Do Crown Seals Need To Be Steralised?

[akroplane1]

Boil caps in the microwave? :blink:

yes, so long as the caps are covered with water, no problems

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Common misconception that you cant put metal in a microwave - you can. Just not everything made of metal; and the microwave companies assumed (probably rightly) that the unwashed masses would screw it up and burn down their houses.

Back on topic - I normally counter pressure fill any bottles I want. I always sanitise everything that comes into contact with my beer so - an ice cream container full of the no-rinse sanitiser dejour (Starsan, Iodophor) and pull the cap out of the solution just before its shoved on the bottle. No shaking, I want a little sanitiser solution from the cap to get onto the rim of the bottle and take care of any germs that fell onto it while I was filling.

Probably get away without doing it, but it doesn't really take any extra time and better safe than sorry.

TB

 

[HoppingMad]

Flamesuit is on! h34r:

Sorry dudes, sterilising caps is an overcautious and unnecessary measure.

Never sanitised the caps, never will, and have never had an issue with a bottle. Making work for yourself. Been brewing 14 years with no issues.

Read something on the subject last week and they pretty much said that if you are using caps straight from a bag, simply store the bag securely and you'll have no problems. They even went as far as to say that commercial brewers don't sanitise caps (this is a US book I'm quoting so must be US brewers they're talking about). Anyone who lends a hand at a local brewery might be able to set me straight on this though.

Hopper.

 

[Zwickel]

Flamesuit is on! h34r:

Sorry dudes, sterilising caps is an overcautious and unnecessary measure.

Never sanitised the caps, never will, and have never had an issue with a bottle. Making work for yourself. Been brewing 14 years with no issues.

Read something on the subject last week and they pretty much said that if you are using caps straight from a bag, simply store the bag securely and you'll have no problems. They even went as far as to say that commercial brewers don't sanitise caps (this is a US book I'm quoting so must be US brewers they're talking about). Anyone who lends a hand at a local brewery might be able to set me straight on this though.

Hopper.

+1, I subscribe everything Hopping Mad said.

 

[Brewtus]

exactly. and it's not a whole hell of a lot of extra work.

when bottling, i always chuck my crown seals into a small jug of diluted iodophor for 10 mins. no need to rinse, just pull em out * cap.

reVox

+1 and for PET cap as well.

 

[Carbonator]

+1 Tyred, i don't use starsan or anything else, just boil caps in the microwave for 5 minutes or so then allow to cool

What about the BPA? - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/17/2367355.htm

 

[Adamt]

Nothing in the crown seals that will leach BPA.

 

[Cocko]

40+ batches - never have sterilised caps... no problems to date.

BUT now will, what little effort to avoid a weak link in the chain!

 

[staggalee]

Bottling since 1990, never sanitised or boiled a cap yet. Never a problem.
Suppose for that little bit xtra tho, it could give peace of mind for anyone in doubt about it.

staggalee.

 

[Luka]

Same here, never sterilised bottle caps and never had any issues with contamination. I don't think you have to be that cautious, seems a little OTT.

 

[PostModern]

Question for the no-sanitisers. Do you sanitise the inside of your bottles? If so, why are you happy with 99% sanitised containiers? I haven't been inside a lid making plant, nor seen how they're packed, but I doubt they're sanitary.

 

[therook]

Question for the no-sanitisers. Do you sanitise the inside of your bottles? If so, why are you happy with 99% sanitised containiers? I haven't been inside a lid making plant, nor seen how they're packed, but I doubt they're sanitary.

Po Mo, i may be a lucky one but i don't sanitise my bottles or caps, after drinking i give the bottles 3 rinses with cold water and drain them. Never ever had a problem

Rook

 

[PostModern]

Just between you and me, I only sanitise my kegs about once a year. Rinsing the crud out with hot water is all I do.

 

[Barramundi]

i usually just put my caps in a small container before bottling filled with iodophor solution and take them out as needed give them a shake to get the majority of the liquid off and put them on a bottle... thats as far as i go in terms of lid sanitation ...

 

[Blackfish]

Question for the no-sanitisers. Do you sanitise the inside of your bottles? If so, why are you happy with 99% sanitised containiers? I haven't been inside a lid making plant, nor seen how they're packed, but I doubt they're sanitary.

FWIW I agree, I soak them, but there would have to be some paranoia on the part of any food packaging manufacturer about someone catching something from their product? I wonder what the instructions on a pack of caps say? anyone?

 

[petesbrew]

As a slack-arsed precautionary measurement, I stick them in a small bowl of boiling water, and just pull them out one by one and cap them.
Note: Those little seals inside PET caps don't like boiling water.

 

[Mitternacht Brauer]

As a slack-arsed precautionary measurement, I stick them in a small bowl of boiling water, and just pull them out one by one and cap them.
Note: Those little seals inside PET caps don't like boiling water.

I usually give them a swim in some no rinse just before capping . I haven't had any problems with this way of bottling .

My 2cents worth.

 

[SJW]

i was just wondering if the crown seals need to be steralised?

Yes

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Yes

Its as simple as that for me - I pulled open a new bag of seals just the other day and immediately sneezed directly on them.... so while I was always going to sanitise them ( I sanitise everything that touches my beer) I can personally narrow it down to a no arguments "YES I need to" at least till I have used all these ones up.

TB

 

[boingk]

I honestly just can't be assed. Between having to brew at 2am in my dorm common room, then shift the fermenter to my wardrobe - not to mention impending assignments/exams - and having to bottle in secret, barricaded in my room...sterilising caps just hasn't crossed my mind. Also, both of my 'off' batches (out of a total of 35+) had flawed fermentation and were a bottle-and-see affair, so I can't fault my caps in the slightest here.

Just whack 'em on, she'll be right mate :icon_cheers:

Of course, I do run the re-usable plastic caps for my PET bottles under vigorous hot water to de-befoul them before use again.

Cheers - boingk