Bottle washing

[Squirey]

Rinse out bottles as soon as you've drunk them and add a bit of water to soak. Drain whenever after a day or so and store. When bottling, fill sink with VWP solution, wash bottles with bottle-brush, rinse, drain and good-to-go. Bottling takes me just under one hour for about 20 this way (from gathering all my stuff to washing to priming to bottling to capping).

 

[AXW123]

you do realise that a dish washer very rarely gets inside a bottle, but does the outside?

Yes- I am not cleaning them I am sterilising them.

 

[terrym]

Yes- I am not cleaning them I am sterilising them.

That's interesting. 'Sterilising' is the process whereby all 'germs' are killed. Fully immersing an object in boiling water or in hot steam for a short time will do this. However I doubt whether your dishwasher even on its highest setting can do this and if the hot water does not get inside the bottles even less so. Added to which your dishwasher is probably a good place for all sorts of bacteria to survive and multiply and get recirculated.

 

[foxy]

Surprisingly long thread for bottle washing, even if I rinse directly after use they still get an alkaline clean and sanitised with proxitane on bottling day.

 

[Richie_asg1]

Interesting alternative to no-rinse sterilising by using steam -

 

[user 18729]

Surprisingly long thread for bottle washing, even if I rinse directly after use they still get an alkaline clean and sanitised with proxitane on bottling day.

How do you get on with Proxitane? Does it store well?

 

[St00]

I rinse the bottle after finishing beer and put it in the dishwasher
Bottling time I have a sink of very hot water and rinse again. hold up to the light for any surface residue
Use a vinator to sanitize using starsan
Place on bottle tree
Fill and cap the bottles.

 

[Richie_asg1]

My crates of bottles arrived today -

Seem to be oktoberfest bottles - dusty from storage and still have dregs in and all kinds of funk in there. Being in plastic crates should help the washing. Will keep me busy a while.

 

[foxy]

How do you get on with Proxitane? Does it store well?

Stores well as long as you buy a small quantity 2-3 litres and keep it in the fridge 10 ml per litre no rinse no need to dry and works with tap water (not restricted by pH)

 

[user 18729]

Stores well as long as you buy a small quantity 2-3 litres and keep it in the fridge 10 ml per litre no rinse no need to dry and works with tap water (not restricted by pH)

I’m intrigued how much are we talking for a 2-3 litre quantity?

 

[foxy]

I’m intrigued how much are we talking for a 2-3 litre quantity?

Well I was paying about $30 Australian, I now notice it has gone up in price, but I think someone else in the UK found it for around 18 GBP

 

[Scottyburto]

Does no one use no-rinse baby sterilizer? Surely it's cheaper than that!

 

[Scottyburto]

Milton is about £2.50-3.00 for 28 tablets.

 

[dwhite60]

Triple rinse after decanting. Goes into a crate / box / whatever.

Bottling day I fill ten or so to the crown with OneStep solution and let them soak 20 - 30 minutes.
I then decant these into another ten or so bottles. The ones emptied go upside down in a dish rack
in the sink with no further rinse until bottling time.

OneStep will loosen rather quickly most anything inside the bottle.

Most important step is rinsing immediately after pouring.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[AXW123]

That's interesting. 'Sterilising' is the process whereby all 'germs' are killed. Fully immersing an object in boiling water or in hot steam for a short time will do this. However I doubt whether your dishwasher even on its highest setting can do this and if the hot water does not get inside the bottles even less so. Added to which your dishwasher is probably a good place for all sorts of bacteria to survive and multiply and get recirculated.

Theoretically you are right - but there’s not much that will survive that temperature and I’ve never had a problem - so I’m happy.

 

[Richie_asg1]

The Fast Rack people have come out with a washer that fits their system.
Same ideas as most.
http://www.fastbrewing.com/fastwasher


Just stripped the labels off about half the bottles so far with soaking and done the initial rinse & brush. First clean will be the hardest but after that it will just be easier.

 

[CeeGee]

Good rinse after drinking.

On bottling day a wash in oxy solution, then vwp steriliser in the bottle rinser. Leave them to stand a few minutes then rinse with tap water a few times.

Has worked fine so far!

 

[CeeGee]

I would try a no rinse sanitizer like Starsan or similar, but living in very much a hard water area, I’m not convinced it would be very effective. Perhaps I’ll look for some distilled water in the garage next time I fill the car up and try that. Would certainly make life easier!

(Top tip - if you do ever need distilled water and you see it in Sainsbury’s, it tends to be a lot cheaper in the filling station than in the ironing section, I’ve noticed!)

 

[labrewski]

Rinse with hot water at least 3 times then cover top with tin foil before bottling give it a shot with stars san with one of these I do ten at a time sanitize and fill 40 bottles in an hour

 

[Richie_asg1]

Finished the deep clean of my 60 new swingtop bottles. Soak in soapy water to help remove labels, a teaspoon handle to remove the tops and then bottlebrush in a drill. After that they got loaded in the dishwasher for a long wash. Crates were pressure washed outside.
Now they are sort of clean and just need the regular bottling day washing.

I was looking at the design of the fastrack washer and the base is a two-part assembly with a lot of screws. With this in mind it may be possible to use two polythene chopping boards and rout out the water channels, then screw together, rather than sticking pipes together, and use standard irrigation nozzles screwed in from one side.