Storing bottles with sanitizer inside?

[Upstate12866]

Is it ok to clean a bottle with a cap (swing tops or plastic bottles), then spray a few blasts of Starsan, cap them, and store till next brew day? My thinking is that this is ok with a bottle of sanitizer, so why not with a beer bottle with a few ml of sanitizer too? Or do I need to dry all bottles completely before capping and storing?

 

[Jag75]

I would just spray them right before use . If you spray them today and depending on your next brew day they dry , the sanitation is no longer there. If you have a decent amount in the bottles then your probably fine. Just use RO or distilled water instead of tap .

 

[davidabcd]

+1^
Just don't have debris stuck on the inside after you use one and no standing water, meaning, let them get dry; you can cap but it isn't necessary. After that, even if they got dusty, you're still going to sanitize when you bottle.
A properly rinsed bottle after drinking the beer saves you 90% of the work. I'm not recommending to do what I do, which is thoroughly rinse, dishwasher (which is more to let the bottles drip out than for any real dishwasher effectiveness) and store. Brew day consists of sanitizing only.
This:

and then this (but I set it on the stove):

 

[Tropicpine]

For probably the past 10 years I have soaked, scoured, doused in sanitizer, rinsed, run the bottles in the dishwasher sanitizing cycle, cap empty with a sanitized cap & store. I usually do this for about 48 bottles a run.
For the cost of an extra bottle cap per bottle I start my bottling day with already sanitized bottles

 

[Falstaff]

Don't waste the caps. Spray all the bottles with starsan, then bottle. I think it's less work then capping them. Definitely buy a spray bottle if you don't have one.

 

[KeizerBrewr]

If you rinse out your bottles really well after pouring your beer, that saves so much of your work. I do said step, then take the bottles and upend them in the case that they came from, thus keeping dirt/crud out of the inside of the bottle. Then the morning of bottling day, I load the dishwasher with my bottles(no detergent or rinse aid) on the sanitize cycle, heated dry. Once they cool off/I come home from work, I bottle away. I have never *knocks on wood* have any issues with this method. YMMV

Also, a spray bottle for star san really helps control how much apply.

 

[chessking]

^^^ Storing the clean and dry bottles upside down is the best advice. Bottle day is just a quick rinse w/ the jet sprayer and then some sanitizer.

 

[MaxStout]

Right after pouring, I give the bottle 2 rinses and a few shakes, invert to drip dry overnight and back in the box. On bottling day, I just dunk each in a bucket of Starsan, drain and put them up on a bottle tree.

 

[Upstate12866]

Thanks for all those replies. Space in my apartment is very tight, and I already take up counter space during brew day, so it's hard to take up space again to drip dry. No dishwasher where I live either. I was hoping to avoid it, but it sounds like having the bottles dry is best? I had been thinking that sanitizer sprayed into a very clean, capped bottle seems like it would keep a few months (since that is how long star san seems to last).

 

[chessking]

The procedure you are considering would work I suppose, and if you don't mind the extra trouble and cost, by all means do your thing. I don't know the effects of sanitizer over time. Maybe its good. I don't know. Although, any kind of moisture over time just bothers me.
What I do know is that if you never let the bottle develop any bacteria or fungal growth, if you clean immediately after pouring the beer out, and let them dry (upside down), store them in a proper box that is not outside under your porch, then that is the most shelf stable you can get short of using an autoclave. They can sit for years, and only need a quick rinse.

 

[Upstate12866]

The procedure you are considering would work I suppose, and if you don't mind the extra trouble and cost, by all means do your thing. I don't know the effects of sanitizer over time. Maybe its good. I don't know. Although, any kind of moisture over time just bothers me.
What I do know is that if you never let the bottle develop any bacteria or fungal growth, if you clean immediately after pouring the beer out, and let them dry (upside down), store them in a proper box that is not outside under your porch, then that is the most shelf stable you can get short of using an autoclave. They can sit for years, and only need a quick rinse.

I can agree with all that. No moisture is ideal. In the back of mind im thinking that if star san were to lose its pH level, it would then be moisture and nutrients, which concerns me, at least in theory.