Sanitizing glass bottles... With mold.

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DubbinFive1Eight

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This may be a stupid question, but I dont wanna risk ruining a perfectly good batch of beer.

I have a bunch of bottles I would like to use to bottle brew since the brew shop wants an unholy amount of money for the exact same stuff.

Only problem is, some of them have old beer in the bottom, and some even have mold. I've washed with hot water/bleech, and VISUALLY they are clean, smell clean etc.

Can they be trusted?
 
Woooow.... Thought for sure nobody else would've had that question.

Sorry for the clutter then.. Lesson learned.

Thanks =)
 
No worries Im the one who posted it...I thought for a second someone responded to my thread.

great minds think alike. And drink allot of beer!

Also glad to see another "Grom" 21 year old brewer on the site. Cheers brotha
 
Mold is common in beer bottles, it's no big deal. I've cleaned out tons of bottles with no issues. Oxyclean and hot water, then rinse thoroughly and sanitize. That's it. We're talking glass here, it's no big deal.
 
Oxyclean works a lot better than bleach to remove mold and I'm in love with bleach when it comes to homebrewing. I inspect every bottle beforehand to insure that no rotten fruit or cigarette butts are present in the bottles. I don't want that stuff floating in my water bath, because it is disgusting. If the bottles are too crungy or chipped, they get thrown out. I then soak in hot water with oxyclean for 8 hours. The labels should come off as well as the mold. Every bottle gets a good 10 seconds shake with the solution, followed by a good visual inspection with a strong flashlight. If they pass the test, they go to the rinse pile. If they don't, they go back to the "needing oxyclean" pile for another batch. I then rinse carefully, sniff each one for chemical/moldy traces and proceed as usual to sanitize/sterilize. You don't even need a bottle brush.

If you are really paranoid, you can always bake your bottles after the oxyclean soak, visual inspection and careful rinsing: dry heat or steam will not only sanitize but sterilize, assuring you that no microscopic mold spore have survived. It's personally the method I use since I don't have a bottle tree and I really dislike messing with a vinator. I just put clean foil on top of each bottle after rinsing, put them in the oven to bake and retrieve them 12 hours later when they have cooled to bottle. If the foil rips on any bottle, it goes back to the "needing oven" pile.

"How to Brew" by Palmer has a good section on baking bottles with a chart on the time needed at every temperature point. It's old school and needs careful planning (you can't use the oven from the moment the bottles have started heating up to the time they are completly cooled, or you risk shattering), but it is the ultimate option for the anal retentive homebrewer that is scared that non-rinse snaitizers could have missed something. And they don't.
 
great minds think alike. And drink allot of beer!

Also glad to see another "Grom" 21 year old brewer on the site. Cheers brotha

Ha, and cheers from another 21 year old. :mug:

Oh, and I've found hot water with one of these high pressure do-dads and oxyclean works fine for me.

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Mold is common in beer bottles, it's no big deal. I've cleaned out tons of bottles with no issues. Oxyclean and hot water, then rinse thoroughly and sanitize. That's it. We're talking glass here, it's no big deal.

Yeah oxyclean is the ****. It also has the handy effect of making labels come right off. Rinse the bottles when you're done, then soak in oxyclean, then rinse with a jet washer, sanitize with a vinator, fill with a beer gun. Bottling is actually very painless with this method.
 
This may be a stupid question, but I dont wanna risk ruining a perfectly good batch of beer.

I have a bunch of bottles I would like to use to bottle brew since the brew shop wants an unholy amount of money for the exact same stuff.

Only problem is, some of them have old beer in the bottom, and some even have mold. I've washed with hot water/bleech, and VISUALLY they are clean, smell clean etc.

Can they be trusted?
Not a dumb question at all.

I had the same issue last week, and I used Dollar Tree's LA Awesome Oxygen (clone of Oxiclean) and soaked for an hour. The mold floated right out. Did LOTS of rinsing to get the soap residue out. I bake all my bottles at 300 degrees x 1 hour to ensure sterilization - I don't use sanitizer on any bottle stuff (I'm sure sanitizers are fine, but I've home canned food for years and if baking glass is good enough for canning jars, it's good enough for beer bottles). These storage vessels can never be too clean.
 
Thanks for all the responses guys, I appreciate it! Lots of good ideas here... I'll definitely need some oxyclean (or the clone, which is a good idea for the wallet haha) for my brewing setup.

The reason I was a bit cautious about using moldy bottles is cause glass is poreous... Even though its easier to sanitize than wood or maybe even plastic (easier to scratch), it's definitely not a smooth surface, microscopically... Which is why RainX works so well for windshield water repulsion.

Oh, and has anyone here tried the dishwasher for steaming purposes? The oven idea is great, but if I can cut down on time then that's even better!

Again thanks for all the posts, they're greatly appreciated!

Cheers!
 
People use their dishwashers all the time to sanitize. Personally, I'm wary of it since even if you don't use soap during the procedure, remnants from previous uses can still enter the bottles. Same thing with food residue. The dishwasher is fine to clean everyday dishes, but I simply do not trust it to give consistent results with bottles since the temperature at wich a dishwasher sanitize is almost never given by the manufacturer: some use hotter water than others and for different amount of time. With the oven, you know how long each bottle spent at wich temperature.
 
If you had seen some of the bottles I have cleaned and used, a little mold is NOTHIN!
 
I was an avid oxyclean user until I found the knock off Oxygen cleaner. it's like 3$ for a fat tub.
 
I'm pretty sure I started this same thread sometime last winter. I got 5-6 free cases of bottles from the bar that my brother worked at. But they were in similar shape to those described in the OP. I soaked them and used the pressure bottle washer that goes on your faucet. I then sanitized them in the dishwasher (without soap). I've never had any problems.
 
Hate to bring up an old thread but...I thought I had inspected all of my bottles before bottling but I guess I didnt look hard enough. I soak all of my bottles in a warm and strong star san solution in batches. Well, after I had bottled my entire batch, I found a couple of moldies floating in my bucket that I had dumped out. Should I be worried?
 
probably not - the starsan probably killed off the nasties, and you ended up with cell walls clumped together into little islands - (yecch)..
 
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