Tips for cleaning super dirty bottles?

[Soulshine2]

Really? I was not aware of this. Well I already bought four bottles of bleach and the 40:1 mix seems to do what I expect of it so I should be good there.

4 bottles, how much are you making up at a time....the 40:1 is 40 parts water to 1 bleach...

 

[BikerMatt]

I have a stainless sink in the garage which is around 45L to the brim so the mix is around 40:1-ish when I fill that with cold water, pour in a bottle and then start sinking in bottles.

 

[Soulshine2]

your sink is 45L , my mash tun is 43 quarts...I clean my bottles in my mash tun, stand bottles up , make up my hot oxyclean and start pouring it in and around until the bottles are filled up and submerged . Let soak 30 minutes , start scrubbing off labels and shaking to get the oxy going. I really dont need to do this much for the insides ,its more for label removal. I already triple rinse right after pouring my beers so theres really no yeast or other gunk inside.
If I had bare bottles already,which I do ,I keep them separated in another box with the cardboard divider upside down so bugs and critters cant get in, all they really need is hot star san soak and a good shake and drain on bottling day.
Good to go.

 

[BikerMatt]

I'm normally not going through this much trouble either but keep in mind these bottles have been soaking in water, with yeast and flies and whatnot, inside them for months and are covered in stinky rot slime inside and out. I have enough bottles for one brew in the store shelf, cleaned and capped with dedicated bottle storing cap thingies (red plastic caps) primed and ready for filling after a quick starsan spray too but I need to sort this bog of bottles before I can brew more than the one batch.

 

[Soulshine2]

I understand. I keep a corner of my basement stacked with a batch of bottles at the ready.

 

[BikerMatt]

Operation Anti-Stink in full swing. For some reason some bottles are left with a faint clorine odour no matter how much I rinse them but it can be it comes from the outside surface of older more scratched up bottles as some rinse up odourless so not worrying about that too much. Also put some brewing stuff to soak for tomorrow's brew-a-thon. 0:30 now, I'm beat, few beers and off to bed for tomorrow.

My store corner, at best the bottom shelf has held three bubbling fermenters while all the shelves above been filled with conditioning bottles. Looks like an abandoned olympic arena now but planning to remedy that in the immediate future.

 

[BikerMatt]

Yup, chlorine (bleach) seems to do the trick. At about halfway mark of the cleanup project and even the dirtiest most bug infested bottles turn sparkly clean after a couple days of soaking in bleach water, then a thorough rinse and a couple more days to vent the chlorine odor off the bottles. I checked and that sink is not a 45 liter after all, it`s a 65 liter so the solution is even more diluted than stated before but still seems to do the trick just fine!