Cleaning Pet Bottles

[James85]

Just be carefull with hot water, coopers pet bottles have a special lining on the inside to help prevent oxidization which is destroyed by using hot water. Been there made that mistake.

 

[Blitzer]

Do you have a source for this special lining? I use hot water all the time, can't say for sure if I have any oxidization problem but I don't think so.

 

[Rocker1986]

This is my method, though perhaps not entirely relevant since I use glass bottles rather than PET, but anyway.

1. Pour a beer, rinse bottle 3 times in hot water, shaking each time to remove yeast sediment. Store in 6 pack holders until I build up 21 of them. (the amount my home made bottle drainer holds)
2. Fill up the laundry tub with a Napisan/hot water mixture and soak bottles for a day or two. I stand them up to eliminate any air pockets. Also aids in easily removing labels if they are new bottles. I find this tends to prevent the build up of yeast rings/scum in the bottles as well.
3. Rinse bottles 3 times with cold water, then 3 times with hot water and place on bottle drainer, usually I will put them out in the sun to dry them quicker.
4. Store in 50L plastic lidded containers from Bunnings until next use.

Been doing this for as long as I've been brewing and haven't had one bad bottle so far. I don't sanitize the bottles or the caps but obviously that's my prerogative and if you wanted to add that step in, by all means do so.

 

[James85]

Found the info about the coopers bottles on their web sight when I was researching which bottles I could use for home brew. I had a pale ale that I left to age for six months. I tasted ok but definitely worse than it was at three weeks old.
Doesn't worry me now as I have started using glass for my last 4 brews. Taste is much better out of glass than plastic at any age IMHO

 

[Rocker1986]

I've never used plastic bottles. It may be purely all in the mind but I just can't get my head around storing and serving beer from plastic bottles, it just seems weird. Besides I'd rather buy glass bottles and have them come with beer than a heap of empties. :chug:

 

[Forever Wort]

I have started brewing straight into 1.5 litre PET bottles for a few reasons.

1. The clear plastic makes it easier to identify dirt, yeast, etc;
2. No need to waste time using crown caps;
3. Bottling is quick - only 14 bottles for a 23 litre brew;
4. PET bottles are super light - three bottles (4.5 litres) don't weigh you down when going to parties;
5. They are dirt cheap compared to glass.

The downside is obvious, in that you have to open 1.5l when you may only want one drink. But I usually drink with at least one other person, so that solves that problem!

I have only done a couple of brews in my life but I have been washing the bottles a few times with hot water as I drink them, then sanitising on brew day. Similar to most people in this thread.

 

[BeardedWonder]

Wow.
Comparatively I'm going a bit OCD with my PET bottle cleaning regime.

I rinse with water (ideally warm to hot, but sometimes I can't be buggered waiting for the hot water to run) three times once empty to clear the dregs. Then I stash them away to be pulled out the day before bottling and all cleaned with a bottle cleaning solution bought from the LHBS; scrubbed with a bottle brush then rinsed (three times, of course); and then sanitized with a no-rinse solution.

I should also point out that I bottle in both PET and glass and wash both types at the same time.

Maybe I should ease up on the cleaning solution....

 

[Silver]

I used to triple rinse with warm to hot water, as soon as it was emptied then fill with cold tap water, secure lid while gently squeezing bottle to expel air. My theory was any chemicals added to the drinking water to keep it and me safe should also protect my bottle. Used to get 3 cycles per bottle then toss(the bottle). Figured i was tempting fate. Never had any issues even with beers up to a year old.

 

[Nort]

Hi all.
Just about to put down my 19th brew, have bottled 14 lots and tasted 9. So far all good and very tasty in PET Bottles. All I do is wash the bottles first in cold water (as they are Cooper's bottles), and if I drink a bottle I wash it thoroughly about 3-4 times to remove any sediment, then store them on the Christmas Tree until dry, then cap them and store them until next time. Next time comes around, I rinse them once again in cool water, and sanitize them with a special sanitizer I bought from a company in Rocky. This is a "no rinse" Sanitizer and I only need 2ml per litre (10ml to 5L). Comes in a 5L bottle for $40 delivered. (You do the maths.) It's used to sanitize bars, clubs, restaurants etc. All the benches and utensils. I use it all the time for all my sanitizing and never had a problem. Then I just drain the bottles (also do the caps and bottling wand) and so far so good. A very good sanitizer.

 

[Elderfi]

I am yet to re use my PET bottles (my next brew in FV is due on to bottle next week so this is a pretty relevant topic). I have however re-used 330ml bottles which previously contained store bought beer.

To clean these I put them all in the bath with a cap full of napi san over night and then rinsed twice and bottled. Ive yet to drink them as they have been conditioning but there is no sign of any "baddies" on the bottles.

Im assuming this will be appropriate for the next bottle. Whats the advantage of star san? I mean ive been using napisan for every thing cleaning and sanatizing and havent had an issue yet

 

[waggastew]

Have been bottling in PET's for about three and a half years. My regime is as follows:

After pouring the beer I tip out the excess, give it a few flushes with cold water then leave to drain O/N. Put the cap on and store till next use. Key is keep the bottles clean and they are easier to sanitise. Any funky/infection bottles (either a home batch or a sample from another brewer) get tossed.

On bottling day:

1. Soak in cold water in laundry tub with a cap full of homebrand unscented napisan for 30min. Drain
2. Soak in cold water in laundry tub with 1/2 cup bleach for 30min. Drain
3. Rinse and empty each bottle 4x with cold running water
4. Spray with 4 squirts of diluted Starsan and sit for 5 min.
5. Drain excess Starsan

Prime and bottle as usual.

 

[Rocker1986]

I am yet to re use my PET bottles (my next brew in FV is due on to bottle next week so this is a pretty relevant topic). I have however re-used 330ml bottles which previously contained store bought beer.

To clean these I put them all in the bath with a cap full of napi san over night and then rinsed twice and bottled. Ive yet to drink them as they have been conditioning but there is no sign of any "baddies" on the bottles.

Im assuming this will be appropriate for the next bottle. Whats the advantage of star san? I mean ive been using napisan for every thing cleaning and sanatizing and havent had an issue yet

I do the same with my bottles (all glass), except that I rinse them 6 times (3xcold, 3xhot), because I really don't want any trace of that **** in my bottles and getting into the beer. Never had any bottle infections from doing this either.

 

[Diggs]

I just clean them as I go (warm water an d shake the hellout of them), inspect for yeasties, if clean sit them upside down on the iitchen sick.
If im pissed ill leave a bit of beer in the bottom so they dont dry out and do this the next day. Then normal process.
I am however very thorough on bottling day with a sanitising bath and then one of those squirty things that sit on top of my bottling tree. Also my caps sitting in solution till they actually hit the bottle.
No issues so far.

 

[wbosher]

Immediately rinse with hot (about 50 - 60 degrees) water three times...seems to be something about the number three.
On bottling day, sanitise thoroughly wIth Starsan
Fill bottles

 

[Srimes101]

I rinse mine three times after drinking (they never dry out with dregs in them) and shake like *****.
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.

Hey mate do you have any pictures if your collar setup to wash PET bottles

 

[Jolls]

Hey mate do you have any pictures if your collar setup to wash PET bottles

Old Mate Chilichili hasn't been on the site since Jan 2012. Just click on their avatar and you can see if they are active or not.

Cheers n Beers
Jolls

 

[papamoaetmac]

I rinse them out a couple of times with warm water from the tap, seal them and put them in the garage, before I bottle I put them in the dishwasher on a quick wash - on the top rack only, the water temps below 60'c on my Bosch - haven't had any of the 750mls shrink yet in the last 2 1/2 years. But agree if you hand wash too hot they shrink!!;

 

[yankinoz]

I've never used plastic bottles. It may be purely all in the mind but I just can't get my head around storing and serving beer from plastic bottles, it just seems weird. Besides I'd rather buy glass bottles and have them come with beer than a heap of empties. :chug:

Second the motion. After subtracting the cost of buying the bottles empty, you can sample some excellent beers for peanuts. For 750s that's probably Coopers ales, for 500s European (including UK) products. At one time I bought quite a few Imperial pints of Little Creatures, but their new owners withdrew that size and then brought it back at a steep price.

 

[CapnClunks]

1: Rinse out gunk after drinking.
2: Fill Rubbermaid tub with pbw and submerge bottles.
3: Rinse bottles again.
4: half full bottles with starsan, put lids on give it good shake and decant bottle to bottle.
4: when bottling spray threads and lids with starsan.
5: profit

 

[Hangover68]

1: Rinse out gunk after drinking.
2: Fill Rubbermaid tub with pbw and submerge bottles.
3: Rinse bottles again.
4: half full bottles with starsan, put lids on give it good shake and decant bottle to bottle.
4: when bottling spray threads and lids with starsan.
5: profit

Same as what i do pretty much and what i did earlier today for some overflow brew.