Bottle prep

[fretlessman71]

I'd love to get a whole bunch of bottles ready for bottling IN ADVANCE of my next brew. Is there any way that I can do this so all I have to do is fill bottles on bottling day?

[Tweek]

not unless you kept them in solution until you bottle. As soon as they are out in the air they run the rick of becoming infected again. Though I suppose you could cap em then un cap em when you bottle.

[fretlessman71]

So, if I cleaned them, sanitized them, shook them out really good, and capped them with sanitized caps, I could just uncap, fill, recap? I like that. Caps are cheap....

[GunNut76]

Why go through all that trouble fret? Why dont you just sanitize them, put them in one of those big rubbermaid totes and when you are ready to bottle you make up 1 gal of sani solution and give each bottle a quick dip before filling...besides it's surprising how many swear words you can get out in the 10 seconds after you realize that you are short by 7 caps! Trust me...I know! :mad:

[axis714]

I take it even 1 step further w/ my cap bottles. In my cold cellar room I have a 30 gal trash can with a snap tight lid i keep full of my brown bottles and filled w/5 star solution..on bottling day i pull out and drain the 1s im going to use and replace with others for the next batch also i can use it whenever i need to sanitize something and i dont have any solution on hand.

[b3s]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
So, if I cleaned them, sanitized them, shook them out really good, and capped them with sanitized caps, I could just uncap, fill, recap? I like that. Caps are cheap....

i think you'll find that unless you really love bottle capping (i know i don't) that process will be a real PITA.

[Tweek]

yeah, Im with the others on this one. I didnt think you would actually go for it :) I suppose you could give ita try and if it is worth it for you then great.

[fretlessman71]

I guess the one thing I'm not quite clear on is: just how much sanitizer can be left in the bottle I'm about to use? I know it's not toxic (one step), but I want to know what I can and can't get away with, or better yet, what all of YOU can and can't get away with. I want to make some of this stuff a simple process that I enjoy, and not an ordeal that I abhor... and I promised myself that I wasn't going to try kegging until I 1) had the money for it; 2) had the space for it and 3) had time to play with all of these toys I buy. So far I'm oh-for-3....

[GunNut76]

1/4oz Star-San to 1 gal of water...I just dip, drain, shake and fill. (kinda sounds like I'm takin' a leak:D ) I have had no problems yet that have been caused by the sanitizer...I just gotta get the carb levels right!

[kevin]

If I know I'm going to bottle on a certain night I place the bottles in the dishwasher before going to work in the morning and run. Then I put paper towels in the bottom of the box when I get home the bottles are clean/cool place them upside down in the box go to the basement and bottle. I never had any problem this way.

[Tweek]

I have a bottle tree. They are relatively inexpensive and I can fit just under 4 cases on mine. There is a spring loaded sanitizer that goes on the top of it. So I just push the bottle on the spring thing, sanitizer shoots into the bottle then I put it on a "branch" and it drips out while I squirt the rest of em. The purchase of the tree has made bottling ten times easier for me.

[evilredlight]

there is also a thread in the sanitizing section about baking bottles. I tried this and it seems to have worked (except a few broke when i capped).

I took all my bottles and washed/rinsed them.
Covered them with a piece of foil, squished tight on the top and around the rim.

Stacked them in a cold oven
Turned the oven on to 365 degrees
when it had warmed to temp set timer for one hour
turned off oven waited for temp to cool
take them out and back in box

You have bottles with tinfoil caps
all you do is take off foil and fill.

****warning****
I baked four dozen bottles and broke four while capping
****warning****

[Beerconnoisseur]

It'd probably be easiest to clean the bottles, sani them, then let them drain upside down, and cover with a small square of saran-wrap. I use saran-wrap to cover my bottling bucket; probably not really necessary, but every little bit helps. :)

[chazwicke]

I used to run them through the dishwasher on sterilize but without soap before I was going to bottle. Never had a problem.

[S.F.B.]

This is the method I have been using. I have cut and pasted from my LHBS's web site.

Set the dishwasher to run through a short, minimum-length, rinse cycle and let it start, but here is the critical factor: you must have the "heat-dry" option activated at the end of the drying cycle. Do NOT have the energy-saving option on, where the bottles dry naturally. You must have the blazing hot, steam-producing, heat-dry setting activated at the end of the rinse. This pasteurizes the glass bottles. Let the entire rinse and drying cycle finish then allow the bottles to cool so that you can touch them before opening the door of the 'washer.

[Beerconnoisseur]

Originally posted by chazwicke
I used to run them through the dishwasher on sterilize but without soap before I was going to bottle. Never had a problem.

I used to use this method, but after having some bottles shatter from overpressurization, I'm convinced that repeated heating/cooling can make them more brittle. However, if you never bottle a beer which can create these pressures, you should be OK.

[toneyc]

I'm with Tweek on this one. If you're gonna bottle, Star-San and the bottle tree are the way to go. Dip 52 bottles and put em on the tree. Put em on the tree in order so that you can take em off in the same order. (FIFO) When you get tired of that, go corny.

:)
Toney.

[b3s]

when i bottle, i can sanitize about sixteen 12 oz. bottles or twelve 16 oz. bottles in my bottling bucket at a time. then into the drying rack they go.

double-capping just sounds way too time consuming to me.

[fretlessman71]

I took a cardboard box that didn't have a lid, covered the top with clear strapping tape and cut 12 holes in it big enough to accomodate an upside-down bottle neck. I used this for my drying rack. Am I inviting infection this way?

[b3s]

i just use my kitchen drying rack...i'd be concerned using cardboard boxes, but then, i've talked to people who are shocked that i don't sanitize my drying rack before putting bottles on it.

i'd say, as long as the cardboard doesn't come into contact near the mouth of the bottle, go for it and give it a try.

[GunNut76]

I would go out and get a bottle tree ASAP Fretless...I make cardboard for a living and you don't know what is in the starch used to glue the three seperate pieces of paper togeather. I know that some of the chemicals we put in the starch contain a little bit of formaldahyde. We also add caustic soda and borax to our starch. Just thought you would like to know. ;) Just don't worry about using the box one time...you will get away with it.

80 Bottle tree is less than $20 from my LHBS.

[kevin]

how long could you leave bottles on that tree if you sanitize your bottles but for some reason can't get to bottling as soon as you had hope? The bottles are upside down so I think a day or two max maybe?

[bierboy]

Originally posted by axis714
I take it even 1 step further w/ my cap bottles. In my cold cellar room I have a 30 gal trash can with a snap tight lid i keep full of my brown bottles and filled w/5 star solution..on bottling day i pull out and drain the 1s im going to use and replace with others for the next batch also i can use it whenever i need to sanitize something and i dont have any solution on hand.

This sounds like a great idea! I only have one concern and that is that the trash can should be food safe so there is no chance of anything leaching from the plastic. But, I may just be paranoid.......

[Asahikun]

I thought I'd just throw this in since it might make everyone grateful for how easy life has become in countries where homebrewing is common......
I put all the bottles I need in the bath( 38~40), throw in 4 to 5 capfulls of kitchen bleach and then fill it with cold water. Boil my caps while smoking a couple of cigarettes. Change into my "don't care if I get bleach on them" clothes and head back to the bathroom. Put on a good CD really loud and then proceed to:
(1) Make sure each bottle is totally filled.
(2) Clean with a bottle brush, shake and empty.
(3) Fill with hot water.
(4) Empty under a hot tap to clean off bleach on the outside.
(5) Fill again with hot water.
(6) Empty.
(7) Wipe outside with a towel.
Takes about an hour. Get changed again coz I'm usually pretty wet by now which isn't much fun, especially in winter.
Fill with beer. Be sure to taste sometime in the middle of bottling - I find 200ml is about right.
Then I usually sit back and drink a homwbrew while patting myself on the back.