Bottles And Cleaning

[damianjthorpe]

G'day Brewers,

Woohoo! I scored 100 pick axe bottles yesterday for a reasonable price, and the guy threw in a free fermenting tank.

So everything is pretty grubby, I was thinking I could soak it all in a bleach solution, then rinse thoroughly and keep out of the dust etc. Then when I want to use them, just use the no-rinse sanitiser I have.

Any one agree or disagree with this? Please comment, thanks.

Cheers and happy brewing,
Damo

 

[Mayor of Mildura]

Hi mate

To clean your bottles and fermenters soak them in a sodium percarbonate (unscented napisan or coopers sanitiser) solution. Overnight works well. Then rinse and dry. Before you use them use a no-rinse sanitiser (starsan or iodopher) that you can get from the LHBS or online from one of the sponsers above.

This has worked for me on many brews without issue.

Happy days!

Cheers

MOM

 

[manticle]

Soak in napisan and hot water first - this will help remove most of the crud. Rinse well then sanitise using no rinse.

I don't think there's a need for bleach on the bottles - I use it on my plastic stuff followed by a boiling water rinse and a sodium met rinse but this is due to infection paranoia (a learned behaviour). Since I wouldn't recommend rinsing glass bottles in boiling water - if you do use bleach, follow with a sodium met rinse. It will drive off chlorine and add in some extra sanitising power. Then rinse, then no rinse.

However bleach won't clean and you need to be clean to be sanitary.

 

[DU99]

same as above,sodium percarbonate(unscented),i buy aldi'snappy soaker,and iodopher..cant go wrong

 

[barls]

Soak in napisan and hot water first - this will help remove most of the crud. Rinse well then sanitise using no rinse.

I don't think there's a need for bleach on the bottles - I use it on my plastic stuff followed by a boiling water rinse and a sodium met rinse but this is due to infection paranoia (a learned behaviour). Since I wouldn't recommend rinsing glass bottles in boiling water - if you do use bleach, follow with a sodium met rinse. It will drive off chlorine and add in some extra sanitising power. Then rinse, then no rinse.

However bleach won't clean and you need to be clean to be sanitary.

be very careful rinsing plastic bottles with boiling water as they have a tendency to shrink and go misshapen

personally i use nappy san then starsan on everything.

 

[np1962]

As MOM and Manticle have said, the most important part of the process is getting the bottles clean in the first place.
Fill your laundry trough with warm water and unscented napisan or similar and soak for at least 12 hours(overnight).
When ready for use sanitise with your choice of no rinse sanitiser, starsan and iodophor being just two available.
Cheers
Nige

 

[damianjthorpe]

G'day Brewers,

Many thanks for your rapid responses. Seems to me that you are all agreed. Unscented nappy-san then after a good rinse, follow up with a sanitiser.

Thanks for the help.

Cheers and happy brewing,
Damo

 

[Dave70]

I made a similar score a while back and some of the bottles had been outside for a long time.
Looks silly, but I found this combo very effective and a real time saver.

&

 

[manticle]

be very careful rinsing plastic bottles with boiling water as they have a tendency to shrink and go misshapen

personally i use nappy san then starsan on everything.

I wouldn't recommend it for plastic bottles (I don't use them).

By plastic I meant my fermentors and accessories (taps etc). Sorry for confusion.