Bottle washing hacks

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I rinse as soon as I can after drinking. Then put 1/4 teaspoon of fragrance free oxi action into each bottle top up with hot water and leave till I remember them. Pour that out and store until bottling. Where I dunk each bottle in a big bucket of no rinse sanitiser and water.
prior to cleaning with oxi I was getting build up inside my bottles.
 
Tanglefoot said:
Seems I'm in a minority using VPW !
I mix up a batch in one FV , with another of clean water to rinse. Put bottles through about half dozen at a time letting them soak for a few minutes before rinsing.
Then sit them on a bottle tree till ready to fill.
Now a committed kegger so only have a few bottles to fill each batch but good to have a few for swaps and giveaways to friends.
There is a certain satisfaction in popping a cap but trumped by ease and convenience of packaging and serving from a keg
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I used VWP for about 15 years up until last year. I got a bit bored of all the rinsing and moved to starsan. Much easier
 
RoomWithABrew said:
@sifty

Plenty of bottles here if you ever get up this far!
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Cheers for the offer. I've got a source though, my footy club keeps the 500ml bottles from our sponsor brewery for me. Got another 5 dozen to pick up on Sat... 🙂

Regards cleaning, the biggest faff is getting labels off. I've discovered leaving bottles to soak in a sink with hot water and a bit of dishwasher powder gets most of them to detach. A quick swipe with a pot scourer gets any remaining residue off...
 
sifty said:
Cheers for the offer. I've got a source though, my footy club keeps the 500ml bottles from our sponsor brewery for me. Got another 5 dozen to pick up on Sat... 🙂

Regards cleaning, the biggest faff is getting labels off. I've discovered leaving bottles to soak in a sink with hot water and a bit of dishwasher powder gets most of them to detach. A quick swipe with a pot scourer gets any remaining residue off...
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I'm sure you can get plenty. I'm slowly collecting tonic water bottles small ones for a Thomas Hardy clone that I'm planning. I've a feeling that 330ml bottles of 12% might just be too much for long term unless sharing them.
De-Solvit is orange based solvent and comes in a spray bottle and great for getting the glue off with a bit of scotch pad, a little goes a really long way.
I find hot PBW homemade to soak the labels off does the job pretty well. Those MACS bottle labels are too easy peeling off in a oner as they are plastic, but I'd rather they were paper.
 
MrRook said:
I rinse the neck of of each bottle after use, then swish soapy water in it at dish washing time and rinse the bejabbers out of it again and place it in here. On bottling day a quick dose of starsan and I'm ready to go.View attachment 65534
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Am I right in thinking that these would not take swing-tops?
 
That's a load of extra work so I'll stick to my bottle tree, although the FastRack looks neater and better draining.
 
AnimatedGIF said:
I pretty much do as above, rinsing after use then chemsan prior to filling, draining on a bottle tree. There's little point rinsing tbh after using the chemsan, so don't bother with that.
For what it's worth, I went to kegging mainly as I hated dealing with bottles, now I am part kegging, part bottling as I actually find cleaning kegs a bit annoying, but that's probably because I missed something.
I love kegging, but I also love having 40 bottles neatly lined up with their shiny new caps on. Don't know why, but that's the most satisfying part of brewing for me. Probably says something about the quality of my beer asad.
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Yeah I know what you mean. And I also enjoy handing over a couple of bottles to a mate! I’m far too generous 😆
 
RichardM said:
The Chemsan is for sanitising, not washing. You need to wash/rinse the bottles after use. You may be able to just rinse them or you may need to use a bottle brush and a cleaner, depending on what state they are in.

Then when you are ready to bottle your next batch use the Chemsan to sanitise them and don't waste your time (and water) rinsing them.
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Yep, always rinse straight after pouring. And the bottlebrush gets laldy on bottling day 😆
 
Clint said:
I'm bottling tomorrow. I just scrubbed out about 50 bottles and put the syphon etc in an oxi bath.
So tedious.
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I feel your pain.
I got used bottles from a friend who had stored them outside in all weathers.
I had 64 of the b@st@Ed’s to scrub and sanitise. Twice! Cos they were minging 🥲
 
I reckon I'm pretty relaxed about bottle cleaning compared to the elaborate practices of some, but I don't believe I've ever had an issue with infected bottles. I think if you start off with some manky old bottles that have been left for ages, you're on a hiding to nothing. 90% of my bottles have come from beer I've bought in the shop. For me, the moat important thing is to rinse out bottles as soon as you've poured them. I do that, and leave a couples of inches in water in them overnight. Then wash them in the morning (with ordinary washing-up liquid), but of course making certain all suds are thoroughly removed, before dosing them with VWP, and again rinsing out thoroughly with water. I don't put foil over the tops, or anything like that, but they are put away, and get another sluice and soak and rinse with VWP before re-use.
 

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