How much bleach to clean bottles

[Bentnose]

I followed John Palmers recommendation of 4ml per liter of bleach (unscented White King, fresh bottle) and left my bottles soaking for about 10 days, all of the labels came off but there is still a little residue on the sides of the bottles. How strong can or should you go 5ml, 6ml per liter?

 

[barls]

mate use napisan
works just as well and safer

 

[wereprawn]

Soaking in hot water then scrubbing with a scourer also works.

 

[Midnight Brew]

Napisan or sodium percarb is best for a soak clean or to get the labels off but for sanitisation a good investment would be a no rinse sanitiser like star san.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Sodium perc is a sanitiser

 

[Bentnose]

You know what cancel the red alert, it looks like the residue is on the outside, glue left over from all the labels, really tough to get off once it dries, looks just like the residue that was in the bottles to begin with. The way I'm doing it seems easier and (now I realize about the glue) more effective than the sodium per-carbonate I had been using, even at triple strength, it just wasn't doing the job for me.I just soak them in a big bin of bleach, leave a long time, drain and fill with hot water, making sure the all of the bottles get filled with hot water, doesn't take long. I'll use a no rinse sanitizer before bottling.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I followed John Palmers recommendation of 4ml per liter of bleach (unscented White King, fresh bottle) and left my bottles soaking for about 10 days, all of the labels came off but there is still a little residue on the sides of the bottles. How strong can or should you go 5ml, 6ml per liter?

0ml/l for anything that beer will touch.

 

[Bribie G]

The problem with bleach is that it is "sticky" and takes heaps of water to rinse off, otherwise your bottles and fermenters smell like one of those old time indoor swimming baths.
No point in removing chlorine from your brewing water only to put it back into the brew at bottling or kegging time.

I started off with bleach myself, a dollar twenty a bottle, how could I go wrong. However I quickly went onto sodium perc and starsan.
It actually works out cheaper, and less water required. I moved to NSW two years and three months ago and in that time I've used 3/4 of a bottle of Starsan .. not bad going, just ordered my next one from CraftBrewer, should last me till 2018.

 

[stux]

And a bottle brush?

 

[michaeld16]

0ml/l for anything that beer will touch.

Second that

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

And a bottle brush?

+



=

super clean bottles

 

[Bentnose]

I always find a bottle brush leaves some bits behind plus it takes time to brush each individual bottle, I found using bleach to clean them is quick and easy and the bottles don't smell of chlorine. I used to use bleach all of the time for sanitizing my fermenter and bottles and had no issues.

 

[MartinOC]

Why not just use Sodium Carbonate for cleaning/de-labelling? It's in the supermarkets' laundry aisles as "Washing Soda" or "Lectric Crystals" etc... Labels just slide off in 2-3 days at this time of year, but I always give them a wipe with a nylon scourer anyway just to be sure all the glue residue is gone.

Perc. will break-down into a dilute solution of that anyway & it does-away with the risk of bleach in your system (I'm guessing you've got a high threshold for detecting Chlorophenols in beer).

 

[Nizmoose]

Gee what napisan or sod perc are people using to have to wait three days for labels to slide off?! My bottles get rinsed and put on a shelf till I've collected say 6-10 then go into a bucket of hot water and napisan to soak to two or three hours and the labels don't even come out the bucket with the bottles. Give them a rinse and put them away, done

 

[wynnum1]

what about rinsing with vitamin c to get rid of chlorine.

 

[Nullnvoid]

Don't you just use hot water and leave them to soak for 20 minutes and then use a bit of arm power.

I fill the sink, fits about 7-8 bottles, let the first ones go for 15 minutes, then as i pull one out to de-label, stick the next one in. Bob's your aunty!

 

[Bentnose]

Actually the sodium carbonate is more expensive than bleach, you need to use a minimum of 7g per litre, I find 28g/L is effective, I make up 60L of solution at a time using only 240ml of bleach, at that concentration it just needs a quick rinse in hot water, bleach also has the added advantage in that you can leave it longer without the water going icky.

 

[DU99]

Bleach can leave residual smell and taste if not rinsed properly..your rinsing..so what's the difference.Starsan sanitizer can be reused,also you can use idopher only downside it leaves a yellow stain on plastic containers.People use other forms to clean and santize..but for me sodium perc and starsan is the easiest and NO INFECTIONS

 

[Bribie G]

Sodium Percarbonate is also a brilliant remover of all biological scum. I use Schott Duran lab bottles for all sorts of yeast work, saving extra wort for starters, etc. On many an occasion you'd bet a thousand dollars that a bottle is clean and sterile, but put a teaspoon of perc in and fill with hot water and most times it will start fizzing and frothing straight away as the perc hunts down the bugs.

If napisan can destroy stuck on baby shit there's not much it can't do

 

[DU99]

Napisan is only about average 32% W/V.sometimes there is bulk buy which the product is about 98% pure.about $1.15 kg..



i have used bleach never again...there are better products..My 2Cents