Cleaning And Sterilising

[sokodan]

Hi All

Just wandering if i could get a couple of tips on the method some use to sterilise bottles , i have seen some people wash the bottles then when dry put some of the sterlising solution ( mixed ) in the bottles then cap for future use , if doing this after you empty the solution would you rinse the bottle out with water ?? Also i have just got a bottle tree , so after washing the bottles let them dry out on the tree and sterlise straight after ?? i'm ready to bottle a brew now, do you guys wash sterilise and bottle in the one hit ??

Cheers

Dan

 

[Kingy]

i find it best to use iodopher. your home brew shop will sell this

it comes with instructions
make sure bottles are clean
mix up solution 1ml to 1 litre of water
fill bottles 1/4 full and shake to coat all the interior of the bottles
leave for 10 mins then shake again
then 10 minutes later shake and empty and start hanging on ur bottle tree
when all 30 longnecks are empty there ready to bottle

iodopher is a no rinse sanitizer that doesnt need rinsing

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Hydrogen Peroxide is another good one

Hyd Perox and idopher will do the same job. It just depends on which one you can get hold of

Look at the Wiki

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/ineo...;showarticle=18

 

[wildschwein]

There are a lot of sterilising products out there and I don't think most are good value for money.

I just use generic-brand unscented (regular not lemon) bleach mixed with cold water at a rate of about 1/2 a cup to 1 full cup (for very dirty bottles) of bleach to 9-10 litres of water. I use this solution to sterilise everything, including my brewing equipment, and as the liquid in my airlock during brewing. Just fill up a bathtub or laundry trough, or maybe even a big plastic garbage bin (preferably a clean one you just bought for this purpose) submerge your bottles and leave them for at least a few hours or a week or longer. Drain the bottles and rinse with vey hot tap water to neutralise the bleach and remove the chlorine smell before you put beer in them. Keep the bleach liquid in the bath/trough/bin to clean up your equipment after brewing. If you want store the bottles just drain and cover the lids with foil or old caps and rinse with hot water before you want to use them.

I recently collected a big pile of bottles from the side of the road, many of which were filthy and heavily soiled from months or years in the elements. I just did my bleach trick, bottle brushed, scrubbed off the rotten labels (which the bleach loosened up) and they are all now spotless and ready to be filled.

Homebrand unscented bleach sells for about $1.78 for 2 litres in Woolworths and Coles and since I've used it (about 5 years) I have never had a single infection in the fermenter or the bottle. It removes every vestige of fat and dirt which can taint your brew. Just remember to always rinse everything you put in bleach solution very well in hot tap water to get rid of the smell. You don't need to dry or drain the bottles for long either. I just invert the bottles after rinsing and shake out any excess water before using.

 

[MSR]

I rinse my bottles straight after drinking in hot water. When I clean I use neo pink, put a bit in each bottle and fill to half with hot water and shake the crap out of them then rinse and drain. That cleans and sanitizes the bottles in the one go.

I know heaps of people who just use bleach, I use it for my fermenter and bits and pieces but I might start using it for my bottles too, heaps cheaper.

 

[boingk]

I just rinse them once after use to get the crud out of them, then put them back into the box with the lid half on [using PETs]. Before I use them again, I'll rinse once or twice with very hot tap water. Seems to be going well - I mean, I've had no off flavours or infections and my 11th brew is underway.

I wouldn't recommend this I guess, but I find its all that is needed for my personal use :beer:

 

[Doogiechap]

Welcome to the forum Newtobrew !
I could be a smart a%#e and say do a search of the forum but when I tried it came back with a useless batch of results...I recall a great thread here that gave some great tips (including mine before I blissfully got into kegging). It's a testament to the saying that if you ask any two brewers a question that you will get three answers . Happy reading and cleaning !
Cheers
Doug

 

[Insight]

http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/brew/homead.pdf

Star San. You can get a 1L bottle of the stuff from one of the site sponsors for about $50. Mix it at 1ml per litre, contact time of 2 mins, no rinse. It really is the best stuff around and if you keep it in a sealed bucket you can reuse for at least a month.

So $50 might sound a lot to get you started, but if you buy a 20L bucket with a lid, then using 20ml every month means your $50 investment will last you 1000/20/12 = 4.16 years.

Can't say fairer than that! :super:

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I've long been an advocate of:

Drain the beer bottle.
Rinse the beer bottle.
Rinse it again.
Rinse it again and drain
On bottling day, sanitise, rinse and use.

Recently, I started collecting glass and have been soaking them for a few days in a chlorine bleach solution. Works real noyce. I threw a couple of my clear PET bottles in there which had been through the fill/rinse/rinse/rinse cycle a few times and which I thought were clean.

Now I know what a clean clear PET bottle looks like.

I don't believe I've ever had an infection that I didn't like the taste of, but looking at these crystal clear PET bottles, I wonder what *was* being transferred from batch to batch...

 

[vchead]

Hi,

I reckon 'Spillsmostofit" has it right on cleaning, rinsing and sanitising.

On bottling day I used to fill a large tub with water and idophor solution and submerge all longies for 5 mins. It was heavy on water and idophor but after a week the water went clear and went straight on the garden. After bottling, I'd clean the fermenter and equipment then they would go into the same tub full of idophor solution and soak. They were then ready for the next brew to go straight back in.

This was heavy on water though so I have switched to swishing the idophor around in the bottles and the fermenter to sanitise. So far no infections,

Good luck,

Cheers,

Rodders

 

[ozpowell]

There are a lot of sterilising products out there and I don't think most are good value for money.

I just use generic-brand unscented (regular not lemon) bleach mixed with cold water at a rate of about 1/2 a cup to 1 full cup (for very dirty bottles) of bleach to 9-10 litres of water. I use this solution to sterilise everything, including my brewing equipment, and as the liquid in my airlock during brewing. Just fill up a bathtub or laundry trough, or maybe even a big plastic garbage bin (preferably a clean one you just bought for this purpose) submerge your bottles and leave them for at least a few hours or a week or longer. Drain the bottles and rinse with vey hot tap water to neutralise the bleach and remove the chlorine smell before you put beer in them. Keep the bleach liquid in the bath/trough/bin to clean up your equipment after brewing. If you want store the bottles just drain and cover the lids with foil or old caps and rinse with hot water before you want to use them.

I recently collected a big pile of bottles from the side of the road, many of which were filthy and heavily soiled from months or years in the elements. I just did my bleach trick, bottle brushed, scrubbed off the rotten labels (which the bleach loosened up) and they are all now spotless and ready to be filled.

Homebrand unscented bleach sells for about $1.78 for 2 litres in Woolworths and Coles and since I've used it (about 5 years) I have never had a single infection in the fermenter or the bottle. It removes every vestige of fat and dirt which can taint your brew. Just remember to always rinse everything you put in bleach solution very well in hot tap water to get rid of the smell. You don't need to dry or drain the bottles for long either. I just invert the bottles after rinsing and shake out any excess water before using.

Totally agree with most of the above. I also just use household bleach for all of my sanitization. I have dabbled with idophor which also does an excellent job, but bleach is just so cost-effective.

I would however warn that you should be careful if you decide to use a plastic garbage bin as suggested above as most are not food safe and could introduce nasty chemicals into your beer.

Cheers,
Michael.

 

[oldbugman]

Totally agree with most of the above. I also just use household bleach for all of my sanitization. I have dabbled with idophor which also does an excellent job, but bleach is just so cost-effective.

I would however warn that you should be careful if you decide to use a plastic garbage bin as suggested above as most are not food safe and could introduce nasty chemicals into your beer.

Cheers,
Michael.

If your going to use bleach I suggest you spend the time to listen to this interview with the creator of starsan via the Basic Brewing podcast. He spends more time talking about bleach than his own product.

http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr03-29-07.mp3

 

[KegLand-com-au]

Clearly we are biased on this topic but we have made a video on the cleaning and sanitising subject so hopefully you guys find this useful.

Let us know if we left anything out of the video.

 

[altone]

Clearly we are biased on this topic but we have made a video on the cleaning and sanitising subject so hopefully you guys find this useful.

Let us know if we left anything out of the video.

Unbiased opinion here as I mix most of my own cleaning products, I did buy a couple of your Stellarsan reject bottles as they were so cheap though.
I found it a very informative video and easy to watch/listen to.
Good job all round.

 

[peterlonz]

Look everything posted in the replies so far is sound advice.

The odd horror story is IMHO just BS or maybe the result of careless misuse.

For what it’s worth I have used swimming pool liquid chlorine for 30 odd years without any problems whatever. Of course back then there were few alternatives except metabisulphite.

Summarising the pros & cons:

Pros: Very effective especially in undiluted form, takes only a minute or two.

Usefull around the house or pool.

Very low cost (about 1$ per litre).

Effective even at dilutions of 1 to 3 but allow more time.

Cons: Need to wear eye protection just in case of accidental splashing.

Keep away from stainless steel. Stainless sinkbench OK if regularly wiped down.

If accidentally you get it on your clothes …………….. wear old clothes!

Need to rinse twice with a few litres of hot tap water; you can smell chlorine if the rinsing is inadequate, normally everything just smells super clean.

General comment: If you don’t have a good supply of sanitary domestic hot water with which to generously rinse clean, then “no rinse” alternatives would be a better choice. Otherwise it’s hard to mess up this simple application that has been in use around homes for generations.

 

[Beir Hearder]

Clearly we are biased on this topic but we have made a video on the cleaning and sanitising subject so hopefully you guys find this useful.

Let us know if we left anything out of the video.

Do you have Safety Data Sheets on all these items? If so where do you publish them? How about shipping them as some if not all would no doubt be classified as dangerous goods for transport when you ship them out.

 

[Madscientist86]

Do you have Safety Data Sheets on all these items? If so where do you publish them? How about shipping them as some if not all would no doubt be classified as dangerous goods for transport when you ship them out.

A look on their website, the MSDS are on there. SBATAHAHB.

 

[AzfromOz]

I've long been an advocate of:

Drain the beer bottle.
Rinse the beer bottle.
Rinse it again.
Rinse it again and drain
On bottling day, sanitise, rinse and use.

Recently, I started collecting glass and have been soaking them for a few days in a chlorine bleach solution. Works real noyce. I threw a couple of my clear PET bottles in there which had been through the fill/rinse/rinse/rinse cycle a few times and which I thought were clean.

Now I know what a clean clear PET bottle looks like.

I don't believe I've ever had an infection that I didn't like the taste of, but looking at these crystal clear PET bottles, I wonder what *was* being transferred from batch to batch...

Rinse after use x3, drain and sanitise on bottling day is my exact process as well. I'll usually sanitise a second time moments before bottling, and have never had an issue, 27 brews in.

I do, however, soak all my bottles in PBW before using them the first time.

Cheers

 

[Beir Hearder]

A look on their website, the MSDS are on there. SBATAHAHB.

Great I will take a look. Hope they have some NATA lab certs so that one can have confidence. Reason I asked is that the liquid 95% phosphoric acid one seems to be physically impossible according to the industrial chemists I talked to.

 

[Madscientist86]

Great I will take a look. Hope they have some NATA lab certs so that one can have confidence. Reason I asked is that the liquid 95% phosphoric acid one seems to be physically impossible according to the industrial chemists I talked to.

It is not a requirement for them to obtain or supply NATA certificates of analysis, they are not a testing laboratory or authority and do not need to undergo NATA accreditation. They do need to however be registered to NICNAS, which I cant see them on the register, but nor is KK. If you don't have confidence, shop elsewhere. SBATAHAHB.