Cleaning bottles

[phillygreen]

WHats up everyone
I'm about ready to bottle my first batch this weekend, anyone have any tips on cleaning and sanitizing. I heard oxyclean was a good product not only to clean bottles but to soak them in to remove the labels.
Also once bottles are clean is it ok to run a high temp sanitize cycle on your dishwasher and put them in there.
Or would the best bet be to oxyclean them for about 24-48 hrs remove all labels and spray surface sanitizer on inside and out then fill and cap?

 

[bleme]

Sounds like you got it except I would submerge in the sanitizer if you go that route.

 

[james2507]

http://www.brew2bottle.co.uk/bottle-rinser.html one of these makes it alot easier, you just put sanitiser in the bottom and give it two to three squirts then just rinse with warm water and your done, I found it made the job much easier.

 

[Ranman481]

I always use our dishwasher (after removing lables however you want!) I add about 2 tablespoons of unscented bleach after the machine has filled for the main wash cycle and just let it do its thing. I have had NO problems using this inexpensive method prior to bottling.

 

[glenn514]

Two things to consider: cleaning bottles and sanitizing bottles. The Oxyclean works well to clean the bottles. Once they are clean, and just prior to filling, they need to be sanitized. Either method you mentioned...spray with StarSan or use dishwasher sanitizing cycle...will work just fine. I've used my dishwasher for every batch I've made, and have had absolutely no problems...but I begin with clean bottles.

glenn514

 

[Hopelesst]

I'm on a very tight schedule as of late and had time to clean my bottles, but couldn't sanatize until later. Later was after a late shift and before I had to get up at give this morning. So yesterday I cleaned the hard way.

I had received a large number of bottles from some friends, but noone of them were rinsed after drinking, and most had mold and dried yeast in the bottoms. So I set up three buckets- one with hot oxyclean, one with hot water, and one with hot starsan. I rinsed with oxyclean, scrubbed with a bottle brush, rinsed with oxyclean, rinsed with water, submerged and filled with starsan. After I was done and the rim was still wet with starsan I sealed the opening with plastic wrap. When I got home last night I bottled in under forty minutes and went to bed.

This is a lot of work but that level of scrubbing and rinsing is needed to get really dirty bottles clean enough for your sanatizer to do its job. I wouldn't trust enough water from a dishwasher to reach inside the bottle if there is actual sediment you have to remove.

That being said I know plenty of people who have great luck using a dishwasher on sanatize string with no soap. Just make sure you aren't relying on the washer to clean those bottles too.

EDIT: I trust my saran wrap method to work for less than a day but there is no question that it ads risk of infection. I got the idea from john palmer's How to Brew but just like transfer to secondary there is inherit risk there. It is safer to sanatize immediately before bottling.

 

[boscobeans]

Or would the best bet be to oxyclean them for about 24-48 hrs remove all labels and spray surface sanitizer on inside and out then fill and cap?

That...

In between the two steps above I give each bottle a visual with a bright light to make sure nothing nasty is still stuck inside.

Once you have these in your pipeline, just a good hot rinse and a few shakes after you pour from your bottle and step one (OXY) can be eliminated the next time. Just a quick rinse and Starsan then bottle.

bosco

ps. I have a bottle tree and each night I put my freshly emptied and rinsed bottles on that till the next bottling day.

 

[MMJfan]

I just bottled my first batch last weekend and I let my bottles soak in oxyclean for about a day in buckets. After soaking for a day, the labels basically fell off as I took the bottles out of the buckets. I then rinsed them and put them in my dishwasher for the sanitizing cycle the night before I bottled. After letting the bottles sanitize and dry overnight, I bottled the next morning taking the bottles straight from the dishwahser with my bottling bucket set up over my dishwasher. Worked pretty good for me overall...

 

[inturnldemize]

I use bleach to sanitize my bottles. Always worked for me, just if you do, make sure you rinse away the bleach WELL.

Tip: Wash your bottles with hot water and your product of choice and make sure you look in the bottle after you wash them to make sure you got all that chunky gunk out. It can be pretty gross.

 

[ludomonster]

I rinse my bottles as I empty them. To clean them, I blast them with a jet bottle washer. I'm thinking of making a bottle tree for drying the bottles because star san soaked cases have lead to disaster.

 

[MMJfan]

BTW, I always wash my bottles out with hot water and leave them in a dish strainer after drinking from it so the bottles don't get nasty. And then I store them upside down in plastic milk crates until I'm ready to clean them for bottling.

 

[DrCDPriest]

OK, those are pretty nice bottle cleaning tools. thanks for posting a link to the bottle cleaners - heading to ebay for a search on these....