Bleaching bottles?

[Sandimas]

Does anyone occasionally or regularly bleach their bottles?

I'm still on a lot of my original bottles since starting brewing in 2011. Despite rigorous cleaning, soaking as soon as empty etc they've been getting visibly tarnished. And I've had quite a few gushers recently. So today I gave them a good soak in about 10L of water with a couple of good squirts of bleach. After rinsing well, they've come up like new, making me think I should have done this more in the past?

 

[LED_ZEP]

I only use bleach for cleaning and (a much weaker solution ) to sanitise. Only use the thin unscented type though.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

I was just reading another thread (about lack of fizz) and someone posted today that it's their standard bottle-sanitising procedure, and I've seen it on other threads to, so I plan to try it out soon. Apparently thin bleach is the way to go.

 

[Pennine]

do you scrub with a bottle brush? i had the same and scrubbing after rinsing fixed all the issues.

 

[jof]

I do:
Rinse after drinking.
Soak in sterilizer
Use bottle brush
Empty & rinse (looking at bottom of each bottle for any missed residue & rejecting those that do)

I am still have about 10 old 1 pint glass brown bottles that came with my starter kit 30 years ago.
I do find that clear glass bottles will slowly discolour over time (years).

I only do lightly carbonated ales (except the batch I got wrong & was over carbonated for me).

If you are doing high carbonation levels in glass bottles, please store them in the shed/garage, as the increase in pressure will give you an increased risk of bottle explosion - especially in hot weather.
Its a pain to clean up the mess & glass. (Had it happen twice in 30 years)

 

[samale]

My method is to rinse straight after I pour my beer. Then when needed they get soaked in warm water with a light bleach. The hit with steriliser. Probably over kill but it works for me.

 

[Sandimas]

Yes, I do scrub with a bottle brush. But there's been a slow build-up (over many years) of a kind of "sheen" on the inside. Wish I'd taken a photo before I bleached,.

Remember some of these bottles have been cycled through batches of homebrew for 9 years.

 

[Drunkula]

Apparently thin bleach is the way to go.

Star San is the actual way to go for sanitisation. Thin bleach is good for things as long as it's thin bleach. I've had 3 bottles of thin bleach that weren't thin bleach and had loads of batches of beer ruined because of it. Sod that **** happening again - Star San. And you don't end up with loads of ruined clothes.

 

[Cestrian]

I’ve got a big plastic chest in my garage that takes two crates of beer. I fill it full of water and a bottle of cheap Asda bleach. I always clean bottles overnight in this bleach solution. Then triple rinse before bottling. I usually change the water/bleach every couple of months.

 

[Drunkula]

I usually change the water/bleach every couple of months.

Bleach solutions break down into salt and water over a couple of days. I've put bleach solutions in demijohns and bunged them and had rafts of mold growing in them and looks like a dead rat loads of times.

For anyone making the Charlie Talley acidified bleach you need to make that stuff up every single day.

 

[Cestrian]

I have also ruined a lot of beer recently with bleach that wasn’t just bleach and agree starsan is best for sanitisation, but if bottles aren’t clean you will get gushers

 

[Cestrian]

Bleach solutions break down into salt and water over a couple of days. I've put bleach solutions in demijohns and bunged them and had rafts of mold growing in them and looks like a dead rat loads of times.

For anyone making the Charlie Talley acidified bleach you need to make that stuff up every single day.

Bleach doesn’t break down for months otherwise it would breakdown in the bottle!! I used to work in a factory that made sodium hypochlorite (Aka bleach) by scrubbing chlorine gas with sodium Hydroxide. It doesn’t break down over a couple of days.

 

[DavidDetroit]

I agree with a lot/most of the above. There are a lot of ways to get clean and sanitized bottles.
Bleach isn't bad but if you don't get it all out, you affect the beer (as was mentioned).
It can be as simple as rinsing well after drinking and then Starsan before bottling.
The only time I have to clean them with a brush and unscented dish liquid is when I give people beer and they run them through the dishwasher with the fancy dish cleaning products which leaves a residue on the inside.
Edit:
The bottle washer

is invaluable for bottle care. If I were smart (I'm not), I would hook one of those up onto the basement sink, full-time, or at least have it to hand down there so I can screw it on and wash my just-emptied beers.

 

[Drunkula]

Bleach doesn’t break down for months otherwise it would breakdown in the bottle!

Nope - the high pH slows the bleach from breaking down. Dilute it or aciditfy it and it breaks down much faster. And itdoes break down in the bottle eventually even though the pH is around 12.

 

[Cestrian]

Yes it takes years to break down completely at concentrated levels. Didn’t realise it was such a short time when diluted. I certainly haven’t noticed this at home. My bottles always come out of the bleach bath sparkling. I always use starsan to sterilise afterwards though. I think an important message for new brewers is don’t just rely on starsan. That doesn’t get your bottles clean. You need to clean and then sterilise.

 

[Sandimas]

I think an important message for new brewers is don’t just rely on starsan. That doesn’t get your bottles clean. You need to clean and then sterilise.

+1

That was kinda the point of my original post: I clean and sterilise every brew, just wondered how often people do a deeper clean. Looking all the bottles this morning, they look sparkling :-)

 

[ppsmith]

they run them through the dishwasher with the fancy dish cleaning products which leaves a residue on the inside.

My usual routine is to rinse & brush after drinking, through the dishwasher and into storage, starsan on bottling day before the next fill.

Maybe my cleaning products aren’t fancy enough, or maybe I’ve been lucky so far.

 

[Nicks90]

Perhaps a stupid question, but what bottle brushes do you guys use?
All the bottle brushes I've ever bought from the super market aren't long enough to reach the bottom of the taller brown bottles

 

[Stephen Cook]

I only ever use thin, cheap, watery, unscented supermarket bleach to sterilize all of my brewing equipment. Works absolutely fine. The main thing is to rinse your items until you can't smell bleach anymore.

Simple as that.

 

[DavidDetroit]

Maybe my cleaning products aren’t fancy enough, or maybe I’ve been lucky so far.

Less fancy is good. The products that add something to the soap is what I was referring to about "fancy."
I think I've been lucky as well since I've not had any problems.