Brand New Copper Tun Pet Bottles

[wbosher]

I am about ready to bottle my first brew, will probably do it tonight...can't believe I managed to wait this long :lol:

The guys in the home brew shop said that as the bottles are made using very high heat and immediately capped, they don't need to be sanitised for the first use, maybe just a quick rinse. What do you guys think? Anyone bottled with these things from new without sanitising?

Obviously after this I will sanitise them, but from new and still sealed, do I really need to? I don't have a lot of time in the evenings, so just looking to save some time.

 

[Lakey]

I am about ready to bottle my first brew, will probably do it tonight...can't believe I managed to wait this long :lol:

The guys in the home brew shop said that as the bottles are made using very high heat and immediately capped, they don't need to be sanitised for the first use, maybe just a quick rinse. What do you guys think? Anyone bottled with these things from new without sanitising?

Obviously after this I will sanitise them, but from new and still sealed, do I really need to? I don't have a lot of time in the evenings, so just looking to save some time.

Hi wbosher, welcome to homebrewing and ahb! I think the bottles will be fine to use, as the guys from the shop told you. Just give it a go and who knows you might have something that tastes like beer, unlike my first attempt :icon_vomit:

 

[Wolfy]

It takes a few extra seconds and a few cents worth of no-rinse sanitizer, so why wouldn't you sanitize them?
In addition, with anything that I'm going to use with food, I like to give it a good wash first to rinse/remove any left-overs of the manufacturing processes.

 

[MHB]

When my stock arrives the caps are in a little plastic bag in the box, not on the bottles so hum....
Nothing is clean unless you cleaned it, nothing is sterile for more than, sorry times up, sanitary well thats anyones guess.
Clean them, or at a minimum give them a spray with a peroxide based sanitiser (on the inside), not worth risking a brew for a few minutes work.
Mark

 

[wbosher]

I only have bleach at this time so I guess a quick swill around with that would do? I'll get some starsan next week probably.

 

[fraser_john]

Bleach would be OK if it is watered down and then thoroughly rinsed with boiled water. Bleach is definitely NOT an no-rinse sanitiser. If you insist on using it, mix it with water and add a teaspoon or two of vinegar, makes it much more effective, then rinse thoroughly.

 

[wbosher]

When my stock arrives the caps are in a little plastic bag in the box, not on the bottles so hum....

You might be right there. I haven't taken the bottles out of the box yet, just peeped through the handle hole. It looked like the caps are on but can't really confirm that.

fraser_john - I'm only using bleach as a temporary measure. After this brew, I'll definately get some starsan...sanitising and rinsing 30 bottles using bleach is going to be a chore. Don't worry, I will rinse thoroughly.

 

[DUANNE]

You might be right there. I haven't taken the bottles out of the box yet, just peeped through the handle hole. It looked like the caps are on but can't really confirm that.

fraser_john - I'm only using bleach as a temporary measure. After this brew, I'll definately get some starsan...sanitising and rinsing 30 bottles using bleach is going to be a chore. Don't worry, I will rinse thoroughly.

if you can hold of on bottling until you get some starsan or iodophor then do it. even if you sanitise with the bleach then when you rinse it unless youre using boiling water to rinse wich could result in burns and make life pretty hard for youself then you will just be reintroducing bugs and stuff to the bottles with the rinse water.extra time on the yeast will benifit the beer and a proper no rinse sanitiser will make life so much easier and prevent a contamination issue from ruining the beer that you have put so much work into.

 

[wbosher]

if you can hold of on bottling until you get some starsan or iodophor then do it. even if you sanitise with the bleach then when you rinse it unless youre using boiling water to rinse wich could result in burns and make life pretty hard for youself then you will just be reintroducing bugs and stuff to the bottles with the rinse water.extra time on the yeast will benifit the beer and a proper no rinse sanitiser will make life so much easier and prevent a contamination issue from ruining the beer that you have put so much work into.

I sanitised the carbuoy using bleach, and rinsed out with tap water. The same tap water that I filled it up with after adding the brew kit. I'll be using the same tap water to rinse out the bottles after using the bleach on them.

If there is bugs in my tap water, the brew is already long buggered. :lol: Our water supply is very good and clean, the old man has been brewing for years using just bleach and tap water.

I do agree that a no rinse sanitiser will be much easier, but I really want to get this bottled before the weekend so that I can start on another one.

 

[roller997]

Bleach is not very good at all to rinse bottles out with as it would take substantially longer to flush them numerous times before you are ensured that all the bleach is gone. If it is not all gone and there is some left, I would expect the beer to taste pretty aweful and even between different bottles you might have different levels of the beer being tainted.

For the cost of no rinse sanitizers you save quite a bit of time by not having to rinse and you also have no issues with the beer being tainted by bleach residues. While saving your time, it does cost some money, however most would agree that this is a small cost in comparison to the ingredients you use to make your beer and you are at risk to spoil a batch due to bleach flavours.

Also, for some surfaces (while not applicable to you now) such as stainless bleach it is very bad for the surface so I don't use bleach at all.

 

[mwd]

Bleach/Vinegar at the correct dilution is supposed to be a non rinse sanitiser. I used it for ages before buying a bottle of Iodophor.

Link to past thread

 

[wbosher]

Bleach/Vinegar at the correct dilution is supposed to be a non rinse sanitiser. I used it for ages before buying a bottle of Iodophor.

Link to past thread

Interesting, I think I'd still rinse though just to be safe.

Thanks for all the replies guys, I think I'll take the chance with this one and go with bleach and vinegar...mixed correctly of course. I've already used bleach on everything else in this brew so if it's going to turn out to be a horrible beer, it probably already is. Still find it interesting the the home brew shop said not to worry about sanitising new bottles, just rinse. I think Coopers says the same thing about their new bottles as well.

I'll get some starsan over the weekend, as I can't get to the brew shop until then, and use it on my next brew on Saturday when my new Coopers DIY kit turns up. Then I just have to hope the tap doesn't leak like so many others have...but that's another story.

 

[Florian]

slightly :icon_offtopic:

but I've recently bought a carton of these copper tun bottles for comps and stuff.
I have to say they are the flimsiest, thinnest bottles I have ever seen, you could almost cut through these with your finger nails. Was very close to returning them to the shop.

One thing's for sure, I will never buy these bottles again, back to coopers which are cheaper at your local kmart anyway.

 

[tricache]

slightly :icon_offtopic:

but I've recently bought a carton of these copper tun bottles for comps and stuff.
I have to say they are the flimsiest, thinnest bottles I have ever seen, you could almost cut through these with your finger nails. Was very close to returning them to the shop.

One thing's for sure, I will never buy these bottles again, back to coopers which are cheaper at your local kmart anyway.

I agree, I have 2 cartons of copper tun (got with my fermenter) and 1 carton of coopers and the coopers are much thicker and darker

 

[wbosher]

Didn't need to hear that!

Were they ok though once you used them?

 

[tricache]

I still use them! Don't let the comments sway you, I haven't had a drama with them at all and they are nearly 12 months old

 

[Florian]

Didn't need to hear that!

Were they ok though once you used them?

You're still alright to use them, personally I just wouldn't buy them again considering there are others of higher quality and cheaper price available.

Less wall thickness means less suitable for long term storage as oxygen permeability will be increased with same materials. Lighter colour means more chance of light struck.

 

[wbosher]

Less wall thickness means less suitable for long term storage as oxygen permeability will be increased with same materials. Lighter colour means more chance of light struck.

I'm a noob, and like most noobs there probably won't be too much long term storage going on. We're an impatient bunch.

 

[Wolfy]

10ml of (3%) Bleach with 10ml of white vinegar in 5L of water works well for sanitising purposes.
However, it's not 'no rinse' so the gear needs to be rinsed with water (perhaps several times) and/or left to dry/drain totally before use.

 

[Feldon]

The Coopers instructions in the big red box (that had fermertor, 30 uncapped PET bottles, etc in it) said the bottles can be used first time without sanitising.

I often bypass sanitation if I've given them a good clean with brew detergent soon after use, rinsed, dried upside down, and partialy capped to keep dust out but let air in/out. Never had a problem and some PET bottles are more than 3 yrs old (beer is harder to infect than wort).