Sanitizing Bottles--is it necessary?
Hello All,
I've always sanitized my bottles, but I'm wondering if it is really necessary. I would assume that after alcohol is produced that it would be enough to kill any of the bad guys that try to contaminate beer.
Has anyone ever tried this?
Hi ramon,
I don't sanitize, I rinse mine with a jet washer, then run through the dishwasher on sanitize cycle. No issues that I can attribute to sanitizing bottles.
how do you not sanitize them if you run them through a sanitize cycle?
Thank You for Reply
I wouldn't try not doing anything, I've gone from rinsing each bottle in one step or starsan to running them through the dishwasher and heat drying them. Try it with a 6 pack and see what the results are.
Best of Luck!!!!!!!
As theodore said, you have to do something, whether it's using a chemical, boiling the bottles to kill bacteria, or using the dishwasher on hot/sanitize. The amount of alcohol in beer is not enough to kill bacteria, and the bacteria is enough to destroy your batch of beer, flavourwise and otherwise.
I'm surprised some folks don't sanitize bottles. I wash them with a chlorine solution and rinse thoroughly just before bottling.
Any problems I've had have been in the whole batch as opposed to single bottles.
I did Sanitize evry time when starting botteling as we should not leave any step to get ruined may be alcohal kills all the Bacteria but i do for precaution!
Sanitizing bottles is very necessary for me. You need to be personally attentive to the sanitation of your bottles before the wine goes in. Why risk a wine you've been developing for months only to find out later that your bottles were not as clean as they should have been. My mother told me that dishwashers do a poor job of cleaning bottles. The sprays do not reach inside the bottles effectively, to clean, or to rinse if soap did get in some of the bottles. However, the sanitizing feature relies on heat, I guess better to sterilize it so that should it works fine. Don't forget allow them to cool before filling.
Alcohal Can kill bacterias after being an alcohal but while all process dustin brewing i dont think so it does affect on bacteria !
YES sanitize...why chance it afetr you have spent so much time...additionaly if you are botlling then the beer must be good...so why chance infecting a good beer
Yes sanitize. As was mentioned, that alcohol level isn't high enough to kill the nasties. Also, depending on what cleaner you are using, some require a sanitizer. Even straight A says it is just a cleaner. Boiling bottles is risky. Since the water is at least 212F, unless the glass is tempered, it can shatter.
As for alcohol killing germs, that depends on the level. A typical beer might have 5% alcohol, whereas listerine has roughly 26%. So clearly there isn't enough alcohol in beer to kill much.
I use to just fill a bucket with 1 oz (or less) of star san, fill it with water, and once the bottles were cleaned, dunk a dozen (or so) in the bucket and leave them for about one minute.
Works just fine.
the heated drying cycle on the dishwasher has always worked for me with. doesn't take too much effort, just some planning.
ALWAYS satitize those bottles!
Whether it be the dishwasher method (I used this for a while), or a bucket filled with iodiphor, perecetic acid or Star San, you need to sanitize the bottles before filling. Period.
Just chiming in with the chorus : sanitize every time.
Regardless of which method you use, it is an absolutely necessary step!
Hi,
I'm interested in knowing more about the one that mentions the chlorine sanitizing. What is your process?
Also, could we sanitize with a fully delveloped alcohol like whiskey or vodka? And could you use listerine?
okay I think this bottle routine is going to drive me crazy.
I boiled bottles back in the early 80's for babies milk! Now if I could figure out how to seal those I'd be in business! Dange beer bottle holes are so small for trying to clean 
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