Bottle preparation question

[IPAAAA]

So I am getting ready to bottle for the first time next week. I want to get all the bottles clean and sanitized and ready to go before then. (save me some time)

Is there a preferred method to clean the bottles and safely keep them clean and sanitized till you are ready to bottle? There some kind of cheap bungs you can buy and just plug the bottles with?

 

[yodalegomaster]

New sheet of paper in the bottom of the case and store them up side down. The bad stuff is free floating and must fall in, that's very hard to do when they are up side down.

 

[smokinghole]

Keep an eye out locally for a bottling tree and pick up a vinator. That makes bottling such a piece of cake that I'm not in a rush to keg at the moment. I sanitize with starsan minutes before bottling.

 

[Chuck_Swillery]

I am partial to just sanatizing in a dishwasher and letting them set no more than a few hours. yodalegomaster's idea isn't a bad one. I'm so anal about that stuff I'd worry about the dust that might fall onto the paper leading to contamination. However, in all honestly, you'd likely be fine.

 

[IPAAAA]

Anyone else?

 

[MartyB]

Clean ahead of time, sanitize just before bottling.

Get yourself a vinator. It'll add 5-10 minutes onto the whole process, but you know your bottles are sanitary.

 

[dotnetdotcom]

I've sanitzed bottles a day or 2 ahead of time and covered with a small piece of plastic food wrap or foil.

 

[Edcculus]

+1 on what Smokinghole said. I just got a vinator a few months ago and am pissed I didn't get one years ago. The bottle tree is great too.

My favorite bottle cleaning method is those jet bottle washers you attach to a sink. Turn on the hot water and blast the inside of each bottle, pump on the vinator and place on the tree. 1 person can clean and sanitize 50 bottles in no time.

 

[IPAAAA]

I am trying to think of something more long term to keep the bottles clean and ready to go. Say a few weeks.

 

[KAMMEE]

I wouldn't go for weeks... too much risk in a long period of time. I think most of these suggestions will work maybe for the night before bottling day. I think the easiest way to do this is to ensure your bottles are clean (free of particulate matter) by using a bottle brush if they need it, then you can box them up. I throw my bottles in the dishwasher before I leave for work in the morning and when I get back they're done and sanitized. The hardest part is loading them in which takes all of five minutes.

 

[rico567]

Most of my bottles are commercial ND/NR 12 oz. longnecks. I initially clean and delabel with PBW, not Oxiclean, because my water is too hard. Rinse thoroughly. (This step is omitted for the second & subsequent bottlings.) I then use the vinator to squirt Star San up into each bottle, and place in the dishwasher. The dishwasher is then run prior to bottling, so I basically do a "double" sanitizing. For subsequent use, the bottles are thoroughly rinsed when the beer is poured. After doing it this way for three years, I'm convinced that this is adequate cleaning. I then just store the bottles until it's time to sanitize and bottle again.

The big time-saver in this process is the vinator.

 

[AnOldUR]

. . . There some kind of cheap bungs you can buy and just plug the bottles with?

For storage, I set a cap loose on top of my bottles and put them on a shelf in the basement. (Rinsed and run through diswasher first.) But I sanitize (in dishwasher) again before bottling.

You could probably get away with using a sanitized cap loose on top of a sanitize bottle for the short term.

 

[Tinga]

it should be mentioned when you wash your bottles in a dishwasher don't use any detergent. just run it with a hot water cycle and hot air dry. no rinse aid either.

 

[Revvy]

Clean ahead of time, sanitize just before bottling.

Get yourself a vinator. It'll add 5-10 minutes onto the whole process, but you know your bottles are sanitary.

Exactly. You should sanitize on bottling day. 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.


Here's a lot of bottling tips to make the job easier. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

 

[Ichthy]

Place a small piece of foil over the top of your bottles. Put in 350 oven for a couple of hours. Don't remove foil caps and they are sterile forever. Just make sure the bottles are clean before heating.

 

[TotemWolf]

Revvy's post on bottling should answer most if not all of your questions.

I'm bottling tomorrow so what I'll do is get my bottles together today. If I need to remove any labels I'll give them a soak in the cooler full of One Step or Oxi Clean. That makes the label float off in an hour or so. Next I'll jet wash/rinse each bottle with hot water just to make there is no residue in bottom.
Tomorrow I'll get ready to bottle. Each bottle will then be rinsed with StarSan using a Vinator. Using this method I've never had a single problem.

 

[IPAAAA]

Good stuff everyone. Thanks.

 

[deezy]

My bottles get an oxyclean free bath for 24 hrs, labels peel off with ease. Then rise them out in the sink real good and sit them out to dry. Bottle day, I prep a 5g bucket of starsan to sanatize everything. Fill a spray bottle with some of the solution, and spray the mist into each bottle while rotating. Let them sit for a few then swirl while dumping starsan out. Fill and cap.

 

[Joe_in_GA]

Place a small piece of foil over the top of your bottles. Put in 350 oven for a couple of hours. Don't remove foil caps and they are sterile forever. Just make sure the bottles are clean before heating.

This is what I do. Then I just give 'em a quick squirt of Star San and let them drain on the tree while I'm transfering to the bottling bucket. Never had any problems.