# Washing Beer Glasses?



## Matt Browne

Hi guys,

Can you give me some tips of the best way to wash beer glasses to give the best head retention.

Cheers 

Matt


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## adniels3n

Make a thick bi-carb & water slurry. Scrub the glass with it. Rinse.


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## troopa

We finally moved into a newish house.. its got this new fangled thing call a dishwasher... damn i miss doing the beer glasses by hand.... NOT


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## boingk

No detergent, hot water and bi-carb only. Best every time.

Cheers - boingk


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## Fourstar

Dishwasher if you have one and only a dishwasher. I also rinse my glasses before pouring to remove dust/residue.

Dishwashers use similar cleaning agents to that of what we use to clean our brewing equiptment so foam stability shouldt be an issue if you use your dishwasher. 

For those that dont have a dishwasher... get a dishwasher. 

Edit: saying that, if you clean your glasses with dishwasher detergent and rinse well it would be better than using dish/sink detergents IMO


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## jyo

I have mixed results using the dishwasher, so I rarely do now unless there has been a big night and I can't be arsed washing 20 glasses by hand. It always seems to give me huge bubbles that cling to the sides of the glass and not form a dense head.

I usually use hot water -as hot as I can stand- and a scrub out with my dedicated wash cloth. 

If I have neglected them then they get a soak in sodium percarbonate and then a thorough rinse in hot water, which still stuffs up the head a little. 

The bi carb works a treat.


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## Batz

Old thread from 2004

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...&hl=glasses


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## MattC

One method I use that works very well (similar principle to the bi-carb method) is to use home-brand (or similar cheap salt, fine ground salt works better) wet the glass and immediately coat with thin layer of salt over the inside surface of the glass, then scrub with your brush or scourer that you ONLY use for glasses and has never had dishwashing liquid on it. Then rinse with hot water and air dry.

You can use this method to see how clean your glasses are as well. Wet the insise surface of the beer glass, wait 10 seconds then coat the inside surface with salt. If very little salt sticks to the inside surface then it is dirty, the salt will only stick to parts of the glass that are clean. 

Most dishwashing liquids are petroleum based products and leave residues on the glass that are not water soluble so they will not be removed by heavy rinsing. Over time these residues build up considerably and kill head retention, the salt acts as an abrasive surface which removes these residues.

Cheers


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## Baulko Brewer

I use PSR (Pink Stain remover) or technically ChlorineTrisodiumPhosphate.

This stuff is the best for everything, SWMBO loves it as her glasses, vases etc all come back better than new. It is great for sanitising my brewing kit as well


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## MarkBastard

All of mine go in the dish washer and have for several years. I use Eco Store dishwashing powder (or rather the missus does). Zero issues with head retention.


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## Fish13

brigalow bottle washing detergent here.

If a glass is really clean there should be no breaking down of the water surface on the glass. the water separates into smaller pools (or beads as per the nu finish car wax ad) they are still dirty.


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## black_labb

If you wait until the morning the beer glasses will tend to wear off


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## Screwtop

Batz said:


> Old thread from 2004
> 
> http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...&hl=glasses




As Batz posted. Check out this thread for the best way of cleaning beer glasses.

Screwy


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## bum

I find it tastes the same no matter how I wash my glasses. YMMV.


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## mkstalen

I'm pretty sure the commercial glass washers in pubs and clubs just use hot water at about 85 deg C for about 3 minutes to ensure sanitation.


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## amiddler

Baulko Brewer said:


> I use PSR (Pink Stain remover) or technically ChlorineTrisodiumPhosphate.
> 
> This stuff is the best for everything, SWMBO loves it as her glasses, vases etc all come back better than new. It is great for sanitising my brewing kit as well




I have been a long time user of PSR and have always been happy with the results.


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## Jace89

Ive never had a problem just using morning fresh or whatever and a sponge. Beer glasses are always perfectly clear and beer looks amazing. The only thing I make sure if that the water is hot as my hands can take...


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## drsmurto

Dishwasher. 

Always have and with my low carbonation levels (1.6-1.8 vols of CO2) head retention should rear it's ugly head if this was an issue. Never happens.

The key is to make sure you don't use the eco cycle (if you have one) and a good rinse aid. If the glass feels 'chalky' you haven't rinsed properly. I use those fancy quantum tablets with the powerball rinse aid as the SIL works for them.

Stored upside down on the shelf in the keg fridge so they are the same temperature as the beer. 

Attached a pic of a pilsner to show the results. This is 100% pils malt so no carapils or other tricks to improve head retention.


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## going down a hill

I do the bicarb & vinegar trick and then just rinse with hot water. After that I only rinse with hot water and don't clean with bicarb and vinegar until they look a bit on the grimy side.


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## Screwtop

going down a hill said:


> I do the bicarb & vinegar trick and then just rinse with hot water. After that I only rinse with hot water and don't clean with bicarb and vinegar until they look a bit on the grimy side.




Much more friendly on the environment GDAH!!


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## chrisherberte

+1 dishwasher then rinse before use.

edit: Morning Fresh Dishwasher Gel FTW.


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## manticle

I usually just rinse in hot water but if I want them really clean, I wash with hot water and some detergent, rinse well then spray with starsan.

I used to use vinegar which worked well but requires another rinse. Starsan doesn't.


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## Pollux

stienberg said:


> I'm pretty sure the commercial glass washers in pubs and clubs just use hot water at about 85 deg C for about 3 minutes to ensure sanitation.




Incorrect. Back when I was in pubs (left in 2006) all glass washers I had used over the years had a reservoir that you filled with a special detergent that was designed for the purpose. Even with the use of this the glasses would develop a layer of grease over time from the customers hands/lips so we used to cleaning them weekly with a cleaning brush like this and some serious cleaning substance (was the only time I wore gloves, that shit would eat your nails clean off your hands)









As for washing glasses at home, I use a scourer and standard dishwashing liquid, I also only use the hot water (ours runs at roughly 80deg) and rinse them well after.


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## mje1980

I just did a bit of an experiment. I put 2 nonics in the dishwasher, and i washed 2 with bicarb and scrubbing brush. I rinsed both with hot hot water. Then i had a koelsh in one of each. Both had good head retention, lacing and nice fine bubbles coming up from the bottom. Then i had a weizen in the other 2. Again, both had pretty similar results, ie, both very good. Dishwasher is much less effort hahaha.


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## the_new_darren

I vote for dishwasher


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## argon

stienberg said:


> I'm pretty sure the commercial glass washers in pubs and clubs just use hot water at about 85 deg C for about 3 minutes to ensure sanitation.






Pollux said:


> Incorrect. Back when I was in pubs (left in 2006) all glass washers I had used over the years had a reservoir that you filled with a special detergent that was designed for the purpose. Even with the use of this the glasses would develop a layer of grease over time from the customers hands/lips so we used to cleaning them weekly with a cleaning brush like this and some serious cleaning substance (was the only time I wore gloves, that shit would eat your nails clean off your hands)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> As for washing glasses at home, I use a scourer and standard dishwashing liquid, I also only use the hot water (ours runs at roughly 80deg) and rinse them well after.



Yep the once a in a while wash uses these... with the detergent or whatever. But for express cleaning, steinberg is correct.

Did 6 years at the pub through Uni. A tray at a time into one of these... hot water only;






Then once a week the day bar staff would give them a manual clean using the thing Pollux linked to above... with some detergent in a bucket.

Edit: well bugger me... Just had a look at the website for the washer i linked. In the 6 years i was there never did we put detergent in there. It was 98 - 04, so maybe things changed. Doesn't surprise me it never got done though.


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## Pollux

They are meant to have detergent in them, often comes down to how cheap the boss is and if they can be arsed paying for it.....


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## mika

Pollux said:


> .... I also only use the hot water (ours runs at roughly 80deg) and rinse them well after.



Is that the water temp in your dishwasher ? I thought by law you couldn't have it coming out of the tap at anymore than 60C to prevent scalding.


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## Pollux

That's the temp out of the tap.....Old apartment, was built before common sense disappeared and we sued people for our own stupidity.....


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## brando

Dishwashers generally do a good job, in my experience. But, we do have glasses that seem to have become etched/cloudy, which I blame on the dishwasher. So, these days I rarely put my good beer glasses in the dishwasher. 90% of the time they just get hot tap water rinse after use (or soak overnight in nappisan sometimes).


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## pcmfisher

Pollux said:


> As for washing glasses at home, I use a scourer and standard dishwashing liquid, I also only use the hot water (ours runs at roughly 80deg) and rinse them well after.



Doesn't using a scourer scratch the glasses?


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## Pollux

non-scratch scourers exist for this reason


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## mgill

pcmfisher said:


> Doesn't using a scourer scratch the glasses?



Even using a metal scourer, most metal scourers shouldn't have a hardness of more than 5 whereas glass is around 5.5, so it shouldn't scratch the glass. If your worried just buy a few of the teflon scourers.


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## MarkBastard

Pollux said:


> That's the temp out of the tap.....Old apartment, was built before common sense disappeared and we sued people for our own stupidity.....



This is one of the best quotes I've read in a while.


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## Matt Browne

Hi Guys 

Thanks for all the advice .... 

Matt


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## wvbrewer

I use Onestep to wash mine or just rinse well with hot water.


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## pcmfisher

mgill said:


> Even using a metal scourer, most metal scourers shouldn't have a hardness of more than 5 whereas glass is around 5.5, so it shouldn't scratch the glass. If your worried just buy a few of the teflon scourers.



Don't know about that.

Which glass has been scrubbed with a green scourer?


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## Pollux

I'd hardly use glassware from Macca's as a benchmark...


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## going down a hill

It's probably made from styrofoam glass.


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## pcmfisher

Believe me, green scourers do scratch glass.

I had a whole cupboard of scratched glasses, all different sorts, before the days of dishwashers.

I still get frightened when the missus has a scourer in her hands. :unsure: :unsure:


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## Pollux

How odd..........None of my glasses have any marks on them at all....Guess it's one of those cases where YMMV. If it helps I use these.


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