Sanatize Option on Dishwasher

[kevy_kev]

I was hoping to be able to use my dishwasher to sanatize the 2 cases of bottles need at bottling time. There is an option to turn sanatize on/off. The manual says that the water temp is raised to 155 degrees for 9 minutes to sanatize. Would this be good enough for the bottles or are only the outsides getting sanatized since not much water is going to get inside the bottles?

 

[Caplan]

They've been threads about this before, If you like the whole 'can i use bleach too' do a search - there's some funny posts! A dishwasher will clean bottles - i wouldn't trust it to sanitize them though

 

[m_f]

palmer's book (how to brew) on line says that dishwasher provides sanitation.

I use my dishwasher in the full cycle with the hot boost option and no soap to sanitize my bottles.

edit: bottles should be clean from inside before.

 

[kevy_kev]

yeah I guess this falls in line with the whole bleach topic because I got one answer saying do it and one saying not.
I think I will give it a try.

 

[jrp3]

I've used the dishwasher method on 6 different batches, and have not had an infection or problem. As long as they don't have a layer of crud on the bottom before you put them in the dishwasher, they should be fine.

 

[bikebryan]

They've been threads about this before, If you like the whole 'can i use bleach too' do a search - there's some funny posts! A dishwasher will clean bottles - i wouldn't trust it to sanitize them though

You actually have this backwards - many folks claim their dishwasher will sanitize bottles (personally, if it's not an industrial unit using a pressurized steam system, I will NEVER trust that), but dishwashers are not meant to, nor will they provide a good method for, cleaning bottles. Clean is not sanitary.

The design of bottles prevents a dishwasher water stream from getting up inside the bottle, leaving tons of places where crud can remain. I suppose the bottle could even have dry spots where the water never gets, who knows?

In the time it takes to run my dishwasher through a full cycle, I can have my iodopher mixed, the bottles sanitized and ready to fill, and be bottling. Since I have to mix the iodophor to sanitize the bottling bucket anyway, it's just easy to do the bottles at the same time.

To each their own, I guess.

 

[SkewedBrewing]

This is all relative. I have used a dishwasher for all of my batches and have rarely ever had a problem. I say rarely because when you bottle you are bound to have different outcomes, i.e. aroma, flavors, carbonation, head retention, etc, simply because they vary on a bottle to bottle basis.

I own a bottle brush, which was literally a one dollar investment, and I use it when I notice that there might be mold growing or yeast caked in the bottom of the bottle. All I do is throw the bottles in my sanitizer and run the brush through them a few times then pop them in the dishwasher with the rest of the bottles and then turn on the hot cycle.

Again, the dishwasher has never yielded a bad beer... not even once...

 

[Brewsmith]

I use the dishwasher to sanitize the bottles, but not to clean them. Each one gets cleaned with a bottle brush before going into the dishwasher. Then they are run with the hi-temp cycle with no detergent. Never had an infection once.

 

[flingdingo]

I've also used the dishwasher (on its sanitize cycle) to sanitize my bottles for every batch I've brewed. No infections so far. I clean all my bottles by soaking them in oxyclean and HOT water for 45 minutes.

 

[kevy_kev]

so for all the people that are already cleaning their bottles before they put them in the Dw. Why not just use a sanatizer when cleaning and be done in 1 step? Assuming you clean our botttles after you empty them for storage all you should have to do is sanatize them when your ready, right?

 

[Caplan]

The design of bottles prevents a dishwasher water stream from getting up inside the bottle, leaving tons of places where crud can remain. I suppose the bottle could even have dry spots where the water never gets, who knows?

In the time it takes to run my dishwasher through a full cycle, I can have my iodopher mixed, the bottles sanitized and ready to fill, and be bottling. Since I have to mix the iodophor to sanitize the bottling bucket anyway, it's just easy to do the bottles at the same time.

To each their own, I guess.

'Clean' means different things to different people i guess - I assumed people always washed out their 'used' bottles when emptied. I wouldn't dream of leaving crud in the bottom of bottles to go dry/mouldy anyway. Once i've rinsed and stored my bottles I wash them again before sanitizing. A dishwasher should cope with that if it isn't overfilled but if a bottle could even have dry spots in wash mode could it also happen in sanitize mode?
As you say who knows?

I no longer have a dishwasher by the way - far too much effort, I'm with bikebryan, the racking cane, bottling bucket, etc still need sanitizing on bottle day anyway - but each to their own!

 

[mwessinger]

so for all the people that are already cleaning their bottles before they put them in the Dw. Why not just use a sanatizer when cleaning and be done in 1 step? Assuming you clean our botttles after you empty them for storage all you should have to do is sanatize them when your ready, right?

I thoroughly clean each bottle after I empty it. It is very easy to rinse the gunk out of the bottles as soon as the beer is emptied from it. Then, I use the dishwasher on the bottles just before bottling to give them a final rinse and to dry them. In my opinion, if it has been hot enough in there for half an hour to drive all the water away, then the bottles should be fairly well sanitized. Then, it is just a matter of taking the bottles out of the dishwasher and filling them.

 

[RichBrewer]

I've always used the dishwasher to sanitize my bottles and never had any problems. I make sure all the bottles are clean and run them in the dishwasher with out soap. They are so hot when done that I can barely touch them. It works out really well. I can start the bottles in the D.W. then later sanitize all my other bottling equipment with iodophor. A huge time saver and I can keep the bottles in the DW until they are filled. Works great!

 

[SkewedBrewing]

A huge time saver and I can keep the bottles in the DW until they are filled. Works great!

Couldn't have said it better than my self.

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

My dishwasher has a hi-temp wash setting and a sanitize setting. When I empty a bottle I rinse it out to make sure no visible crud is left in it. Then I wash it with my other dishes. I inspect it to make sure there is nothing in it and then store it with the other empties until bottling day. Then I run the DW once empty with no detergent. I put the bottles in and wash on the hi-temp/sanitize setting. I then have them already to go and on convenient racks ready to fill. I have never had any problem doing it this way.

For a couple of my batches I have sanitized my bottles with Star-san. Sanitizing 48 bottles tends to be sort of a big, messy project IMHO.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I use the dishwasher for as many clean bottles as it will hold. I fill it up with my 1L and grolsch-type bottles. If necessary, I'll sanitize a few extras using Beer-brite to polish off the batch. IMO, it's a lot easier than dealing with a 5g bucket of solution, however I have done it that way, too.

 

[Rokie]

Wife has the little dispencer full of the blue rinse stuff. I don't see anyway to turn that off. That can't be good the bottles.

 

[ajf]

Wife has the little dispencer full of the blue rinse stuff. I don't see anyway to turn that off. That can't be good the bottles.

The "blue stuff" is a wetting agent that reduces surface tension. It prevents mineral deposits in the water from causing spots during the drying cycle. It also destroys the head on a glass of beer!
We used to use it when we had hard water, and I washed the beer glasses separately. Now we have soft water, and the wetting agent is just a waste of money.

-a.

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

You know what? I have "sanitized" my bottles in the dishwasher for some of my batches, but for my last batch I soaked them in a tub of Star-San solution. I do have to say this: this batch has a lot more head than some of my other batches. Could be that the Jet-Dry is a problem in that respect.