Cleaning Bottles

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jase

Well-Known Member
Joined
7/4/04
Messages
557
Reaction score
16
Hi There,

I am planning to bottle my Xmas case beer later this week, and have pulled out 20 bottles from the shed, that havent seen the light of day for about 5 years, so they need a good clean.

After the results of using napisan on an old fermenter, I was thinking about soaking the bottles for 24 hours in a napisan solution, then washing, and rinsing them in a dishwasher.

Does this sound okay? Or is napisan not a suitable product for glass bottles???

Cheers,
Jase
 
Jase,
That will be fine.
Never done it myself with napisan but I'm sure others have.
For problem bottles I soak them in a bleach, washing powder solution overnight.
Works wonders.

johnno
 
i use a cordless drill with a bottle brush to scrub them, in and out a few times, .. then fill with bleach. seems to work.
 
warb said:
i use a cordless drill with a bottle brush to scrub them, in and out a few times, .. then fill with bleach. seems to work.
[post="85009"][/post]​

I'm going to be using a bottle brush soon as my bottles are starting to get pretty dirty from all of the re-use. Have you had any problems with the bottle brush causing minor abrasions on the bottle which cause infection?
 
My technique is to wash out thoroughly with hot water til spotless after use.

Then when ready to sanatise get some bottle wash fill the sink, fill them a couple of times to tip out.

When rinsing fill them up about 3 times with hot water shaking first two to get rid of any bottle wash powder.

No dramas at all so far.

I've read also that if I wash out thoroughly after use and give another rinse later on with very hot water this is good enough... thoughts?

Would save a hell of a lot of time.
 
it does not seem to damage the bottle, you will go through the brushes quick tho, but its really quick and you don't get RSI from all that 'repetitive movement' :p
 
Here's what I do-

After drinking enough beers to warrant taking the time to do something about it (doesn't take very long), I take them downstairs and rinse them out.I then put them into one of those old council recycling tubs there used to be (they are great- when it's full, they go into old styrofoam broccoli containers. If you ask early in the morning [that is, when the store has just opened], the F&V guy wouldn't mind giving you one if one us on hand. This bit has gone too long) where they await to be used for a batch.

When I need bottles, I take a bunch of them to the kitchen sink. I have one of those two compartment sinks; the one on the right is pretty small, which serves me well. I put brwers detergent into the left one and sanitiser in the right (the no-rinse liquid sanitiser). I use the bottle brush to clean out the bottles in the detergent to get out any dirt/exess yeast and sanitise them to be filled. If some yeast is stubborn, I use coke to get it free.

I haven't had any bottle bombs; but I also rotate old bottles through and replace them with new ones pretty quickly. I rarely use one bottle more than 3 times. If I ever get low, I have many friends who will pitch in bottles to make up the difference (well, one bloke I get however many I need from him whenever I want- there would be enough for many brews cartoned up at his place).

Well there you go...
 
Jase,

The napisan is fine.

I would be more worried about the dish washer rinsing them properly though, let alone reaching up there in the wash mode.

Just my thoughts
 
Sorry to kick this to the top again but I was reading on another forum that because of the film found in the bottles an alkaline solution is needed to remove it, it suggests the use of dishwasher (not dishwashing) powder followed by a rinse and sodium metabisulphide.
The same forum a little later advises not to wash glasses in a dishwasher as the resultant brew will be flat, does this mean that the bottles are going to have the same problem or will a hot rinse remove any traces of the alkaline?
I also wonder if washing bottles in a dishwasher without the final rinse aid additive, which is only a liquid soap wetting agent, would work OK?
 
Depends to on which dishwasher you have. I had a wizz bang one at my last place which i could just put napisan or coopers bottle cleaner straight in then set and forget. My new place has a 10 yo one and it is crap.

I now soak overnight in bleach, bottle brush them and rinse well.
 
Thanks, we have a 3 year old Blanco with all the bells and whistles, not that we ever use them but I think I may resort to Napisan which I have never tried before.
I just love the conflicting information that you can read in one forum topic alone (not this one).
But, as I used to quote, 'Advice is two or more conflicting pieces of information contained in a single phrase or sentence'
Cheers.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top