Cleaning Pet Bottles

[turbo]

I am about to use my batch of PET bottles for the second time. I religiously wash them out after I pour each bottle of brew but I thought a once-over in the dishwasher would help before I sanitze them?

Would appreciate hearing if anyone else does this or any advice on the best way to clean ready to use again.

Cheers

 

[mxd]

the dishwasher doesn't do an inside cleaning, so for me (i keg so don't do much bottling)

1) drink beer
2) rinse bottle (get stuff of bottom)
3) dishwasher
4) store
5) clean bottle (scrub on inside bottle brush)
6) dishwasher
7) dunk/shake in no rinse sanitizer
8) fill and cap

 

[Bribie G]

Agreed, never let the beer wet the lips until you have washed vigorously three times in warm water and recapped. However then I just leave them until required and do a starsan no-rinse shake just before bottling.

However now and again you will get a spot or a yeast ring. Fill with Napisan solution or pure Sodium Percarbonate and let it sit overnight, that will eat anything.

 

[Nick JD]

Agreed, never let the beer wet the lips until you have washed vigorously three times in warm water and recapped. However then I just leave them until required and do a starsan no-rinse shake just before bottling.

However now and again you will get a spot or a yeast ring. Fill with Napisan solution or pure Sodium Percarbonate and let it sit overnight, that will eat anything.

+1

There's not much point sanitizing a dirty bottle.

Once I've decanted I also do the hot tap water thing three times (magic number), and cap. It's great when using clear PET that any crud in the bottle is glaringly obvious, so you're not cleaning blind like with dark brown glass. Capping clean bottles airtight is another great advantage of PET over glass. They MUST be stored in the dark when full of beery goodness.

Then on brewing day I give them another 3 hot water rinses and bottle away.

I don't recommend this technique to anyone. I have had I think about 3 bad bottles in two decades using this technique, so I will most humbly continue with it.

 

[chillihilli]

I am about to use my batch of PET bottles for the second time. I religiously wash them out after I pour each bottle of brew but I thought a once-over in the dishwasher would help before I sanitze them?

Would appreciate hearing if anyone else does this or any advice on the best way to clean ready to use again.

Cheers

I rinse mine three times after drinking (they never dry out with dregs in them) and shake like shite.
Before bottling, rinse in 10ml unscented white king mixed with one litre of cool water, then a final rinse of HOT water (to remove the bleach smell). Ideally (ideally cos I never do it) you should let them drain and DRY before bottling, so all of the residual liquid is gone.

I invested in a bottle tree and a bottle washer upside down squirty thing. If you use the squirty thing for PET bottles, the wider opening causes issues, so you need to put a collar over it to stop the mouth half way down the spray tube. For this, I use the ring collar of a nylex click on hose fitting. Let me know if you want more info on this (it's hard to explain without pics).

Ultimately - use your eyes and your nose. They should look clean and smell clean.

 

[Fester]

My cleaning set up is pretty simple:

After drinking rinse and clean with bottle brush.

Rinse again.

Let drain on bottle tree until needed.

Before next bottling rinse with iodophor.

Never had a problem with infections with the above.

 

[bum]

I don't think there's much point in running PET bottles through a scalding hot dishwasher cycle, no.

 

[turbo]

I don't think there's much point in running PET bottles through a scalding hot dishwasher cycle, no.

Yes, after reading the responses I agree.

Thanks all.

 

[bum]

Completely ignoring the completely valid responses - I don't think there's much point running PET bottles through a scalding hot dishwasher cycle. Thin plastic yeah?

 

[MarkMc]

Agreed, never let the beer wet the lips until you have washed vigorously three times in warm water and recapped. However then I just leave them until required and do a starsan no-rinse shake just before bottling.

However now and again you will get a spot or a yeast ring. Fill with Napisan solution or pure Sodium Percarbonate and let it sit overnight, that will eat anything.

Same here, 3rd fill the bottle with warm water and vigourously shake, do this 3 times, store back in their box. Then sanitize prior to use.

 

[turbo]

Completely ignoring the completely valid responses - I don't think there's much point running PET bottles through a scalding hot dishwasher cycle. Thin plastic yeah?

I didn't ignore any of the posts. After reading the posts I agree with you - no need to put them in the dishwasher.

 

[Nick JD]

Another thing: you can almost use PET bottles to tell the temperature of your hot water cylinder. At the late 70s your bottles will start to melt.

The bacteria and yeasts will probably also start to melt, but then so will your electricity bill.

I'm not sure of the temperature of a dishwasher but you might find you've made shrinkydink beer bottles.

 

[zoidbergmerc]

I'm not sure of the temperature of a dishwasher but you might find you've made shrinkydink beer bottles.

ive done this as a joke to my sister a few times, she gets rather attached to her pump bottles so i fill them with boiling water and they shrink, the first time she didn't even notice for ages

 

[RobboMC]

I've already got a couple of shrinkydink PET bottles where ill-informed 'helpers' tried to rinse with
boiling water, or failing to let boiled water cool sufficiently in haste to bottle a batch.
I reckon a dishwasher at 80 deg C will definately destroy your Coopers PET bottles.

+1 to 70 deg C being the limit, maybe even lower like 65 deg.

As above, I rinse with the hot tap when emptied and again before bottling, then rinse with COOLED boiled water
just prior to bottling. Have done hundreds this way.

 

[Newts]

Looking at the above responses seems everyones figured out the best way to do it with PET bottles. What if you didn't rinse straight away after drinking?

Napisan/sodium percarbonate? Rinse a few times and Star San? I've just been buying new bottles each time I brew to build up a stash but now I have so many I'm thinking I should start re-using them. I haven't washed any and they've been sitting for 6 months with beer dregs in em.

 

[bradsbrew]

Rinse a few times to get the crap out then soak them in a warm sod perc solution. Just fill a fermenter with the cleaner and soak for 24hrs. Rinse and then soak in a starsan solution. Smell them before using. New lids.

 

[Silver]

Likewise bit o hot tap water, shake the shit off the bottom and empty 3x. I used to then fill with cold tap water and store until required, as supposedly tap water has the right amount of bug killing stuff in it to ensure the masses that drinking tap water is a safe thing to do. I always ensured no air was left in the bottle by lightly squeezing while capping. I would only ever do this twice and not tempt fate

 

[ash2]

Put them in a dishwasher , 2 things are going to happen. 1st is the heat will shrink the shit out of them,2nd you have to go & buy more bottles.Trust me I have done it.

 

[Blazar]

[SIZE=medium]My technique is quite simple, no duds as yet in 12 months:[/SIZE]

1. [SIZE=medium]When the last bit is poured out, I rinse, then half fill with water and recap then shake it a few times. [/SIZE]
2. [SIZE=medium]My sink holds 10 bottles lying flat, so when there are 10 empties on my bench I soak overnight in water/sodium percarbonate.[/SIZE]
3. [SIZE=medium]Rinse well to get the chemical residue out, then recap.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]On bottling day, while setting up I fill the first bottle with Starsan, then when ready to fill I pour the Starsan directly into the next bottle so that by the time the first one has been filled and capped the second is ready to go.[/SIZE]

 

[slcmorro]

Opening myself up to lots of 'not best practise' and other comments here, but I'll tell you what I do.

1. After emptying the bottle (by pouring gently and slowly into the glass), I leave a bit of beer behind. Cap the bottle and shake it, to get the yeast and trub off the bottom.
2. Whenever I get around to it (usually the next day) I uncap the bottles, and run them under the tap until they flush themselves out.
3. I re-shake the bottles with water in them, and then visually inspect. If they're clean, they go on the bottle tree.
4. When reusing the bottles (I mostly keg now, so this is only ever perhaps 5 bottles at a time), I 1/3rd fill the bottle with starsan solution, cap (caps sit in the solution too) and shake and then drain.
5. Fill bottle.

Done.