Sanitizing Bottles in Oven

BigJefe · Jul 22, 2010

I think handling wet bottles with wet hands can perpetuate crack growth as well...

HSM · Jul 23, 2010

To each their own, but I found that just the dishwasher with a dry cycle was just fine.

mcleanmj · Jan 10, 2013

If boiling glass will sanitize it then theoretically the temperature that is needed to be reached is 212F. If this temperature is reached then why would it matter if you left the glass at this temperature for 1 minute or 100 minutes. Why would you need to bake your bottles for hours. Seemes to me that if you put the bottles in the oven and heated them to 250F and then let them cool back down they would be sanitized.

McGarnigle · Jan 10, 2013

mcleanmj said:
If boiling glass will sanitize it then theoretically the temperature that is needed to be reached is 212F. If this temperature is reached then why would it matter if you left the glass at this temperature for 1 minute or 100 minutes. Why would you need to bake your bottles for hours. Seemes to me that if you put the bottles in the oven and heated them to 250F and then let them cool back down they would be sanitized.

I don't think so. Time matters. I could touch fire for a fraction of a second, but not leave my hand there. I can withstand intense heat for a very short time, but not a long time. Bacteria are the same way, I assume.

DakotaPrerunner · Jan 10, 2013

I don't have it with me but the book Yeast has a paragraph or two talking about the difference in temperature and time needed when using dry heat vs wet heat. The take away for me was to use star-san, the oven is just not designed for sterilizing.

McGarnigle · Jan 10, 2013

DakotaPrerunner said:
I don't have it with me but the book Yeast has a paragraph or two talking about the difference in temperature and time needed when using dry heat vs wet heat. The take away for me was to use star-san, the oven is just not designed for sterilizing.

Palmer's How to Brew has a table as well, and the time differences range from something like 45 minutes to 12 hours. I've oven sterilized a few times and I like it if I plan in advanace, but I'm afraid it will weaken my bottles over time.