Sterilise Crown Caps?

[Eskdale]

I’ve never sanitised my caps and never had a problem. Do commercial brewers sanitise them?

On the bottling line of the brewery where I worked they weren't sanitised, there was no need as the package the caps were in was sanitary. If they happened to be touched then they got a misting of weak ethanol. Possible contamination would come from the handling.

Emma

 

[DavidDetroit]

If they happened to be touched then they got a misting of weak ethanol.

I was kind of thinking, if you have to be that careful, most beers would get infected.
I do sanitize my rubber gaskets for my Grolsch bottles (flip-tops) but it's more of a habit and not of any real concern.

 

[Agentgonzo]

On the bottling line of the brewery where I worked they weren't sanitised, there was no need as the package the caps were in was sanitary. If they happened to be touched then they got a misting of weak ethanol. Possible contamination would come from the handling.

Emma

Good to know! Thank you. Do you happen to know if they flushed the bottles with CO2 before/during filming?

 

[Eskdale]

Good to know! Thank you. Do you happen to know if they flushed the bottles with CO2 before/during filming?

Bottles are purged with CO2 prior to filling but unfortunately packaging is the most likely place to introduce oxygen into the finished product. Where we as home brewers have an advantage over craft brewers is the bottles aren't shaken around being carted backwards and forwards.
If you could filter out the yeast and have a small dose of new yeast to the bottle then that yeast could scavenge a lot of oxygen in the head space.

The big breweries would use a rotary filler where water is sprayed over the tops of the bottles which is more efficient than purging.

Emma

 

[labrewski]

It's really no harm to throw 40 odd caps in a bowl of starsan prior to bottling