Washing and Sterilizing Bottles before bottling day

[delcosansgluten]

has anyone ever washed and sanitized their bottles on Friday night and then bottled the beer on Saturday morning? If so, did the beer turn out fine?

 

[IslandLizard]

Depends on if an infection vector can get in there without being neutralized before filling.

Even if you store them upside down in a clean, "sanitary" rack (e.g., dishwasher), I still would resanitize the opening before filling, just to be sure.

Some sanitizers keep working as long as the surface remains wet with it, such as Starsan. But leaving them overnight chances are the surfaces will dry up, and sanitation can be compromised.
Other sanitizers (such as Iodine based ones) work only for a limited timespan.

Regardless, if they're already clean, I still think (re-)sanitizing a few bottles at a time, right before filling them, is the safest option.
Don't forget to sanitize the caps!

 

[Broken Crow]

When I still bottled, cleaning and sanitizing were seperate tasks: My usual habit was to use a bottle blaster on the bottles and then drop them into a large rectangular cooler full of PBW until I had a whole case in there...once I had a full case, I'd brush-srcub and blast them out again and leave them to dry on a sanitized dishwasher rack and once dry, I'd cover them with pieces of cheap basket type coffee-filters which are excellent sanitary lint-free wipes and can be used to provide 'breathable' protection. On bottling day, I just pull off the paper 'caps' and sink them in a large bucket of Star San and again; take them out and put them upside down on a sanitized dishwasher rack which is carried to my bottling area.
That's me....as long as you're confident they are clean, just give em another Star San dunke before filling.

 

[mac_1103]

One way to safely sanitize your bottles well in advance is to bake them. Cover each clean, dry bottle with a bit of aluminum foil; stick them in the oven; set it somewhere in the 170-300F range; let them go for 20-30 minutes after the oven is up to the set temp; turn off the oven and let cool before removing the bottles.

 

[shoengine]

Mine are always "clean" before I bottle, but usually dusty on the outside, so I rinse them and as @Broken Crow suggests, give them a starsan dunk.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, back when I was bottling once I had accumulated a case of empties I would clean, sanitize, and drip dry them, then bag them in a case carton. On bottling day I would submerge them in ice cold sanitizer and pull them out to fill...

Cheers!