Sanitize beer caps?

[kapooyabrew]

I have had some issues while sanitizing my bottle caps. I was putting them in a bowl of water and metabisulphate right before bottling figuring it was a safe bet, but have had issues with the caps developing rust. Is this an unnecessary step or am I doing something wrong???

 

[zach976]

I just put mine in a cup of starsan. Works fine.

 

[smAllGrain]

+1 for starsan. never had any issues

 

[ong]

Sulfur dioxide (from the k-meta) can cause rust, but I imagine it would dry too quickly to have that much effect. But yeah, I also use starsan and I haven't had rusting issues.

 

[IslandLizard]

Just don't leave them in the Starsan for a day. The ones that are left over, shake em out and let them dry quickly.

 

[fartinmartin]

Starsan for thirty seconds - then on the bottles.

 

[bobeer]

Yup, starsan. I estimate how many caps I'll need and leave them in a cup of starsan while I'm bottling and take them as needed. If I have leftovers I put them on a paper towel to dry because if I just dump them back in the bag they'll rust.

 

[kapooyabrew]

Ok thanks well maybe the metabisulphate has a different reaction, I will start using starsan instead.

 

[GrogNerd]

For any of the standard, non-o2 absorbing caps, you can either boil them in water for 15 minutes or soak them in One Step or Star San for 5 minutes.

Use Iodophor or Star San to sanitize oxygen-absorbing caps, since they, unlike One Step, don’t need free oxygen to sanitize. Sanitize only the amount of caps that you will use. Wetting them will render the caps useless in terms of absorbing oxygen for any batch after the current batch being bottled.

 

[divrguy]

For any of the standard, non-o2 absorbing caps, you can either boil them in water for 15 minutes or soak them in One Step or Star San for 5 minutes.



Use Iodophor or Star San to sanitize oxygen-absorbing caps, since they, unlike One Step, don’t need free oxygen to sanitize. Sanitize only the amount of caps that you will use. Wetting them will render the caps useless in terms of absorbing oxygen for any batch after the current batch being bottled.

Overkill! IMO

Rinse with Starsan and put them on the bottle.

Then open a beer and relax while bottling. When finished, fire up a stogie!

 

[GrogNerd]

yeah, I just copied-n-pasted what MWS had on their site

I don't even bother sanitizing caps. they're good straight from the package and I baggie the remainder until next use

 

[monkeybox]

If I have leftovers I put them on a paper towel to dry because if I just dump them back in the bag they'll rust.

This is a lesson I learned once. I ruined a lot of caps by putting some damp ones back with the others, and next time I went to bottle a good portion of them had rust on them.

Make sure they're completely dry before you return them to the bag.

 

[JBIII]

A quick rinse in plain old water works just fine as the surface of a bottle cap is not conducive to organic growth. I bottled well over 30 batches before I moved to kegging and I never had an issue...

Is it possible to get some type of bug in your bottle by not sanitizing...sure. However, you would have a better chance of winning the lottery. So if you really feel the need to sanitize, I would definitely recommend playing tonight's lottery!