EZ-Cap Bottles

[batkins]

How do you sanitize the cap for EZ-Cap (Grolsh type) bottles? Can I just run them through the dishwasher with the heat dry? Will that kill the rubber washers? Should I soak them in Iodophor? If so, how do you dry them and keep them sanitary? If I set them on a paper towel or somthing.....they are dirty again, right? What's the best option? :confused:

[paul84043]

I actually do both, I sanitize with (whatever floats your boat) making sure that there is no trapped stuff in the nooks and crannys with a visual. I like to use Star San since it is rumored to be a penetrating, no rinse sanitizer.
Then I run them through the dishwasher with the heat cycle.
I try to time the bottling so that the gaskets are still warm, but the bottles are not hot, if you get what I'm saying. I feel that they will seal better that way.

New gaskets range from .05 to .15 cents, and I would fully expect them to last several bottlings if not more. I'm guessing a year or so. Just look for signs of wear, cracking, and the like. They're so cheap, I don't really see replacing the gaskets every year a big deal.
I think that the convenience is worth the tiny extra cost, plus the bottles look really cool...

[batkins]

Cool, sounds like a pretty good plan.

[YamahaXS]

I just soak in a bleach/water solution... completely un-professional i know, but that way i sanitze bottle and flip top at the same time. Rinse and then reseal the bottle until ready to fill with beer. I actually will do small batches of bottles this way, so that when it is time to bottle, my bottles are ready to go.


By the way, i have been using these type of bottles for at least 3 years now and I am still on my first set of gaskets. I have recently bought some new gaskets for some old (really cool looking) French .3 liter bottles that had melted gaskets. The first batch of beer in the 'La Petites" will be ready this weekend.

What ever time you spend sanitizing the fliptop assemblies you will save more time during the bottling process.

[CaptHook]

IF YOU SANITIZE, AND THEN RINSE, ARE YOU STERILE?
WHAT DO YOU RINSE WITH?
I ONLY USE IODINE AND DRIP DRY, NO RINSE.
IS THERE A BETTER WAY?

[yonkersbrewer]

CaptHook IF YOU SANITIZE, AND THEN RINSE, ARE YOU STERILE?

Gee, that would be great if it worked! Cuz I am far too much of a chicken to get a vasectomy!

[paul84043]

Some Sanitizers need to be rinsed, in that case you would have to use boiled water to rinse which would be a real pain in the butt if you ask me!!

BLeach for instance seems to ba controversial sanitizer, some love it, some hate it. It has to be rinsed, and rinsed very well.

I have a bottle of Iodophor, but I have never opened it. The Star San seems to work very well and sanitizes faster.

[CaptHook]

Originally posted by paul84043
[. The Star San seems to work very well and sanitizes faster. [/B]
This is a brew shop item?

[YamahaXS]

As a bleach user, i do rinse, and rinse very very well at that... BUT i can't stand the idea of using any sort of santizer and NOT rinsing. So tap water might is not sterile... either i am lucky, or or there is very little risk of getting some beasties from the tap.

[paul84043]

Star San is available at all of the local brew shops here in Utah, I'm pretty sure that I have seen it online as well.
It only requires 30 second contact and is supposed to penetrate into any foreign matter that you might have missed. It is a combination of Phosphoric acid and another that I can't even begin to pronounce. It's a "one step" no rinse cleaner and sanitizer, and is supposed to leave absolutely no aftertaste or effect on your beer. It's a bit strange, but seems to work very well.

I know that tap water is supposed to be pretty clean. I don't know, I just went with the path of absolute certainty. I clean with bleach to get the plastic completely clean and scent free, then I rinse like mad, and then I sanitize. I figure that if I ever get a bacterial infection, I will know that it's not due to something that I am doing wrong!!

[danno]

hey Yamaha, (and everyone else, I guess....) here's a great article about using Idophor and the theory of the "No Rinse"...

Bay Area Mashers.org (http://www.bayareamashers.org/iodophor.htm)

I use both Idophor and Star San, supposedly Stan San actually can improve head retention... (sorry, no cite...)

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by danno
hey Yamaha, (and everyone else, I guess....) here's a great article about using Idophor and the theory of the "No Rinse"...

Bay Area Mashers.org (http://www.bayareamashers.org/iodophor.htm)

I use both Idophor and Star San, supposedly Stan San actually can improve head retention... (sorry, no cite...)

that was a good read, but it is a fear of taste that makes me want to rinse, its a fear of chemicals. lol completely irrational! oh well, my method has been good so far so i will stick to it... although bleach is a pain if you ever splash it.

[Moboy]

tap water for the most part is fine to rinse with. The alcohol in beer (not all beers. Milds and such are pretty low) will usually kill off any microbes that may be lurking around. This is my experience, anyway.

[paul84043]

Yamaha, yeah, the bleach thing is a pain, but it works so well, doesn't it?

People are funny aren't they, we are hesitant to inadvertently consume any of the sanitizing solutions, which are clean and microbe free by definition, (and it makes perfect sense) but we happily look forward to drinking 5 gallons of boiled goo that has sat in the closet, warm, with a thriving population of micro-organisms that we actually PUT in it, just going to town in it for the past two to four weeks!!

And we wonder why aliens haven't come down and tried to talk to us yet?
:rolleyes:

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by paul84043
Yamaha, yeah, the bleach thing is a pain, but it works so well, doesn't it?

People are funny aren't they, we are hesitant to inadvertently consume any of the sanitizing solutions, which are clean and microbe free by definition, (and it makes perfect sense) but we happily look forward to drinking 5 gallons of boiled goo that has sat in the closet, warm, with a thriving population of micro-organisms that we actually PUT in it, just going to town in it for the past two to four weeks!!

And we wonder why aliens haven't come down and tried to talk to us yet?


LOL, I guess the kind of aliens that like beer haven't discovered us yet. :D

[paul84043]

I hope they don't either...thay might just come down, zap us with a freeze ray, and perform strange medical experiments on us while they're drinking it!