Is all this sterilising necessary? Well the bottles at least

[rchardb]

Is all this sterilising necessary?

Many years ago my family made wine. Weeks before the barrels would be filled with water so the wood expanded and they were watertight and yes a few days before brew day I remember some sterilising solution. In went the grapes straight out of their boxes (along with stems leaves and gnats) through a mangle or crusher washed with water. A week or so later in a barrel with simple wooden lid, mainly to keep the bees out) in it went to the demijohns. Now I do not remember them being sterilised though we always boiled the corks and months later it went into bottles, again with boiled corks. We washed the carboys and bottles well with the god old garden hose. Everything except the barrel was just washed in water. We lost a demijohn once but recon that was an airlock issue as it went to vinegar but never so far as I know to a dirty bottle.

I never made wine but have started kit beers sterilising everything by the book.

I see the sense and necessity in sterilising my bucket or carboy they are plastic and they get gungy/yeasty/dried frothy during a brew and to lose 23 lt if it got “infected “ would be annoying

When I have finished a beer I rinse out the bottle (twice) and put it in my cupboard. Before I bottle my beer I sterilise and rinse again.

Can I cut out the sterilise bit?

What could possibly be lurking in my glass beer bottles that I need to sterilise them all? I would have no qualm about grabbing an empty beer bottle from my cupboard filling it with water and drinking it with no fear of poisoning. Why should filling it with beer carbonating and drinking be different?

Living in a small flat it is time consuming and a real pain to sterilise 23lt of bottles.

What do you think?

Richard

 

[ohbeary]

Better safe than sorry

 

[brewtim]

Well if you've invested money and time into something and you have expectations of it turning out how you imagine/read it to be then why take a chance of introducing unwanted flavours by any number of bacteria that could alter your finished product. It could mean the difference between just a good beer and a great beer at the least and a writeoff at worst.

I do think that beer is fairly robust though.

Fussy moi? :grin:

Why not try an experiment, sterilise half your bottles, and see how they go after a few weeks/months?

Sterilising with Starsan (no rinse) is easier than just using water anyway :whistle:

 

[evanvine]

Hot side, you only need to be sure it's clean.
FV onwards you need to disinfect as much as possible, this includes bottles!

 

[PD]

well if you drink water from out of a dirty bottle you risk the chance of getting a stomach bug probably not serious and your stomach juices can probably deal with them before anything too serious happens.
However when we bottle beer we place the liquid into an environment thats suitable for bugs ( yeasts ) to grow and multiply, to carbonate our beers. Its then left for a period before we drink. Any nasties are able to grow and multiply, and we could end up drinking a concentrated toxic brew....
So its better to remove any chance of this occurring by making sure our bottles equipment and brew are clean enough and that we only allow our chosen yeast to grow on.
Its a bind I agree but far better to be safe. A lot of time effort and expense is usually involved in making a quantity of beer, and I would not like to waste all that.

 

[Grumpy Jack]

The only thing that I can add is that my one experience of having several bottles that were a tad lively and not really drinkable was with a batch where i finally worked out that I'd missed out on sterilising a row of bottles that I'd used.

I lost six perfectly decent beers to somewhat explosive and sour tasting results and finally worked out that I'd muddled my bottles. Since then, I've been fastidious about bottles having a hot wash out, sterilise and rinse out before use.

We learn (occasionally) from our mistakes... or the mistakes of others.

 

[TouLouseLePlot]

Here's why: take 2 clean glasses from cupboard, fill both with beer. Drink one. Put cling film over the other, put back in cupboard for 6 weeks. Take out and smell before pouring away.

Spoilage organisms in small quantities take time to colonise. Not all will become viable. Some need air, alcohol (and maybe hops and tannin I seem to recall) can counteract, some need warmth.

I use Milton, stuff used to sanitise baby bottles. Get it in 4 or 5 L bottles from cash & the carry. You don't have to rinse. 5 years, no problem. I don't know if scientifically it's as safe, maybe someone here can tell me.