxidation. The priming sugar will start to get eaten up by the yeasts creating CO2 but that process takes a few weeks so if you have the brew in the bottling bucket for just a few hours you should be ok, I would cover it for sure so nothing gets in there, but I wouldn't think you would have any issues with your bottles not being carbed enough if it sits just for a few hours. However, there is no CO2 to protect the beer in the bottling bucket, so there will be a lot of contact with air, especially every time it gets moved, etc.

 

[jjwineaux]

Thank you..you are a star! Might as well Star san my bottles while I prep my other equipment for the next batch!

 

[samc]

Many dishwasher sanitize cycles are hot enough to sanitize "clean" bottles. I think that the rubber gaskets will have a shorter life span if used in the sanitize cycle too many times. However they are cheap to replace as I recall. Check the owners manual to see how hot it gets in sanitize!

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I run 'em thru all the time with no issues.

 

[frankr]

I rinse bottles out with starsan (poor from one bottle to the next to save on solution)then place in the dishwasher for drying. When bottling, I put the bottling bucket on the counter over the dishwasher and use the dishwasher door as a surface to bottle on. This way, I can pull the bottles right out of the racks, and any spillage ends up in the dishwasher.

Oh yeah- I have always pulled the gaskets off of the tops and soaked them with the bottle caps in starsan.

 

[Dave258]

I boil my rubber gaskets for swing top bottles... Don't know why, but that's what I've been doing.

 

[passedpawn]

Swingtops go through fine, bottom or top rack. Done this many times without issue.

I've used an infrared temp gun and measured the bottles coming out of my dishwasher, after the drying cycle at > 160F. Probably higher but this was some time after the thing was finished and off. At that temp, everything is dead. My DW has a hi-temp cycle, yours may vary.

I never starsan my bottles. I did, once, put an ounce of star san in the DW. Don't do this. I ended up with an odd white dust on everything.

[edit... here's a pic]

 

[jjwineaux]

Thank you all! I will certainly use both until I get confident enough to change. I like the dishwasher door option for bottling as well...that will work perfect and definitely help with mess too!

 

[coy]

I basically did what everyone above said. lol.. washed then put them in the dish washer.

But what I want to know is where is this "Brew Class"? sounds like it'd been fun to attend..

 

[Marsdude]

Get a Vinator, it really makes sanitizing the bottles easy. I put my bottle caps in the Vinator to soak while using it to sanitize the bottles. Easy way to sanitize the caps.

 

[demonrichie]

i cant remember where i heard it but i think that it was that grolsh stock gaskets were more sensitive to higher heats then the gaskets that youd get at the lhbs. dont quote me on that but i do kno this...if you try it and your gaskets go theyre relatively cheap to replace