So I have dry clean bottles, now what?

[avillax]

My question is, my bottles have been rinsed with water immediately after drinking beer and then dried so they have nothing inside, do I fill them up with beer just like that? Or you guys always use special sanitizer on them then pour the sanitizer mix out and then add the beer or what?

 

[Thomas_S]

You need to sanitize before filling. You could use a no rinse like star san or you could use your dish washer as an autoclave of sorts.

 

[kh54s10]

Starsan spray, soak etc. Drain - leave wet - then fill.

If you don't have a sanitizer some people use the sanitize heat cycle on their dishwasher.

 

[Temptd2]

I highly recommend a vinator (which pumps sanitizer, I use StarSan) into each bottle, then a bottling tree or FastRack or the like to let the bottles drain. I do this just prior to bottling. If you're planning to brew/bottle regularly, this is fairly inexpensive equipment and makes it so much easier to be sure your bottles are sanitized and not the source of some infection in your bottled beer!

Each of those two items will set you back about $20 apiece. A bottle of StarSan is around $15 and is highly concentrated so lasts a very long time.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Why do you dry clean your bottles?

Were they shrinking?

 

[thed163]

I read a tip on here (I think) before I bottled last night. This is what we used:
Fill bottles 1 2 and 3 with star san. Line up the rest of your bottles. Pour bottle 1's star san into bottle 4. fill bottle 1. pour bottle 2's star san into bottle 5. fill bottle 2. and keep going on and on.
I left all my caps in a separate tupperware with star san, all fully submerged.

If you have 2 people going on that process, it seemed to be pretty efficient. If anyone who isn't new to this has anything to correct/suggest, by all means! First time bottling last night.

 

[1977Brewer]

My caps go in a small Tupperware with an inch or so of starsan. I spray starsan into twelve bottles, draining excess into the cap bowl as I go. Fill 12, place caps on each, cap, and repeat. Takes about 30 minutes to bottle a batch.

 

[IslandLizard]

I read a tip on here (I think) before I bottled last night. This is what we used:
Fill bottles 1 2 and 3 with star san. Line up the rest of your bottles. Pour bottle 1's star san into bottle 4. fill bottle 1. pour bottle 2's star san into bottle 5. fill bottle 2. and keep going on and on.
I left all my caps in a separate tupperware with star san, all fully submerged.

If you have 2 people going on that process, it seemed to be pretty efficient. If anyone who isn't new to this has anything to correct/suggest, by all means! First time bottling last night.

You need to allow at least 30 seconds of wet contact time on all inside surfaces and the lip, 1 minute being better. It works better with 6-12 bottles per set.

 

[thed163]

Well, we shook them and coated it and since there were 2-3 sitting at all times, the last one there sat for thirty seconds while the two in from of them were filled and capped.

 

[IslandLizard]

Well, we shook them and coated it and since there were 2-3 sitting at all times, the last one there sat for thirty seconds while the two in from of them were filled and capped.

I like to turn them upside down for at least a minute, 5 preferable, to drain as much Starsan out as possible. One of those FastRack racks is great for that, as the lip hangs free in them.

Since I started kegging, my bottling efforts are way down, filling from taps instead. Carbonation is not as good as proper bottling, no matter how.

 

[thed163]

What I found worked also, since it got very foamy after a few bottles, just kept filling till the liquid hit the mouth, foam poured out, wand left right amount of space at the top...
Waste of some star San but we were willing to let it slide.

All in all it wasn't nearly as bad as we anticipated. Hopefully everything comes out well.

...tip, don't use lagunitas bottles, they cap weird due to their chubby neck... If you have a butterfly capper anyways

 

[1977Brewer]

What I found worked also, since it got very foamy after a few bottles, just kept filling till the liquid hit the mouth, foam poured out, wand left right amount of space at the top...
Waste of some star San but we were willing to let it slide.

All in all it wasn't nearly as bad as we anticipated. Hopefully everything comes out well.

...tip, don't use lagunitas bottles, they cap weird due to their chubby neck... If you have a butterfly capper anyways

I HATE Lagunitas bottles. I've been culling them from the herd. Sierra Nevadas are my favorite, Founder's also. Deschutes are my favorite longnecks, because they have the hops imprint.

 

[thed163]

Yeah we just found out the lagunitas sucks (plug for good beer)... But all the 750mL we have bottled best. Trillium bottles specifically... So diesel

 

[1977Brewer]

Yeah we just found out the lagunitas sucks (plug for good beer)... But all the 750mL we have bottled best. Trillium bottles specifically... So diesel

Yeah, the quart Sucks bottles are great, so long as I share them. I killed 2 of a 8% one night. No Bueno.