Ok, time's up (an hour), lift the lid off the steamer and immediately, but carefully, use the tongs to loosely put the lids on the bottles. Leave them there, waiting for them to cool a slightly, but when you're ready, with the teatowel (not tongs), lift the bottles out on to the benchtop. Pick the bottles up only by the lids, but ensure the lids are screwed on to the thread sufficiently so that they are quite secure and it doesn't drop, spilling a very hot solution onto you, your friends and family or the cat or dog at your feet. The plastic lids are much cooler by this stage, whereas the bottles are still quite hot.It could take hours for them to cool to room temperature, so put them somewhere convenient where they won't be in the way. You could keep the lids loose so that as they cool, they don't implode, however the Schott bottle is generally robust enough to handle sealed cooling. If you do leave them slighly open, you'll probably hear them sucking in air, hopefully not too many air- borne bugs too. We want them to be around 30 degC at the next step.
