# Sterilizing Bottles By Boiling?



## jaup (25/12/08)

Hi,

When i use to bottle jams and sauces I used to sterlize jars by boiling them, would this also work for beer bottles? Usually i boiled them for 15 minutes and the cooled them.

If i go the sodium percarbonate route, then how long should i soak them for?

Thanks,
Paul


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## Gavo (25/12/08)

Seems like a lot of work. Get a no rinse sanitizer like Starsan and make your job a lot easier.

Cheers
Gavo.


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## mick8882003 (25/12/08)

Get a bottle washer and a tree and you can bottle in quick time and only use a litre of (mixed) sanitiser.

Or... get kegs  

Cheers

Mick


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## Gavo (25/12/08)

+1 for the bottling tree. I always thought they were a waste of time until I got one, one of the best pieces of bottling equipment out. Got mine for $2 at and auction, what a bargain. Having now used one I would pay full price for one.

Cheers
Gavo.


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## jaup (25/12/08)

Hi,

I probably will just use a sanitizer, but I was just curious if there was a chemical free way to do it.

Paul


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## himzol (25/12/08)

Hi Jaup,

Sterilizing something is always better than sanitizing. The main reason that we use a chemical sanitizer is that we are basically a lazy bunch.  

If you are willing, and have the patiants, then there is no reason for not boiling the bottles.

Just make sure that the bottles are cooled down before adding your beer, you need to keep the yeast suspended in the beer to stay alive so that the beer will carbonate.

cheers,
H.


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## Mantis (25/12/08)

I do the same for tomato sauce and beer bottles. Wash out well when finished. When ready to use I rinse out with hot water from the tap, then pour about a cup full of boiling water or less into each bottle and tip and shake. After this the bottles are barely able to be handled but I defy any bug to live in there. So far so good. no chemicals


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## newguy (26/12/08)

I've boiled and baked bottles - both work. I keg my beer but I will usually bottle a few for competitions. For just a few bottles, I add a little DME and a tiny amount of water to each bottle, then put on a foil cap and boil for at least 10 minutes. I fill the bottle while it's still hot. For batches that I want to lay down for a long time, like a barleywine, I bottle the whole batch. It's not practical to boil 90+ bottles, so I bake them. Each bottle gets a foil cap, then they get put into the oven. I bake at ~180C for an hour. I don't fill the baked bottles until they cool down.

No matter what method you use, make sure the bottles are spotless first.


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## Lozbrewer (22/5/14)

I baked 6 Grolsch swing top bottles last night, after removing the rubber gaskets.

All the ceramic heads melted and now sit on the bottom of my (wives) oven. Not happy Jan.

What I learned is that they are not actually ceramic but some evil polymer. The metal swing top mechanism can also easily be removed before baking.

Notch up another brewing disaster.


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## n87 (22/5/14)

Lozbrewer said:


> I baked 6 Grolsch swing top bottles last night, after removing the rubber gaskets.
> 
> All the ceramic heads melted and now sit on the bottom of my (wives) oven. Not happy Jan.
> 
> ...



the newer (last few years) are plastic.
you can easily tel by taping with your fingernail or a knife etc.


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## mr_wibble (22/5/14)

Yeah, the local (to Europe) bottles still have ceramic lids, as they're refilled by the brewery.
They also have the extra scuff-lines around the outside. The ones especially made for export
don't have these moulded into the glass, and AFAIK a bit thinner because of that - that's where you'll find plastic stoppers.

Begs the question though: where can you get ceramic stoppers ?!


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## n87 (22/5/14)

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=replacement+ceramic+swing+top


http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ceramic-swing-top-caps-pack-of-12.html


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## lswhi3 (22/5/14)

Easiest way to completely sterilise with hardly any effort:

Pick up one of those kitchen measuring squirters, basically looks like a giant eye dropper, from the $2 store. Rip the plastic bit off, and attach it to your laundry sink tap with electrical tape. Then you can jet hot water up into the bottles really quickly and give them a good rinse. 

Then out a bit of aluminium foil over the top of the bottle, and stick them in the oven at 180C. I usually leave them in for about 2 hours. This will kill any bacteria, and will also cause any residual water left in the bottle to boil, and steam up and evaporate. The best way to sanitise ANYTHING is with steam. Let the bottles cool in the oven over night, and leave the foil on the top until it's bottling day.

Takes about 25mins to do 3 slabs. You only need a bottle cleaner if you've let your bottles sit for months and they've got hardened gunk on the inside.


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## lswhi3 (22/5/14)

With the grolsch bottles, take the lids off before you bake it. Just sanitise them by getting some boiling water in a pot on the stove, and sit the lids on top of a steamer which sits above or submerged in the water. This way the ceramic and rubber isn't touching the bottom of the pot. Just steam them for half an hour and they'll be all good.


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## spryzie (22/5/14)

Run them through dishwasher.

mine has a baby bottle sterilization feature - I use that.


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## menoetes (22/5/14)

+1 to the bottle tree and starsan.

Though if I have got any sort of mould growing in them I will often try boiling it out of them (for 15-20 minutes much like yourself) before deciding whether to throw them into the recycling or not. Starsan and similar contact sterilizers aren't toxic when prepared properly but I do understand the non-chemical stance. It'll just take longer and as many others have already said; most of us brewers are lazy bastards


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## storeboughtcheeseburgers (22/5/14)

I came back to homebrewing after a 5 year reprieve, and I must stand by starsan. The stuff is truly amazing, finish your bottles, rinse 2-3 times half full in the laundry sink, a few squirts and store. Then spray again before bottling, tip out the residue.

I've bottled without any sanitising when I got back into the hobby.. Forgot about that bit! just rinsing and I didn't get any infections. For piece of mind, get starsan. 1.5ml or 1.6ml per 1 litre. It will last you years just for buying a small bottle.


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## marksy (24/5/14)

Wow some of these methods are hardcore. Provided you rinse your bottles once you have used them, then get one of those bottle squirter gadgets and add 1 cap full. Squirt all your bottles a few times then just before you bottle each one pour the dreggs of the bottle back into the squirter. Bang.


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## fixa4377 (25/5/14)

I bottled my first brew yesterday, we had 12 coopers long necks and 18 misc 650ml longnecks,

The Coopers bottles had been sitting stored for a few weeks after been rinsed once or twice after emptying, we half filled with hot tap water and shook them, then dunked in hot water that has the "low suds" brew detergent, let them rinse, the dunked them in a few litres of warm water with a few caps of the Morgans sanitiser liquid , then let the bottles drip dry and filled 

there was some gunk in the bottom of some of the misc long necks but a bottle cleaner sorted that problem,, and repeated the process as above,


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