When to sanitize bottles?

[torpkev]

Hi all,

I'm just getting ready to bottle my 2nd batch - and I was wondering when everyone sanitizes their bottles.

Up till now, I've washed the bottles and kept them on a shelf - and then sanitized right before bottling.

However - I was wondering if its ok to sanitize earlier and store them, and if so - do I need to do anything special such as covering them.

Thanks

 

[unionrdr]

You have to sanitize them right before filling. Star-san,for one,needs to be wet on the surface to work properly.

 

[Revvy]

If using a no-rinse/wet contact sanitizer like iodophor or starsan you should always sanitize fresh, and leave things wet. You should sanitize on bottling day (or brew day if you are brewing.) It only takes a few minutes. If you let a no-rinse, wet contact sanitizer like starsan or iodophor, dry your are reducing it's efficacy by half. If it is dry, any micro organisms that touch the surface render it no longer sanitized. If the walls are wet with sanitizer, that organism would be toast. But dry it would still be alive.

Si I recommend you sanitize, on bottling day, or brew day. Sanitize fresh and leave thigns wet.

If you follow the advice in my bottling sticky, i shouldn't take all that long. My entire bottling process including sanitization is about an hour for a 5 gallon batch of beer.

 

[torpkev]

Thats what I did first time around - so I guess I'll keep on doing that.

Thanks

 

[mlyday]

Ive sanitized the night before, but covered the bottle with a couple of layers of paper towel soaked in sanitizer. Ive never had any issues doing that.

 

[Revvy]

Ive sanitized the night before, but covered the bottle with a couple of layers of paper towel soaked in sanitizer. Ive never had any issues doing that.

Yeah if you are going to pre sanitize, something like this is probably the safest thing to do.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I usually stack the bottles in the dishwasher with no soap and no rinse agent and run them through a sanitize cycle the night before. Then on bottling day, I spritz with starsan, fill and cap.

 

[mrbippers]

As others mentioned, sanitizing just before bottling is best. I keep a 5 gal Home Depot bucket full of starsan. It easily fits 12 bottles in there at a time. I'll just dunk a dozen in at a time, while I'm filling the one set the next is in there soaking. Drain and repeat. Pretty simple process.

 

[Dale_3rd]

I use a bottle tree. I typically rinse all the bottles first, then run them through a vinator with starsan and placed on the bottle tree. 45 bottles ready to go and kept throat down until flipped and filled. Works great. I like the other few that have posted on here about they use the dishwasher and bottle over the door for drips...bottles in the racks until ready; that seems like a great way to keep the SWMBO happy.

 

[unionrdr]

I love using my bottle tree & vinator. Quick & easy.

 

[torpkev]

well I got the 2nd batch bottled - had my sanitizer in a tub that held 6 bottles at a time, so made a little conveyer belt of it.. 6 being filled - 6 in the sanitizer - 6 waiting to go in the sanitizer.

Seemed to work well, and got it done in about an hour and a half - not bad - I had a few early hiccups - my bottling bucket wasn't quite high enough, so had a lot of bending over to do.. and a slight crimp in my tube leading to my bottling rod thingy (i swear i'll get all the names down eventually! ) and it started coming out foamy. Realized quickly but had a bit of cleanup to do, and once i got that fixed it was a pretty simple process.

Thanks for the ideas guys - I'll be sure to get the process down a little better for the next go around.

 

[unionrdr]

Check out my bottling video in my profile. I show my set up & explain some things. That should give you some ideas to make it easier next time around.

 

[BigTerp]

I love using my bottle tree & vinator. Quick & easy.

These 2 items make bottling so much easier. Here is my method of bottling, probably overkill but it works well for me.

I first rinse each bottle with my high pressure bottle washer attached to my kitchen faucet. From there they go into the dishwasher and get a high temp wash with no soap and high temp dry. I place my botting bucket on the counter top directly above the dishwasher. I use my vinator to sanitize 12 bottles which go on the bottling tree. I fill 12 placing them on the dishwasher door once they are full. I cap the 12 full bottles and repeat. I'll be bottling an IPA tomorrow so I'll run my bottles through the dishwasher tonight and leave them until I'm ready to bottle. With this method I can usually bottle a 5 gallon batch in less than 1-1/2 hours, including cleanup.

 

[unionrdr]

Set up to clean up is also about 1.5 hours for me as well. Maybe longer if I'm getting brewus interuptus,or I'm enjoying myself. I kept my old printer stand to turn into a fermenter stand/storage unit. My wife thinks it's one of my better ideas. Just the right height for fluid transfers. I put my bottles on top of my old 12 pack cooler & sit down when bottling. My bottling video shows how I have everything within arms reach sitting down.

 

[Rev2010]

+1 on the Vinator/bottle tree combo. The Vinator sits right on the top of the bottle tree. What I do is after I finish drinking a beer from one of my bottles I give it a good rinse 4 times in the sink. I fill the bottle up 1/3 - 1/2 way full, cover the mouth with my other hand and shake it back and forth briefly. Then drain and repeat till I've done it 4 times and then I stick it on my bottle tree to dry. Come bottling day I just sanitize them before filling with the Vinator and I've never had a problem. I don't even wash the bottles, it's too much a PITA without a jetsprayer thingy. If you rinse out the bottles really well immediately after emptying them there's really no need. Maybe for plastic bottles since plastic is porous but not with glass.


Rev.

 

[mrbippers]

I don't even wash the bottles, it's too much a PITA without a jetsprayer thingy. If you rinse out the bottles really well immediately after emptying them there's really no need.

Same here. Rinse them, they sit on the counter a couple days til they make it down to the basement where I have an old dishwasher not hooked up to water/power I use as a drying rack. Soak in star-san on bottling day. Never a problem.

 

[nilo]

I don't use any sanitizer in my bottles.
I noticed that after few reuses, my bottles would develop a light coat on the inside that could not be removed by just shaking water on it of with a hot water jet or dish washing cycle (plus I have labels that I don't want destroyed), so I started washing it with soap and a brush that I attach to my drill (not a regular brush), I know, overkill.
But few seconds and a hot rinse with my bottle washer gives me very clean bottles, which again, I don't sanitize. Have been doing this for several batches with no infections.

 

[crazyseany]

do you guys spray or rinse the bottle tree before or after use? Just curious

 

[Rev2010]

do you guys spray or rinse the bottle tree before or after use? Just curious

I rinse and spray the bottle tree with sanitizer the day I am bottling, before I sanitize the bottles of course. Basically the day of bottling I take off any bottles still on the tree. Typically when the bottles are dry I put them back into the Franziskaner cardboard cases they originally came in. In case you're wondering I de-foiled and de-labeled the bottles so they are plain blank bottles.

Anyhow, so I take off the bottles that are still on there and set them aside. I put the bottle tree with Vinator on top in my bathtub and use the spray showerhead to rinse the whole thing off, just to remove any dust. Since the Vinator collects water you simply carefully turn the tree upside down for the Vinator to dump and drain - hold it though as after a few uses it tends to slip off upsidedown. Then I spray the whole tree down with a spray bottle that has a StarSan mixture from my last brew day (from the sanitizing bucket). Then I bring it in the kitchen, fill the Vinator with sanitizer from the sanitizing bucket I'm using on bottling day and begin sanitizing the bottles.

I basically only pump them on there no more than 6 times each, no less than 4, and put them on the tree. Once they are all done I go through the other steps of moving my fermenter into the kitchen, sanitizing the spigot to take one last FG reading, and sanitizing whatever else I'm using like the bottling wand and caps. Then I proceed to fill each bottle and rest a cap on top and move it aside. When I am done filling them all I take one at a time and benchcap them and marker the cap with a Sharpie to denote which beer it is. Sorry this was a long reply, hope it helps.


Rev.

 

[crazyseany]

sounds good to me Rev.
how many batches do you bottle at a time? Is the bench capper worth it? I have a regular hand capper (actually I've acquired 3 of them lol)

 

[dantheman13]

I don't even wash the bottles, it's too much a PITA without a jetsprayer thingy. If you rinse out the bottles really well immediately after emptying them there's really no need.

Same here too. Immediately after pouring my beer into a glass from the bottle, I rinse the bottle the same way you do. Pour hot water half way, cover the mouth, and shake. Do this 4-5 times. Focus hard if you are drunk. In addition to this, I have a bottle of iodophor I keep on the kitchen counter. I pour 1/6 of a cap into the bottle after I've rinsed it, fill it with water and let it sit for a few hours or a day. I store the bottle in a cardboard box upside down, since bacteria doesn't grow upwards (refer to the aluminum foil on a yeast starter method). The idea is to not let the beer or sediment to dry in the bottle before cleaning it. The only time I have a dirty bottle is when I get one back from a friend, and I have yet to have a detectable infection in my bottles (in the fermenter is another story!).

Obviously, I also sanitize just before bottling as well, but I can skip the cleaning because of how I manage my bottles directly after pouring the beer. I use a bottling tree as well. Funny looking thing, but I couldn't bottle without it!

 

[Rev2010]

sounds good to me Rev.
how many batches do you bottle at a time? Is the bench capper worth it? I have a regular hand capper (actually I've acquired 3 of them lol)

I don't do more than two batches a day because I have three fermenters and stagger at least one to be ready a week later or so than the others. The benchcapper is soooo worth it! I have a wing capper too and they are cool and nice but I find it quicker with the bench capper. Only thing though is all my glass bottles are the same size - 500ml (16.9oz) I've heard the bench capper can bust if it's set to different sizes often as the plastic can break. I can't attest to that being true or not since all mine are one size.


Rev.