Sanitizing Beer Bottles In The Oven
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flars
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I wouldn't try it. Glass might be stressed by the heat. Any gunk in the bottle would be baked on.
Seems like a lot of work, when rinsing the bottle after the pour and wetting with Starsan solution right before filling will do the job.
Seems like a lot of work, when rinsing the bottle after the pour and wetting with Starsan solution right before filling will do the job.
ForTheLoveOfBrew
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from How to Brew- John palmer http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter2-2-3.html
Oven
Dry heat is less effective than steam for sanitizing and sterilizing, but many brewers use it. The best place to do dry heat sterilization is in your oven. To sterilize an item, refer to the following table for temperatures and times required.
Table 3 - Dry Heat Sterilization
Temperature
Duration
338°F (170°C)
60 minutes
320°F (160°C)
120 minutes
302°F (150°C)
150 minutes
284°F (140°C)
180 minutes
250°F (121°C)
12 hours (Overnight)
The times indicated begin when the item has reached the indicated temperature. Although the durations seem long, remember this process kills all microorganisms, not just most as in sanitizing. To be sterilized, items need to be heat-proof at the given temperatures. Glass and metal items are prime candidates for heat sterilization.
Some homebrewers bake their bottles using this method and thus always have a supply of clean sterile bottles. The opening of the bottle can be covered with a piece of aluminum foil prior to heating to prevent contamination after cooling and during storage. They will remain sterile indefinitely if kept wrapped.
One note of caution: bottles made of soda lime glass are much more susceptible to thermal shock and breakage than those made of borosilicate glass and should be heated and cooled slowly (e.g. 5 °F per minute). You can assume all beer bottles are made of soda lime glass and that any glassware that says Pyrex or Kimax is made of borosilicate.
Oven
Dry heat is less effective than steam for sanitizing and sterilizing, but many brewers use it. The best place to do dry heat sterilization is in your oven. To sterilize an item, refer to the following table for temperatures and times required.
Table 3 - Dry Heat Sterilization
Temperature
Duration
338°F (170°C)
60 minutes
320°F (160°C)
120 minutes
302°F (150°C)
150 minutes
284°F (140°C)
180 minutes
250°F (121°C)
12 hours (Overnight)
The times indicated begin when the item has reached the indicated temperature. Although the durations seem long, remember this process kills all microorganisms, not just most as in sanitizing. To be sterilized, items need to be heat-proof at the given temperatures. Glass and metal items are prime candidates for heat sterilization.
Some homebrewers bake their bottles using this method and thus always have a supply of clean sterile bottles. The opening of the bottle can be covered with a piece of aluminum foil prior to heating to prevent contamination after cooling and during storage. They will remain sterile indefinitely if kept wrapped.
One note of caution: bottles made of soda lime glass are much more susceptible to thermal shock and breakage than those made of borosilicate glass and should be heated and cooled slowly (e.g. 5 °F per minute). You can assume all beer bottles are made of soda lime glass and that any glassware that says Pyrex or Kimax is made of borosilicate.
PlinyTheMiddleAged
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an123,
That's pretty much what I do. The night before bottling, I cover the mouths of the bottles with foil and put the them in a cold oven. Then I turn on the heat. I bake longer than Palmer calls for so that the bottles can come up to temperature. Then I turn off the oven and go to bed. In the morning I pull out the cooled sterilized bottles. Very simple. Lots of folks will say that this is too much work and that I should just mix up StarSan, dunk the bottles, drain on a tree, etc. To me, the baking is easier. I've baked hundreds of bottles and I've never had one fail during baking or cooling.
Good luck with whatever method you choose!
user 141939
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I did this for my first couple batches. Now i just do a starsan rinse and use my bottom dishwasher rack to hold. Both ways worked fine. The oven seemed slightly more of a pain to get all the bottles in and out.
ChocolateMaltyBalls
Well-Known Member
I've baked many bottles without an issue, but I only re-use bottles maybe three or four times. I don't have much counter space so it's much easier to clean them out and store them in the oven then turn it on to cook (~1.5 hrs) at night and by morning they are cool enough to use.
PlinyTheMiddleAged
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I don't know what your definition of an enormous amount of energy is, but it takes about 2kWh to run an electric oven at 350°F for an hour. If I conservatively run my oven for 2 hours and pay $0.08 per kWh, that'll cost me $0.32. That's nearly $4 per year of brewing.
Reference material:
"Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings"
Sink full of hot water and starsans. Dunk a half dozen or so in there, pour out the water, while filling those with beer I put more in the sink to santize.
