the quickest way to get bottles clean enough

[squirrell]

Still a newbie, bottling another batch tomorrow.

Do people go o,verboard with cleanliness? I can understand being anal with the fermenter as you can lose a whole batch with infection. With bottles I'm happy to lose the odd bottle if it means avoiding the whole rigmarole some go through to get perfectly clean bottles. What do people think? If I rinse my bottle after drinking it, and again in hot water before bottling and there are no visible depositsg, will I be ok for 95% of bottles?

 

[wereprawn]

Its a simple thing to make up a litre of starsan , fill one beer bottle with starsan put a plastic funnel in second bottle and pour first bottle into second and so on.Takes about 5 min to do the lot.

 

[manticle]

Rinse after drinking well so nothing visible remains, no rinse sanitiser before bottling. Hot sodium percarb or ditch for stubborn material or when unsure.

No-one can give you a statistic - if it's not clean, it's dirty, if it's not sanitised, it's not sanitary.

Your beer, your risk.

 

[Bax]

As manticle says, it's really up to you how in depth you go. I've had people tell me that they've done nothing more than rinsing with hot water, and never had any dramas.

Personally, I rinse with hot water until it stops smelling like old beer. 3 seems to be the magic number, but if I get any strays I'll do a couple more.

Then I do up a big batch of Starsan, usually about 5-10L because it's sitting in the fermenter (I sanitise the bottles prior to putting a brew on) I then proceed to soak most of the bottles and caps, and give it a few squirts with a thing that I bought. Which just squirts the starsan up into the bottle.

Put the cap on and I'm good to go.

 

[MaltyHops]

With bottles I'm happy to lose the odd bottle if it means avoiding the whole rigmarole some go through to get perfectly clean bottles.

But this could be via an exploding bottle (if you're using glass) due to an infection so taking reasonable measures to avoid this ought to be worth it.

If I rinse my bottle after drinking it, and again in hot water before bottling and there are no visible depositsg, will I be ok for 95% of bottles?

This is pretty much what I do plus I put about a cup of starsan (properly diluted) in a milk jug like that below (its spout is very good for pouring starsan into a bottle), pour into bottle, swirl bottle, pour starsan back into jug and do this for all bottles (shortly before actual fulling of the bottles).

Any bottles with some build up I would soak in hot PBW and bottle brush scrubbed the day before bottling and then joining in on the starsan treatment.

BTW - properly diluted Starsan has a faint weak lemon juice taste and the foam that sticks to the inside of bottles is not big deal.

[zoom]

 

[LiquidGold]

I do exactly the same as the first two posts. Rinse well after drinking and let dry then store away from dust. Come bottling day I use a funnel and pour from bottle to bottle and hang on bottle rack to dry while getting the fermenter and priming plus other gear ready.

 

[squirrell]

Ok, so is starsan only at lbhs?

 

[wereprawn]

LHBS ? Try there or get some online from site sponsors.I got the smallest bottle about 6 months ago and have not even used 1/4 of it yet. Cheap when it lasts that long.

 

[Bax]

You're in melbourne, so Local Homebrew Shop, probably.

I ordered a big bottle online, my local only had pink powder.

I've used about an 1/8th of it and I use it liberally, it keeps quite well if you've already mixed it up as well.

 

[Scooby Tha Newbie]

Use a bottle brush and a cordless drill works a treat.
I did pbw and starsan on these in 45 Min. Less than 1 Min per bottle.
Time well spent I feel.

 

[spryzie]

I rinse after pouring.

At bottling, I run them through the dishwasher.

Glass bottles of course.

 

[wynnum1]

Drinking at home pour into a glass and do not drink out of the bottle and rinse.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

As most have said, give them a good rinse under the tap after pouring, check to see that nothing remains in the bottle. If there is, use a cleaning solution and then rinse well.

When bottling, I have a jug of pre mixed sanitiser on hand, I sit 6 bottles on the sink and using a funnel, I pour about 100mls into each bottle, give them a good shake, dunk the neck of the bottle into the jug, to make sure the entire top of the bottle is sanitised and pour the contents of the bottle back into the jug. Place the bottles on the bottle tree and repeat.

 

[Gregos]

I rinse with hot tap water twice, then poor boiling water from jug 1/4 bottle rinse, put on bottle tree, prior to re filling I use a one of them bottle cleaners that fit on top of the bottle tree, fill up with starsan, give each bottle a squirt then fill again.

 

[biggles266]

I have a procedure which I've been told is overkill:

1. Visual inspection for gunk. Remove any with bottle brush. You shouldn't have any if you rinse them at time of drinking but that's another story!
2. Spray 1 squirt from dilute bleach mix spray bottle into each bottle and a spray of water
3. Give each bottle a pull through with bottle brush, visual inspection (holding up to daylight is best), rinse twice to remove bleach
4. Spray 1-2 squirts from star stan mix spray bottle into each bottle, swirl and place on bottle tree

I've been told the bleach is overkill but I don't care. My bottles get split between two other brewers and I don't know how well they clean or store them once they come back for re-use. It takes a little while but is made quicker with a trigger hose and being systematic about it...

 

[QldKev]

Still a newbie, bottling another batch tomorrow.

Do people go o,verboard with cleanliness? I can understand being anal with the fermenter as you can lose a whole batch with infection. With bottles I'm happy to lose the odd bottle if it means avoiding the whole rigmarole some go through to get perfectly clean bottles. What do people think? If I rinse my bottle after drinking it, and again in hot water before bottling and there are no visible depositsg, will I be ok for 95% of bottles?

If you are happy for 5% of your bottle to result in potential bottle bombs, I would suggest changing hobbies.

An manticle suggested, rinse the bottle out as your drink them and store somewhere they can stay clean, preferably upside down. Then a quick rinse and sanatise when you go to re-use them.


Maybe fork out for a keg setup?

 

[brewbienewbie]

Add me to the hot water + squirt of no-rinse crew. I find a couple of upside-down milk crates work well as a ghetto bottle tree, just stick the bottles in the holes and leave them to drain.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

just drink them quick enough for bombs not to develop

or get kegs.

 

[brewbienewbie]

If you really want to go low-effort though, just bottle in plastic. My wife drinks a lot of home-brand sparkling mineral water, so I put about half of every batch (the half I'm going to drink within a month or so) in those bottles now. No sanitising required.

 

[pcmfisher]

When I bottled I would do the rinse after drinking and sanitize before bottle routine.
I did notice a ring forming around where the beer level was in the bottle. You could only see it if you held it up to the light and noticed that the sanitizer didn't cling to the side of the bottle the same above the beer line as below. This was PET bottles I was using.

I figured this was not good, so I started doing a quick scrub with a bottle brush and nappy san.