Bottle Sanitizing

[iowabrewer]

How does everyone sanitize bottles before botteling? There are many ways and many different methods. How long should they sit exposed to the air? Should you use the dishwasher method? Any thoughts bottle people???

[Moboy]

I always throw them into the dish washer and put it on sanitize. Bada bing, bada boom it's done. Oh yeah, it's a b**** trying to submerge and rinse and dry 48 bottles in the tub.

[paul84043]

If they are new (to me) meaning either brand new bottles, or used ones that I have just purchased, I will run the bottle brush through them.
If I have used them once, I rinse them out immediately upon emptying them and I feel comfortable bypassing the brush part and just going for a quick dip in the sanitizing solution, mainly to clean out the inside since the dishwasher doesn't reach there very well, or at all.....
I usually use a 5 gallon bucket full of solution, I dunk a bunch of bottles and as they are sitting, I take my bottle brush which is attached to a cordless drill and give the inside a quick once over. (being careful not to flip the sanitizer into my face!! Safety glasses are a good idea here...
Then I dump the rest solution out into the bucket, and put the bottles into the dishwasher. Facing down of course.... I can typically fit 60 bottles easily into a dishwasher load.
It's important that the dishwasher be clean and not to use soap, just run a hot wash and a hot dry.
I try to time the washing of the bottles so that I can pull them straight out of the dishwasher and bottle the beer. You don't want the bottles blazing hot still, but you also don't want to pull them out and let them sit around for too long.
Don't touch the tops and try to keep the kids from playing with them...this has worked very well for me.

[yonkersbrewer]

I tried the "Papazian" idea of soaking my bottles in bleach during the week before I was ready to bottle and then covering them with foil. Then the day of bottling you just rinse the bleach water out of them. It was great in terms of timing since I split my work in half but the jury is still out since I haven't tried that batch yet. I'll let you know tomorrow since they are due to be done today!

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by yonkersbrewer
I tried the "Papazian" idea of soaking my bottles in bleach during the week before I was ready to bottle and then covering them with foil. Then the day of bottling you just rinse the bleach water out of them. It was great in terms of timing since I split my work in half but the jury is still out since I haven't tried that batch yet. I'll let you know tomorrow since they are due to be done today!

I do a variation of this with flip tops. I soak with bleach and then rinse, and then seal them up. Day of bottling, i just open and fill and close again. It has worked so far.

[BucksBrew]

I soaked my bottles in TSP (Trisodiumphosphate) over nite or longer. First time to remove labels & foil. Rinsed with tap water. Let them dry on my bottle tree, what a space saver! Then pack them in a box and cover with a new plastic trash bag. When I went to bottle I used a 2 oz. bleach per 5 gallon ratio to dip bottles in for about 10-15 seconds. Rinsed, put back on tree until I put beer in it.

I read also somewhere that when capping, let cap sit on top for 15 minutes before capping to let CO2 push Oxygen out

[yonkersbrewer]

Originally posted by BucksBrew
I soaked my bottles in TSP (Trisodiumphosphate) over nite or longer. First time to remove labels & foil. Rinsed with tap water. Let them dry on my bottle tree, what a space saver! Then pack them in a box and cover with a new plastic trash bag. When I went to bottle I used a 2 oz. bleach per 5 gallon ratio to dip bottles in for about 10-15 seconds. Rinsed, put back on tree until I put beer in it.

I read also somewhere that when capping, let cap sit on top for 15 minutes before capping to let CO2 push Oxygen out

:( Does the 15 second bleach rinse work for you? I don't see TSP as a sanitizer, and the lag time might allow for recontamination. I suppose though that experience is the best teacher. No bad batches using this method?

[BucksBrew]

4-22-03 Is the day I taste my first batch! I guess I will find out if the bleach method works or not. One dollar per gallon treats 320 gallons of water! I ran out of one step, so I used bleach method from Papazian book. If the beer tastes fine I may continue with bleach. Splashing and smell are concerns though.

The bottles hit the bleach solution, rest 10-15 minutes then get beer in them. I would hope that they don't get contaminated that soon! If so I'm in trouble.

I'd like to think I am very clean during the brewing and bottling process. Everything is sanitized before, during, and after brewing. I keep a large tupperware flat dish filled with one step/Bleach solution that I dip things in before I use them. Stirring spoon, hose, thermometer, etc.

[BucksBrew]

Yonkers: I only intend to use TSP for first time bottle use to remove labels and foil. And if grunge is heavy on containers, let them soak overnite. Otherwise I will use 2 oz. bleach per 5 gallons water for same purpose per Papazian book.

I new to brewing and still am experimenting with Pro's and Con's of different sanitizers and cleaners.

[paul84043]

I started using One Step, then changed to Star San because the exposure time is only 30 seconds. It seems to work very well, it's a mixture of phosphoric acid (which you drink in soda pop) and another that I can't pronounce. It doesn't really have a smell, you only mix one ounce to 5 gallons of water and I have noticed that after a full evening of brewing activities, the skin on my hands is beginning to get a little rough, meaning that the acid is definitely working....
It's a no rinse, but I still try to drain completely and flip or shake off as much as I can.
It's also supposed to be a penetrating sanitizer, not just a surface cleaner.

I usually keep a 5 gallon bucket full as well for continual rinsing and soaking, and for washing my hands off whenever I am going to grab things.

I have already been working on my first batch, I only have one case left and it's damn good!

It seems to have "smoothed out" over the month that it's been aging, I started "sampling" it after the one week carbonation period because I wanted to get a feel for what changes it goes through.
I started bottling small "sampler" bottles using the Coronita (small corona) bottles, that way you don't have to use a whole beer just to test things out.

It's very satisfying and interesting to have made your own beer and to have had it turn out really good!!
I have finished 3 batches and have two more going right now...
I decided that I need at least two going at a time to be able to make "enough", whatever that is...
I'm not looking forward to doing lagers since they take so long to finish.....it's going to drive me crazy waiting 3 months to test a beer.

[BucksBrew]

Paul: Not having done any research on homebrewing I told my wife get me the Super Deluxe kit with Pilsner Urquell and Bass Clone kits.

Both use a lager yeast and due to my uncertainty in finished fermenting activity, think it will be 3.5-4 months until I crack one open!

I made the Bass clone last week. It started bubbling quickly, 16-18 hours or so at room temp. I moved it to the garage at 52-54 degrees and it stopped bubbling! Great I said, so I gave it a slow circular swirl, the fermenter woke up and has been bubbling nicely for about 4-5 days. Couple more days I'll rack to glass carboy. Then I will make a Brown Ale which may be finished before the other two batches!

Then my wife wants me to make Root Beer for her and the kids!

PS: I will check out that Star San, sounds good, dual action cleaner and sanitizer.

[RAL]

I have been using a hydrogen peroxide based contact sanitizer that is "no rinse" without failure to date. It is called Brewiser Brewshield.
My method is as follows: Wash rinse and dry all bottles as per whatever method.
Fill one bottle with the required concentration of sanitizer plus a bit and boiled water.
Transfer this solution to each bottle in turn via a funnel. This ensures that a thin film of this solution remains in each bottle after it is treated and left to stand for possibly 15 minutes.Bottle your brew and feel like an expectant mother/father until tasting time.
I have used this method in temperatures ranging from 32 deg.C (90 deg.F) and 15 deg.C (60 deg.F).
Best Wishes

[DaddyMakesBeer]

After using bleach on my bottles for the first couple of years, I moved to iodophor and have been happy with it ever since.

To me, bleach had two main drawbacks: First, it's corrosive as hell. Yeah, it kills *everything*, but it'll also eat your bottles if not diluted properly. Second, because you have to rinse like crazy to make sure your homebrew doesn't taste like Clorox, bleach requires a LOT of water. Here in Southern California that can get expensive.

Iodophor is simpler, cleaner, uses less water and won't muck up your beer. Here's my drill: After I finish a homebrew, I rinse the bottle well with warm-to-hot water and put it back in its box it upside down. This prevents new crap from getting inside. When it's time to bottle, I soak the bottles in an iodophor solution for at least 20 minutes. (The label says 5 minutes is sufficient, but I like to play it safe.) While they're soaking I line the bottom of the box with clean power towels. When the bottles are done I shake 'em out and place 'em upside down in the box. Voila.

[tenorvoice0739]

Well, I am pretty lax when it comes to bottling day, so this may raise some red flags with some of you.

I remove the Sammy labels and rinse the bottles. Store'em an the sanitized bottling tree and wait a week while the batch clarifies in the secondary fermenter.

The day of, I use that handy little sanitizer injector that fits on the tree and give each bottle a shot.

I figure that the time it takes to rack the beer into the bottling bucket and priming, the bottles should be good to go.

Quick, easy, and I havn't had a batch go bad.

[b3s]

quick and easy:


place oven rack at 2nd lowest position.
preheat oven to 350F.
lay bottles on rock on their sides. create a pyramid of sorts, 2 layers thick.
set timer for 30 minutes.
after timer goes off, turn off oven and let bottles cool.


bottles are now sterile. takes about an hour to be cool enough to handle.

compared to the three hours it took me to sanitize, rinse, and dry my bottles this past wednesday (first time bottling beer) i will be sterilizing in the oven from now on.

[DaddyMakesBeer]

I tried the oven thing once and the bottles smelled kinda ... funky. Don't know what happened. They were clean when I cooked 'em. Anyway, probably worth a try again.

[b3s]

if i remember right from ages and ages ago when i used to help ma can and pickle...glass does that.

one things for sure...let them cool before handling them! ;)

[donut]

i read from my homebrew supplies stores web site www.brewersconnection.com that putting your bottles on the bottom rack of your dish washer and adding a capfull of bleach works...i havent bottled anything yet but will probly be trying this method in a few days (hopefully) the only problem is that i cant fit all my bottles in the dishwasher i dunno mabye ill just soak the rest in the bottling bucket while its sanitizing or somthin

[paul84043]

I use both racks on my dishwasher and I don't bother with bleach.
I can do about 50 to 60 bottles at a time if I'm organized.

I sanitize them in solution first, just a dunk into a bucket of sanitized water for the prescribed amount of time, then into the dishwasher for a hot wash and hot dry cycle, you're basically looking for the heat to sterilize your bottles, just like the oven cycle.

The sanitizing guarantees that they are clean inside and the heat is an insurance policy. Plus it's a great place to leave them until you're ready to use them....I try to time it so that they get a chance to sit for a few minutes to cool before using them. Just be careful not to touch the mouths of the bottles.