Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

hi guys what is the most effective way to clean your used beer bottles ? i have just been given a whole heap and i need to clean them bofore i can bottle my cider

Tim

Pink no rinse bottle wash detergent from HBS and a bottle brush.

If there is something left inside after using this then toss the bottle.

Personnally I like to steralize my bottles too before filling with wine/ beer....imagine cider is similar.
I use sodium meta bi sulphate (Steralizing solution ) or heat bottles up in the oven to about 100deg C

I used to fill my fermenters to the brim with half a cup of sodium percarbonate (cheap napisan if you cant buy it raw cheap) put a just of boiling water in to disolve it and fill fermenter up then drop the bottles in the fermenter leave a day or 2 and rinse them out. then drain and sanitise like normal. Do this between batches to so cleans fermenter and bottles. Used to reuse the solution again then toss it after that or a week what ever comes first.

Heaps less work and easy to do 3 kg raw sodium percarbonate lasted about a year as didnt need as much. If they are really dirty and caked on maybe use a cup then half a cup from then on just rinse them when you finish the beer and drop them in when you have a fermenter filled easy :P

:text-+1: to Kelby

I use Sodium Percarbonate to clean bottles, fermenters, kegs etc. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1: on sodium precarbonate but on the topic of cleaning your bottles easiest way is to rinse the bastards at the end on the night then next time you bottle give them a quick rinse with sodium precarbonate and your good to go. Made the mistake of not doing it years ago and havent since using the bottle brush is a pain in the arse :))

I got some rank ones of a friend was like I saved you heaps for like 6 months and never bothered to rinse them. So I filled them half up with sodium perc solution and the handle broke on my bottle brush looked at it and went HMMM might put that in my cordless :laughing-rolling: zap about 10 bottles a minute with that thing :dance: still soaked them after that as well

Oh also have a real good look from the inside as well some of that mould I found spots that I couldnt get off even in the glass must found a crack or something but tossed prob 2-3 out of 20 he gave me

kelbygreen wrote:I got some rank ones of a friend was like I saved you heaps for like 6 months and never bothered to rinse them. So I filled them half up with sodium perc solution and the handle broke on my bottle brush looked at it and went HMMM might put that in my cordless :laughing-rolling: zap about 10 bottles a minute with that thing :dance: still soaked them after that as well

Oh also have a real good look from the inside as well some of that mould I found spots that I couldnt get off even in the glass must found a crack or something but tossed prob 2-3 out of 20 he gave me

Now THAT is an easy way to clean bottles :handgestures-thumbupleft: :laughing-rolling:

Fill the dirty moldy bottles with heads after they have been cleaned and leave for a few days to sanitize .

I always rinse my beer bottles after I have finished with them. Its a good habit to get into. I have had to bring out the bottle brush for years.

I just fill mine with boiling water and let them sit for 5 minutes. Its cheap, easy and does the job.
I have used the steralising solution (to be fair, I have only used the one my local HBS has for sale) and found it wasn't worth it.