Steam sterilization idea

Hi there folks,

I have been avidly reading the postings on this forum and have decided that as and when materials become available, (on a tight budget); I am building an AG rig.

However for now I am going to step up my kit production, and possibly try an extract brew. The problem now is storage; I have, as suggested, secured a supply of Cider bottles and a crown capper so I am going down the bottle route for a start.

Now as has been stated, label removal, cleaning, sterilization rinsing seem to take a lot of time and chemicals. So having read this posting on the forums

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8380&p=87885&hilit=steam#p87885

I am wondering if this can be modified to do all the above Jobs in 1 go?

If lay my hands on a large capacity pot with a lid, and run 15mm pipe into it, forming a sort of strike through 0 in the bottom of the pot. Then spur off 8 "T" piece vertical pipes to invert the bottles over similar to the one in the post above with capped ends and small diameter vent holes.

OH and a drain hole in the bottom of the pot OFC.

When the pot gets filled with 8 magners/Bulmer cider bottles, (one over each of the vertical nozzles), then the pipe work is attached to a wallpaper stripper/steam cleaner and finally the lid set on the pot. After a sutable period of time steaming, I would be hoping to see the finished bottles come out of the pot, steam cleaned, sterilized with the labels falling off.

Now this idea as just sprung into my head, (I have a marine engineering background), and am wondering if anyone here has tried this sort of thing or have experienced any problems with this type of cleaning? Or has some advice about time to steam etc, etc?

Lively debate and critique welcome :thumb:

Ok decided to change the design a bit and put it in a bucket instead of a pot and a simpler hex pattern for the pipes.

Had a test run with 6 bottles and it cleans them well, and they seem to be very hot so sterilises them as well, but it seems to bake the labeling on so will have to do a little bit of redesign. with perhaps a second steamer ring higher up to direct some of the steam towards the sticky stuff



Loaded with 6 of the best.........




full steam ahead...............



Ill post the build details/pictures if anyone is interested. it cost around £30

I may be missing the point, but why not just boil the bottles?

Now i like this, good to try a bit of your own thing, good on ya mate.

A thought for the lables, could you not use low adhesion lables that peel of easy, similar to postit lables?

From all the messing about i did this weekend doin gmine i wouldnt mind having a go at one of these myself, as for boiling them, wouldn it take just as long as you need to waite for a larger amount of water to boil,

How long did you leave these in the tank for ?

wayne :thumb:

Ericstd,

I could certainly boil the bottles but that is a 2 gallon bucket that holds 6 possably 7 bottles that means i have to heat 1.5 gallons of water to the boil and hold it there for at least 20mins. with the steamer I whack in 4 ltrs and it does at least 3 x 20 min batches of 6 bottles.

Not to mention the chipping, with them battering together in the boil pot during the boil.

I use this for donor bottles from a pub so sometimes there is the crud in the bottom, mould, etc, this gets flushed out the holes in the bottom during the steaming, but in aboil pot, the gunk and stale beer accumulates each boil batch.

Also with boiling water the max temp you will get is 100dec C, with steam if you increase the perssure you can also, Theoretically raise the steam temp to above 100 deg C, (i am not claiming my rig does this though), and kill germs more effectively.

Wayne,

Cheers for the support, and advice on the lables, but I normally just write on the tops of the bottles when I brew. Its the donor bottles from the pub I want to remove the labels from. After they get recycled into homebrew bottles there won't be a problem ill just be steaming them for sterilization. However I am aiming for a 50ltr AG rig so want to cut the faffing around with the lables/cleaning .............................. come to think of it I have a pressure washer standing around the back of me workshop not doing too much! might be an easyer route than the steam for lable removal :thumb:

I take all your points re steaming versus boiling.
I just thought that the lables would come off easier if immersed in boiling water.