Sanitizing Bottles--is it necessary?
i am going to try the dishwasher method seems allot easier then hand cleaner those sucker
why waste your $, time and efforts. I'd do something vs. nothing
Is Star San the same as One Step? The latter states it doesn't need to be rinsed, but I always do.
An easy method I've found for sanitizing bottles came from one of Charlie Papazian's books. Fill a large lidded container with a chlorine solution and emerse the bottles. Put the lid on and let them soak, a day, a week, a month, whatever. Whenever you have the time, empty the bottles and seal them with a piece of foil. They can sit like that indefinitely until it's time to bottle. Just rinse them out before bottling and they're good to go. I've never had any problems with this method.
Star san and OneStep are different. StarSan is a sanitizer, not a cleaner, and OneStep(Oxyclean) is a cleaner/sanitizer. Onestep has agents to lift soil off of equipment and a sanitizer. Starsan doesn't work unless the equipment is already clean.
The only drawback to the chlorine method is that chlorine has a persistant odor, and is not good around stainless steel. If you use chlorine in a plastic container it's going to have the chlorine smell forever, and it should never be used on stainless.
So I guess my question about One Step, which I only use to sanitize already clean bottles, is does it have to be rinsed from bottles or can you put the beer in without rinsing, like Star San?
Re the chlorine method: I dedicated a plastic container to this purpose only and never used the method for anthing but bottles.
My two cents:
I use an iodine solution similar to the sanitizers in use in dairies. I have a bottle jet rinser and I wash my bottles in hot dishwater using a bottle brush. Then I use the jet rinser for four trips with hot clear water, then two trips with the iodine based sanitizer solution. I make wine, so my bottles are 750ml and 1.5 l bottles so it is a bit less work than the smaller bottles for our beer brewing brethren (say that fiast after two or three stouts!). The jet rinser was a great addition to my equipment it was cheap, saves lots of time and is fun to use.
Squibb wrote:
So I guess my question about One Step, which I only use to sanitize already clean bottles, is does it have to be rinsed from bottles or can you put the beer in without rinsing, like Star San?
One Step is a no rinse cleaner/sanitizer. It works well for most sanitizing needs. I still vote for the dishwasher method for total ease of use.
The drawback to using one-step is that the solution essentially has to be remade each time. Using a cleaner like PBW rinsing and then using a no-rinse like StarSan allows you to have working solutions of each that will last for a long time.
You should sanitize your bottles. I would caution you that once you sanitize them, do not rinse them again. City water is treated but only to kill pathegens and most bacteria but not all bacteria. Also, the water lines to your house may be a breeding ground for bacteria so what leaves the water treatment facility may be clean but by the time it reaches you, it may and probably will contain bacteria. So if you rinse after the sanitizer, you could be re-contaminating the very item you just sanitized. I have a friend that boils water then uses it to rinse. Just remember that the more times you handle the equipment, the more chances there are to contaminate it. Chemicals or heat work equally well if done correctly. The food plants I work with that use heat to sanitize get the equipment up to 180 degrees F for a minimum of ten minutes. That isn't easy to do at home for fermenters and large number of bottles. I use chlorine (cl2) myself. because it is easy to get, cheap and is very effective against a broad range of bacteria, yeast and molds. Again, you must use it correctly! Do not get in the mind set if a little is good, a lot is better. You want the cl2 to be between 100 and 200 ppm. No More! I sanitize my equipment and then let them air dry. The Cl2 will not leave a residual like some other chemical sanitizers. Remember not to use the scented bleach products, they will leave a residual on the equipment that will leave a bad taste. One last thought, if your equipment isn't cleaned properly, sanitizer will not"take care of it" . The equipment has to be clean before sanitizer is effective. I hope this helps.
I rinse my empties and store them back in the case. The night before I bottle I will wash them out with dishwashing detergent. I place them on my dishwasher dish rack.( I use the little posts to hold the bottles straight up and down) over night. The morning that I bottle, I mix-up 2 gal or so fo Onestep and re-rinse the bottles. I place them back on the sanitized dishwasher rack to dry. The dishwasher rack will hold right at 50 24oz bottles.
For washing I mostly use the bottle washer that squirts the water up into the bottle when you press the bottle onto the nozzle. The brush only if it is necessary. So far I've been happy with the results with this method.
Matt