Washing bottles

[Jloewe]

First time brewer. Did a 5 gallon of NB smashing pumpkin. I’ll need to bottle in a couple weeks. All the bottles I inherited are dirty and will need to be washed. I’m aware prevention is the easy way but that ship sailed before I brewed a drop. What’s the best way to clean all these scavenged bottles?

 

[3 Dawg Night]

I give them a soak in PBW or OxyClean. Then, I have a bottle brush that I can attach to my cordless drill. Works like a champ.

Throw out any bottles that you can't get COMPLETELY clean.

 

[Cool_Hand_Luke]

Get a bin and fill it with hot water and PBW (this is typically available at homebrew shops). Then put all the bottles in it and make sure they fully submerge and are full of water. Let it soak overnight and then rinse the bottles thoroughly and scrub the difficult ones with a bottle brush. After that sanitize them with starsan right before bottling. Welcome to the forum and the hobby!

 

[Joshua Hughes]

Oxyclean does well. If you got time Homebrewing shops, Amazon, north Brewe etc have power cleaners there are really good to. If they are dirty id probably do a cap of bleach and dish soap soak for a bit, rinse well, then oxyclean. I go overboard on cleaning.

 

[wsmith1625]

I always used a cooler and soaked the bottles in a hot water and Oxyclean solution. Let them soak for about an hour and the labels will fall off and the inside of the bottles should be crud free. Use a bottle brush to give a quick scrub and rinse well. This is quite a bit of work for a 5 gallon batch so plan on doing this before bottling day. Also rough on the hands.

On bottling day, give them a rinse with StarSan solution and fill them up. Make sure everything else is also rinsed in the StarSan solution to prevent infection, including the bottle caps.