Bottle washing

[Mavroz]

 

[Richie_asg1]

What nozzles are on there? I am looking at air pump adaptors for inflatable air beds etc, but can't find them in quantity.

Good design BTW.

 

[Mavroz]

What nozzles are on there? I am looking at air pump adaptors for inflatable air beds etc, but can't find them in quantity.

Good design BTW.

Made them myself on the lathe at work. The white ones have spray nozzles attached, pump is a small 12v unit from china. Pumps water from the tray via 10mm tubing and 3/8 connectors.
Black pins are for draining.
Really only use it just before bottling to apply sanitiser to inside of bottles quickly.
Can be used for washing bottles but never have any that dirty now.

 

[dad_of_jon]

rinse straight after use, dishwasher then rinse then oven (10 per batch) then a starsan'd used bottle cap and down shed until bottling day. That's good enough to satisfy my my CDO tendencies. only had 1 gusher/infected bottle in over 2600+ bottles

 

[Dr Chris Hop]

Probably the worst part of brewing for me is bottle washing, but I do like beer in glass bottles, and they are easy to store in odd corners.
I must have spent a good hour just cleaning the sink area down and cleaning bottles. I do have a dishwasher but is pretty bad at getting the inside of bottles clean, and can make clean rinsed bottles dirty again.

This year I intend to improve things so have started to look at what is taking the time in an attempt to speed up the process.
All my bottles are rinced & shaken 3 times then left to drain overnight upsidedown. During the day these are then put somewhere warm on their sides to dry and when I get enough are boxed up with a cover.

Bottling day I start out by filling the sink with a bleach & vinegar mix, and use a bottle brush a few times, then fill each bottle and leave to stand full for 10 minutes. As this uses up the bleach mix I end up with 10 bottles and have to wait 10 minutes before I can carry on. Then repeat 5 times to end up with 46 bottles which is about 1 bottle more than needed on a 23L batch.- But that is 50 minutes gone!

When drained I used to rinse with boiled water, but I now skip this as bottles are usually free of drips by the time I get to use them.

So it looks like the bottle brush is needed, but what is taking the time is the sterilisation period.

How do the guys that bottle do it? Or has everyone moved to cornys because of bottling issues?

If the bottle has visible residue inside, I use ‘Vanish’, or more specifically Asda’s own brand ‘for colours’ version (no whiteners or perfume). The oxygen and enzymes cut through just about anything, including burnt on yeast from when I used to heat sterilise in the oven. After the Vanish I then rinse and use Chemsan (Star San equivalent) the day before.

 

[Dutto]

rinse straight after use, .........

Me too (or rather "I used to do the same.").

However, that doesn't cover the numbnuts that keeps the bottles for a month and then hands them back with old yeast, dried and hard as concrete, stuck to the sides and bottom of the bottle!

What really tees me off is that, after knowing him for most of my life, Roy is such a good friend that even SWMBO likes him!

 

[GhostShip]

I must admit, it's the worst part of brewing for me. I rinse each (PET) bottle after I pour a beer and then leave to drain.

On brew day, I wash them again using a bottle brush, rinse, and then leave to drain on my bottle tree.

I then put some Starsan into the briiliant little invention shown below.

This part of the process is actually quite enjoyable - a couple of pumps to each bottle and then back on the tree before I start to bottle the beer.

 

[GhostShip]

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!)

I buy a 5L bottle of Tesco Ashbeck spring water. Once I've used or drunk some of it, I mix the right amount of Starsan to the rest of the water and it can then be kept in the cupboard with lots of masking tape around it and black marker on the tape saying 'ACID - DO NOT DRINK!

Depends on how many brews I do, but that will last months, if not years.

 

[hichaechoc]

Rinse bottles after use.
Store on bottle tree until dry and then box.
Wash on bottle tree along with caps using 3 campden tablets in the warm water.
Drain but don't rinse then fill.
Apply new label on top of old.

 

[MrL73]

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.

I live near Reading and our water is pretty hard, practically comes out the taps like gravel, and I've never had a problem with the effectiveness of Starsan. Got me thinking now if I "should" be using something else...

 

[Ian Piper]

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

I wondred about using a no-rinse solution and the latest batch I bottled I used Brewsan. This has sodium percarbonate as the active ingredient. When I had washed the bottles and drained them they still smelled strongly of the disinfectant, so I wimped out and rinsed them out with water. If I can smell the Brewsan stuff isn't it going to impart a flavour to the beer?

 

[dwhite60]

I wondred about using a no-rinse solution and the latest batch I bottled I used Brewsan. This has sodium percarbonate as the active ingredient. When I had washed the bottles and drained them they still smelled strongly of the disinfectant, so I wimped out and rinsed them out with water. If I can smell the Brewsan stuff isn't it going to impart a flavour to the beer?

Cannot find "brewsan" on the internet. New one on me. May be repackaged and rebranded OneStep.

I've bottled on iodophor without rinsing without a problem and it has a definite odor. OneStep has a bit of an odor but less than iodophor. If it was sodium percarbonate you were probably fine.

Next batch do half and half, rinse and no rinse, and see if there is a difference.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Tetsuo1981]

FWIW I rinse my bottles after pouting them out with lots of hot water and let them air dry upside down then store them. Then come bottling day I make up a big (10L I think) mix of no-rinse sanitizer and follow the instructions for soaking then just soak and bottle in batches of 10. Never had an issue and I just toss the crown caps in with the bottles to make sure they're clean too

 

[parpot]

I must admit, it's the worst part of brewing for me. I rinse each (PET) bottle after I pour a beer and then leave to drain.

On brew day, I wash them again using a bottle brush, rinse, and then leave to drain on my bottle tree.

I then put some Starsan into the briiliant little invention shown below.

This part of the process is actually quite enjoyable - a couple of pumps to each bottle and then back on the tree before I start to bottle the beer.

I have just ordered one of these, it looks brilliant

 

[London]

I have just ordered one of these, it looks brilliant

Me too along with a bottle tree

 

[crowcrow]

I've not bottled since I got my conry (which I would totally recommend!) but my system was similar to yours but lazier...

As I went I'd rinse each bottle as I drank them and leave them with an inch of clean water.

Night before I'd wash the bath down, and then leave all the bottles soaking over night in Cold water with thin bleach. This was as much to iteratively remove the labels and glue as it was the inside.

The next day I'd empty bath, and then spray each empty bottle with some sanitiser, shake and put on the bottle rack. The later that day I'd rinse with tap water and put back on the rack, and then fill with beer the next day.

I haven't bottled for over a year since kegging but I plan to again soon as I only have 2 kegs and want more variety (while I save up for a 3rd keg and taps). Kegging is great but I miss being able to share beers with friends at work - so am glad I've kept all my bottling gear and plenty of bottles (I love a 250ml french lager bottle)

I never had any issues with this - originally I scrubbed each bottle but after rincing each bottle as I went, I didn't see the need. but then I am very lazy (I'll post my very lazy brew day some time - nothing revolutionary just lazy)

 

[parpot]

I must admit, I bottle everything for the second fermentation and then decant the bottles carefully into 5 ltr mini kegs and then just pressure up to 5psi for serving, the taste difference is amazing, I now have 3 mini kegs so I can have as much variation as I like.

 

[Richie_asg1]

I must admit, I bottle everything for the second fermentation and then decant the bottles carefully into 5 ltr mini kegs and then just pressure up to 5psi for serving,

Interesting idea. Not too sure I would trust a mini keg for 2nd ferment & conditioning.

Washing minikegs is probably harder than bottles I would have thought.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Rinse out bottles after pouring, wash in the sink with fairy and a brush when i have a collection, rinse and dry. Cap with clingfilm and store in garage, brewday I either oven the bottles and starsan or immerse in Brewchlor for 10 mins, rinse dry and starsan.

 

[parpot]

Interesting idea. Not too sure I would trust a mini keg for 2nd ferment & conditioning.

Washing minikegs is probably harder than bottles I would have thought.

I don’t use the kegs for second fermentation or conditioning that is all done in the bottle, and cleaning and sterilising the mini kegs is as easy as cleaning bottles