How Should I Prepare New Bottles For First Brew?

[deercreek]

I bought two cases of new bottles from my LHBS. Their only exposure to the outside world is through the carry holes on the sides of the cases. I intend to soak them in StarSan before use, but should I do anything else to them first?

I've considered running them through a rinse only cycle in my dishwasher as long as it's out of Jet Dry. I also thought about mixing up the batch of PBW I'll use to clean everything when I'm done and go ahead and wash the bottles first. I just wasn't sure how far I should go and don't want to overdo it.

 

[duboman]

You can never over do cleaning and sanitizing, give them a soak in PBW, rinse and Star San, this way you know they are clean and sanitized

 

[jonnyp1980]

I fill a five gallon bucket with water and starsan. Dunk, rinse and place on my bottling tree.

 

[ghall]

Two others ways to sanitize are to send them through a dishwasher (only if you have a super hot sanitizing dishwasher). I have also heard of people baking them in the oven to sanitize. I just use a commercial cleaner like you already said.

 

[ajf]

Sanitizing is useless unless the bottles are clean.
As these are new bottles, they should be fairly clean, but you should always give them a good rinse before sanitizing. A dishwasher is useless for this as very little water can enter the bottle through the neck. You can do it by partially filling with water and giving it a good shake, but I prefer http://www.homebrewing.org/Jet-Bottle-Washer_p_996.html which is much faster.
After rinsing, they will need to be sanitized. You can soak them in starsan, but http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/vinator-bottle-rinser.html is much faster and uses much less starsan.

-a.

 

[julioardz]

I keep Star San solution in a spray bottle. I give each bottle two or three spray, shake them around covering the top with my thumb and leave them in the box. When I'm ready to use them, I run them in the dishwasher with only water and use the hottest setting.

I'm quick to rinse and spray with the Star San solution as soon as I pour a beer. I then leave them in a box until it's time to reuse them. I'll give them a quick visual inspection and put them back in the dishwasher if they look clean. On a side note, I haven't sanitized my bottle caps in the last 5 or 6 batches and have not had a single problem in any of my bottles.

 

[BetterSense]

If they are clean like that, then starsan by itself should be ok. When you get used bottles, or bottles that have had beer in them, then you need to really hit them with a cleaner and/or bottle brush to get them clean first.

 

[deercreek]

Sanitizing is useless unless the bottles are clean.
As these are new bottles, they should be fairly clean, but you should always give them a good rinse before sanitizing. A dishwasher is useless for this as very little water can enter the bottle through the neck. You can do it by partially filling with water and giving it a good shake, but I prefer http://www.homebrewing.org/Jet-Bottle-Washer_p_996.html which is much faster.

I keep eying these every time I've been to my LHBS. Now that I've seen the video in that link, I'm thinking I need one.

 

[ghall]

Dishwasher isn't for water and thus doesn't matter if any water makes it in the neck. Purely about heat. Modern dishwashers will get the glass so hot you can't even touch it. So as long as your bottles are clean they can be sanitized in the dishwasher.

 

[DJVeritas]

Rinse the new bottles first, just to get any dust out of them. Then use 1oz. Star-San per 5 gallons of water in whatever container you feel like. Soak them for a minute and pour out. It's good to have a bottle tree (also sanitized) to set the bottles on.

 

[smrosendahl]

I soak all my bottles in PBW for at least a half hour (used ones are longer) and then use a vinator right before bottling.

 

[paulster2626]

Some of you are insane with your bottle cleaning and sanitation. I don't get it - no wonder many people get frustrated with bottling.

For the next person who stumbles across this thread, I will put all of your bottling fears to rest. Do what I do, and you'll actually enjoy bottling.

#1 - Don't ever buy empty bottles. Buy bottles with beer in them that you can reuse.
#2 - When you drink a beer, just rinse the bottle. You can even do this the next day if you're too busy drinking beer.
#3 - Store your bottles upside-down to dry. I didn't want to spend $ on a bottling tree, so I just put a bunch of screws in a square piece of wood and use that. Wood is naturally antibacterial, as it draws bacteria and moisture in to the centre of it or something - this is what I tell myself, anyway.
#4 - When dry, just put the upside-down bottles back in the case until you're ready to bottle again.
#5 - On bottling day, just sanitize one bottle with a vinator and starsan, and fill it. While that bottle is filling, use your other hand to sanitize the next one and just leave it upside-down on the vinator until you're ready for it.

Start to finish you can bottle 5 gallons in less than an hour.

You should never have to clean your bottles with a brush, or let them soak for any purpose other than to remove labels. Running them through a dishwasher is just nutso to me. Just rinse and drain them as you drink them, and you're laughing on bottling days. Oh, and once I bottled a whole 6-er of new, unsanitized bottles. Nothing happened.

Good luck!!

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Everybody has a bottle process, here's mine.

1. drink the beer.
2. put a little tap water in the empty bottle, shake, drain
3. Repeat step 2
4. put in the dishwasher upside down to drain dry (moisture promotes bacteria growth)
5. the next day, put the empty, clean dry bottle back in the 6 rack in the fridge.
6. When the 6 rack is full of empties, swap into the case for a 6 of full ones.
7. Repeat steps 1 thru 6 until the case is full of empties.
8. the day before bottling, pull out the clean, dry, unsanitized bottles out, and run them through the sanitize cycle of the dishwasher
9. On bottling day, squirt starsan into the bottle. I use a vintator, you can also use a spray bottle
10. Fill, cap, condition.
11. Go to step 1

 

[jarrodaden]

First, a bottle tree in invaluable. I bought one that holds 45 bottles at my LHBS for $20. I can even expand it to hold another 45 bottles for another $20.

Here is the bottle tree that I have. It shows the 45 and 90 bottle size.

http://www.homebrewing.org/Bottle-Tree-Drying-Rack_p_1082.html

Second, I have a hand sprayer. I keep star san in the hand sprayer all the time. I can quickly grab it from beneath the sink whenever I need it.

Third, if I am buying bottles they better have beer in them. When I first got into the hobby, I bought $50 worth of stuff from a guy wanting to get out of the hobby. It included a fermenter, miscellaneous items, and over 400 bottles including the six pack caddies. Since doing this, I have never bought any empties. I continue to save bottles from any beer that I drink. I have so many now, that I can through any that I don't want into the recycle.

My process is simple. When I finish a beer I immediately rinse out a few times with regular water. Fill about 1/4 full then shake while holding my thumb over the opening. After that is use the sprayer to sanitize the bottle and through in onto the drying tree.

When I am ready for bottling, I take all the bottles off of the tree, thoroughly spray the tree, spray the bottles again and begin bottling about 10 minutes later.

If my tree fills before I am ready to bottle again, I box the bottles and save them for later. I have a bunch of 24-pack Coors Light boxes from back when I didn't know about good beer.

I have read about others using dishwashers, hot soaks, and even the oven to sterilize. None of this is necessary is you rinse and clean your bottles right after you drink from them IMHO.