Cleaning bottles?

What is the gold standard for prepping used bottles for the next batch?

It is such a laborious process, what is the shortest time and best way to do it?

I soak 13 bottles vertically in a 5 gallon pail with hot water and oxyclean. I then dip them in starsan if there is any mineral scale from my hard water and oxyclean.

They then sit in a crate (covered) until I am ready to use them. Then I santize with a Vinator and bottle.

This is assuming "clean" bottles to start. I rinse them out with water after I pour the beer out of them so they are pretty clean. Something pulled from the dumpster might need a little more elbow grease.

I rinse them four times with hot tap water immediately after pouring. Dry 'em, store 'em in a covered bin, sanitize them right before bottling.

Hundreds if not thousands of beers bottled, never a single infection. Not all that much work, even.

If you don't rinse them, or get dirty bottles from friends, use a bottle brush to scrub them well. That's a bit of a pain, but cheaper than buying them.

To de-label, I soak them on OxyClean in hot water for a couple of hours, most labels peel themselves off, I just scrub off any other glue with a SS scrubbing pad.

Bottle brush in an electric drill and dish washing soap solution. If it is a corded drill be careful of splashing even on a protected circuit. Pre-soak bottles that have dried gunk in them.

Yeah, I knew about the labels, I am mostly interested in cleaning inside.

I have been rinsing with hot water and a good shake x2
Then stored upside down on rack until bottling day when they basically submerge in StarSan and drain right before filling.

No infections that I am aware of but I have been experiencing carbonation variations and foamy beers and am wondering if they could be caused by something residual inside the bottle?

brewkinger said:

I have been rinsing with hot water and a good shake x2
Then stored upside down on rack until bottling day when they basically submerge in StarSan and drain right before filling.

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This is way easier and faster than dunking.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnD4Xln-E9k"]Watch this video[/ame]

Rinse right after use. Wash in dishwasher with oxy. Toss in a Rubbermaid tote full of starsan and fill. Realize it is a pain in the arse and go to kegging. Realize cleaning kegs also sucks so buy more kegs so I only clean when around six are dirty to maximize my laziness or efficiency if you will.

I feel slightly DUH......,,..

Can't tell ya how many times I have seen the vinator in the last 8 months and never knew what it did.
I was so focused on learning the craft and getting a decent process down that it seems I have overlooked an obviously efficient and affordable time saver!

Thanks again HBT.

Off to buy a vinator. Thanks GenIke!

mgr_stl said:

Off to buy a vinator. Thanks GenIke!

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That's the way to go! It saves a lot of time and increases efficiency

Just ordered mine as well.

I was lucky enough to stumble on to a used bottle tree complete with vinator at my local brew shop for $10 before my first batch was ready to bottle. At the time, I didn't realize what a deal and a timesaver it was. I'm happy to say, I've never known any other way.

I recently purchased a SS Jet Bottle washer and I love it. I usually keep my bottles rinsed and under the sink after a pour. When it's time to bottle, I use the Jet / Vinator / Tree for rinsing and sanitizing while the priming sugar is cooling. It also comes in handy for rinsing my 3 gallon Better Bottle.

if you plan on bottling for a while you should check out this thread
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/malfets-bottle-washer-lazy-homebrewers-381452/

I have been collecting bottles for a while now(I keg). When I decided to clean them I filled a 5 gallon bucket with hot water and PBW. I place as many bottles as I can in there vertically; even some horizontally on top of the vertical ones, as long as I can completely fill the bottle. I let these soak overnight. Labels and everything simply fall off or dissolve(plastic labels will not). From there I take them out and rinse them inside and out and place them on my bottle tree. Once dry I put them in a cardboard 6 pack holder, and 4 of those go into a case. I simply put the beers upside down. Nothing is going to get up there and contaminate them. When it comes down to bottling, I will simply busy out my vinator and sanitize as many as I need and then place on my bottle tree and proceed to prepare whatever else I need before I start to bottle.

Not sure if the PBW mix can go bad after a certain amount of time or a certain amount of bottles but at 3 weeks and roughly 100 bottles it still works like magic.

I have the Ferrari vinator,45 bottle tree,& super agata bench capper. Makes bottling day more like a another fun bit of the process. I've found that delabeling Bottles from Paulaner,Sam Adams,Franziskaner,Wernesgruner in PBW will slip the labels off in about 30 minutes. Dobie & bottle brush them,rinse & onto bottle tree to dry before storage in covered boxes.
PBW can last awhile,& I keep a 1 gallon jug of it handy. But after delabeling bottles with it,I don't save it. I might use it to clean buckets or something before tossing it & making another gallon.

GMP428 said:

Not sure if the PBW mix can go bad after a certain amount of time or a certain amount of bottles but at 3 weeks and roughly 100 bottles it still works like magic.

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I use water and oxy, but I also use it over and over for bottles. Seems to work fine after many uses.

AMonkey said:

I use water and oxy, but I also use it over and over for bottles. Seems to work fine after many uses.

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I do pretty much the same thing as GMP and AMonkey.

I keep an 18 gallon tub full of water and OXY all the time. I just put in my bottles (with or with out labels) and let them sit over night. Or maybe a few nights. It all depends on what else is going on. My wife also does Kombucha so I put in her Grolsh bottles too.

Next if it was a labeled bottle, the label normally falls right off or comes off with no effort. Next I give the label goo a quick scrub with a curved tire (white wall) brush. If needed the bottles then get a quick scrub with the bottle brush on the inside.

Next a quick rinse in a 5 gallon bucket of plain water. Finally, another quick dip in a 5 gallon of Star San water (I keep a lid on this bucket to keep it fresh and clean). From there throw them on the bottle tree. Done.

All of my bottles are spot less when done. I typically put in a few Kombucha (Grolsh) bottes and beer bottles in the OXY tub every day and when I get 10 or so then I do them all at once. It works great and takes very little time and effort.

The 18 gallon OXY tub, 5 gallon water bucket, 5 gallon Star San bucket, and bottle tree stay in my unused shower in the basement all the time.

love the vinator...i rinse when empty and give them a couple shots from the vinator and hang them on the bottle tree...when bottling i repeat the process and fill

Do you people check your bottles with a flashlight, before and after brushing? I have never been able to remove all residue just by soaking. Sure the bottles look perfectly clean but there is an even residue on the inside that becomes obviouse if you stick a bottle brush in and see where the bottle brush makes it "actually clean" by comparison. I used to do the rinse&sanitize method and it did work but i doubt your bottles are clean.

I have a clamp on work light above my brew sink. It lights up the interior of the bottle very well to see if there are any specks left.

I started noticing that kind of thing late last year. That's why I now rinse the yeast trub out,fill to the shoulder with water,& scrub with the bottle brush. Rinse again then onto the bottle tree to dry. Def gets out what would become that filmy,crusty stuff.

flars said:

I have a clamp on work light above my brew sink. It lights up the interior of the bottle very well to see if there are any specks left.

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It's not specks. Specks are easy to see, and easy to rinse out. Just because a bottle has no debris in it doesn't mean it's clean. There is probably a very even film all over the inside of the bottle. You cannot see it with ANY light until you scrub some of it away for comparison. This is why I brush every single bottle now...i wish it was possible to get them truly clean with rinsing only, but I don't think it is.

When i'm done with bottles I will just soak them in the sink in some soapy water, gets them clean enough for storage and gets rid of the trub. When it's time to bottle again I throw them in the dishwasher. Mine has a Sani- rinse cycle and when its done I just open it up and let them dry/cool off. I have never had a problem with it, works great.

What is a vinator? Got it. Nevermind. Need a cheap bottle tree.

Cheap bottle tree= dishwasher rack after a sanitized cycle.

I love my bottle tree & vinator. Sure makes bottling day easier & faster.

I'll bleach mine. Get all that labels and gunk out of the botlles. Give them a look. Put them off to the side til' bottling day. Sanatize them. Look them over. balance them upside down on a clean towel. And hope 40 to 50 bottles stay in place.

In another thread similar to this one, I mentioned that some of our fellow brewers "over-think" and "over-do" some processes related to brewing. Once a new-to-my-collection bottle is CLEAN, I keep it that way by vigorously rinsing it out immediately after pouring. If the new-to-my-collection bottle is NOT clean, I do scrub with a bottle brush and some dish detergent. If I can't get it clean enough to suit myself, it goes into the recycling bin!

As I mentioned, once my bottles are CLEAN, I keep them that way. At bottling, all they need is rinsing and sanitation. My dishwasher does both of those chores for me.

If your process works for you, then use it while you RDWHAHB. Don't worry about what other brewers are doing. If your process does NOT work, then it's time to seek advice from other brewers.

glenn514

Agreed, I wash the bottles in un-scented dish soap, rinse put in dishwasher to hold the bottles the night before I brew. Then I soak 12 bottles at a time in a tote with a 5 gall batch of Star-San, and drain and bottle.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/medi...d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/j/e/jet-bottle-washer.jpg

Connect jet bottle washer to sink.
Jet wash bottles with hot water to remove what you can.
Vinator with pbw/tsp.
Clean with bottle brush connected to cordless drill.
Rinse with bottle jet
Empty vinator, rinse, fill with starsan.
Vinator with starsan. I also dip the necks into the starsan to sanitize the outside rim.
Put on bottle tree.

I've never had the wherewithal to rinse my bottles out as I was drinking from them, so I just set them aside until I had a bunch getting in my way in the garage. Once you get a rhythm, my process works really good for getting them clean, and as efficiently as I could make it. The first jet wash could be skipped if you rinse your bottles after pouring.

Of course this is all before I got kegs. Now I just look at my bottles and wonder why I don't just throw them out.

BetterSense said:

Do you people check your bottles with a flashlight, before and after brushing?

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Good point, I replaced 60w room light with a 100w light bulb. It works great for checking for crud in the bottom/sides of the bottle. Every bottle gets a quality check when dry to make sure it's spot less. I have had a few every now and then that have to go back in the tub for a re-soak and scrub with a the brush.

I have a friend that uses a standard spray bottle with Starsan in its useable dilution. He then just sprays the inside of the bottle with starsan (after a cleaning in PBW) and lets them drip dry on a rack. He then sprays them one last time as he bottles. He got me started with this technique and I have had good luck. I guess it is a lot like cheap mans vinator.

Kurt

Looks like I fall into the "lazy homebrewers" group again. I rinse each bottle within 24 hours of pouring (usually right after, but some nights it is safer just to start making a neat pile at some point and deal with it in the morning). Rinse is at least 3 shots of water, swirled around each time, and then checked afterwards but looking out a window or at a light through the bottle. From there, they sit in storage in a closet until they are called upon to fulfill a greater purpose.

On bottling day, I fill up the dishwasher with however many bottles I need, and run it through without any soap including the "heated dry" setting, which is what actually does a lot of the sanitizing. My dishwasher happens to have a "sani-rinse" setting, so I use that too, just for good measure. Takes about 3 hours for the dishwasher to run, but I am usually either A)back in bed B)watching TV or C) at work dreaming about getting home to bottle my beer.

Of course if you don't have a dishwasher, this is all moot.