Yes, got it, starsan and the bottle tree as a present a few years ago - drastically increased my bottling efficiency!
draining bottles
- Thread starter Robbo851
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For wine bottles I use a drawer from a defunct freezer, with the see-through plastic front removed. It is made of plastic-coated wire in a rigid square-mesh structure. It sits over a deep plastic bowl (or a bathroom basin if I'm just doing a few bottles), and the bottles fit neatly neck downwards through the mesh holes.
I rinse (several times with tap water, including a good shake to dislodge yeast) and drain bottles (on the kitchen cutlery rack) the day I drink the contents. Once drained, I seal the bottles with those plastic caps homebrew places sell for 5p each.
On bottling day, each bottle gets a fresh rinse, then put in a FastRack. Once the rack is full, I start from the first bottle again and give it a few squirts of Starsan from a spray bottle. A few swirls and back in the Rack it goes.
I do all this whilst the beer settles after being moved from cupboard to kitchen - With time to spare.
If only capping / cleaning up could be this quick!
On bottling day, each bottle gets a fresh rinse, then put in a FastRack. Once the rack is full, I start from the first bottle again and give it a few squirts of Starsan from a spray bottle. A few swirls and back in the Rack it goes.
I do all this whilst the beer settles after being moved from cupboard to kitchen - With time to spare.
If only capping / cleaning up could be this quick!
Agreed. With beer bottles I do the same, ensuring that the bottle always remains neck-downwards (to exclude gravity-motivated bugs) and doesn't touch anything. I use Grolsch-type bottles and the French equivalent, and when they are dry I close their caps. When bottling I bottle straight into the bottles without any more sanitising. I've been doing this for 40 years and never had a problem. Remember that when you pour beer out of a bottle, if the beer is OK then the bottle is also bacteriologically OK, so you really need only to get rid of the dregs and rinse the bottle without contaminating it.
Mavroz
Landlord.
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Mine...
Soak bottles for a few days in percarb and citric solution. Drain and store in crates.
Before bottling day I run 45 or so bottles through the dishwasher on sanitise wash.
Before bottling, each bottle is given a Rinse out with a starsan solution.
All is good and never had a bad one.
Soak bottles for a few days in percarb and citric solution. Drain and store in crates.
Before bottling day I run 45 or so bottles through the dishwasher on sanitise wash.
Before bottling, each bottle is given a Rinse out with a starsan solution.
All is good and never had a bad one.
Mine's ancient now and who-knows how old.
Swish-swish. Done. I love the tool.
I'm very big on rinsing bottles perfectly when emptied and then I even put them in the dishwasher. Then they go upright into a milk crate (uncovered). When bottling, they get a quick scrub and a rinse and then the Starsan.
Was reading some of the posts that follow and one person has a 40 year streak of not doing this. So, sometimes, doing what I do is almost like performing a ritual based on superstition. I'm not going to quit the bottle washing and sanitizing though.
Do you not worry about this? I once saw an experiment wherein two jars (or maybe petri dishes, or something similar) were suspended, one with the open end upwards and the other with the open end downwards. The contents were then analysed. Surprise: the open end upwards one was full of microbial life, the other one wasn't. Fungal spores in particular are all over the place in the air surrounding us, and subject to gravity - they'll settle into an open-end-upwards container, but not into an open-end downwards container.
Similarly I dislike the idea of bottle trees for drying. With a bottle tree you are intentionally poking something inside the bottle and ensuring that it touches the inner surface of the bottle neck. Unless you've done a lot of sanitising that seems to me to be a prime way of introducing unwanted bugs to the inside of the bottle. I ensure that nothing touches the inside of my bottles except beer (or wine), and tap water or boiling water. (New bottles are the exception - they get thoroughly sanitised before first use.) I rinse them as soon as possible after pouring out the contents, ensure that they are always neck-downwards when the top is open, and ensure that when they are open nothing touches even the outer part of the top of the neck.
Having said that, rituals based on superstition can be fun. How many of us have them when we go fishing, or touch wood, or have the first drink of the year in a pub? (Or broach a difficult subject with SWMBO ?)
Hi!
It seems to me that we are on a hiding to nothing.
If we store bottles upright, they will immediately be invaded by hoards of nasty litle bug(ger)s.
If we store them upside down any condensation will be trapped inside, and damp usually means infection.
Perhaps sanitisation in the oven before storage would help.
It seems to me that we are on a hiding to nothing.
If we store bottles upright, they will immediately be invaded by hoards of nasty litle bug(ger)s.
If we store them upside down any condensation will be trapped inside, and damp usually means infection.
Perhaps sanitisation in the oven before storage would help.
Saisonator
Landlord.
I give the bottle tree a good spray with Starsan.
Now he tells me
Fair enough. Always best to take precautions to avoid an infection when you stick something into a hole.
Saisonator
Landlord.
Ooh Errr...
Outside what?
How much washing do you all do? Once my bottles have been used once - following a good clean - I tend to just give them a few really good rinses once I've emptied them and then they just get sanitised again in the next bottling day. Is this enough?
Oneflewover
Landlord.
If it works for you! I've found that some yeast in particular tends to stick to the sides of the bottle, and I don't think a rinse, no matter how good, will get rid. I guess this may not be a problem if you stick to the same yeast most of the time, but if you used a real high attenuator I wonder if it might go to work on the bottled beer?
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