Sanitising bottles

[Bashley]

Hi All

I'm almost ready to bottle my first homebrew. All of the bottles I'll be using were cleaned with cold or warm water thoroughly maximum 30 min after use. Do I still have to use PBW to clean the bottle before sanitising them with Starsan? Also, I haven't invested in a Vinator yet so what is the best method of sanitizing the bottles. I'm thinking of simply filling a few bottles at a time with Starsan in the sink , leaving for a minute of so, before dumping the starsan back in a container and drying the bottles upside down.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
If you are confident that the bottles were rinsed out after they were used, you can proceed without cleaning.
I always clean first, even though the bottles have been rinsed after use - belt and braces!
Star San only takes 30 seconds to work.
I sanitise as I bottle - I pour a small amount of Star San from a jug into the bottle, give it a good shake, pour it back into the jug and then dip the rim into the Star San.
I sanitise 5 bottles, then fill with beer and cap before moving on to the next 5 bottles.
One key point - Star San does not need to dry - get the bottles filled as soon as you can after sanitising them.

 

[Cwrw666]

Rinsing, no matter how thorough you are, always leaves a film of yeast around the inside of the bottle. Eventually it'll build up to pretty thick hard deposits.
I always rinse first, then fill bottles with a concentrated solution of washing soda. This totally gets rid of the yeast deposits and is very cheap as well, and can be re-used over and over again.
They'll still need sanitising before re-using though.

 

[Norfolk79]

I clean the bottles as I use them. on Bottling day I give them another quick rinse with water, and then sanitise each one using Star San and one of these bottle rinsers https://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Bottle_Rinser.html

 

[foxbat]

I'm with @Bigcol49. If I've rinsed out after use then a flush with Starsan before filling is all that I've ever done and never had a bottle bomb or gusher with this method. In fact I'm such a tightwad with the Starsan that I line them all up, half-fill the first one with Starsan then use a funnel to transfer the Starsan to the next while swilling it around...

 

[Ciaran12s]

I give the bottle a rinse immediately after pouring and later that night or the following morning, a good rinse in hot water. Upside down to drain a bit, 6or8 squirts of diluted starsan from a skooshy bottle, lid on, shake. On bottling day just pour the starsan out and fill with beer. Easy. Never had any issues. I realise most people go a lot further than this with cleaning and sanitising but until I get gushers or bombs I'll stick with this routine.

I have just started using glass bottles and intend to do the same with these. I know pushing the cap back on doesn't seal right but I think it should be ok if well wrapped inside a bag. Maybe using the capper to recrimp the used cap will provide enough of a seal, I'll find out tonight.

When bottling last week with glass bottles, i had to give them a proper clean as they'd been in the shed for up to a year and were full of spiders and badgers what not. It was a nightmare and i will avoid it all costs in future.

 

[Wouter]

When bottling last week with glass bottles, i had to give them a proper clean as they'd been in the shed for up to a year and were full of spiders and badgers what not. It was a nightmare and i will avoid it all costs in future.

I would just get new ones hihi.
But in the Netherlands we have a deposit refund system for the beer bottles, so basically get them free. And when they are too dirty I just give them back and get fresh ones.

I rinse the bottles well after use. After using them a few times I subject the bottles to a bath of chemipro caustic (caustic soda, with active chloride basically) to remove beerstone.
Right before bottling I just spray the in and outside of the bottle with Star San. I wait a few minutes and turn them upside down in the crate. Then I just bottle.