bottle sterlization

Asthmatic? DO NOT USE METABISULPHATE.

Iodophore is supposedly a no rinse product but I use Brew Shield which is 3% Hydrogen peroxide and silver ions and have never had an problems.

ps my LBS recommends Iodophore as a bottle steriliser but having not had any problems with what I use I haven't changed

Nice, hydrogen peroxide and silver ions sounds nice and safe as well. How do you go about applying it though? I do have one of those spritsing tubs (don't what they are called) that recirculates the solution (of course you would want to exchange the solution after a certain amount of bottles?). In the case of iodophore i assumje you don't want it to recirculate, you'd just use a spritz bottle or something of the sort and hang it to dry? My local brew shop recomended using the metabisulfate and rinsing, but i'd prefer not to rinse with tap water, seems to kinda go against the whole sterilizing thing.

i SANITIZE my bottles by:

1) rinsing them with a "bottle sanitizer" that shoots a stream of sterilant (in my case, the old "bleach diluted at 1 tbsp/gal") into each bottle. 2) rinsing them a second time with the bottle sanitizer using plain old tap water that has been boiled for 30 minutes. boiling kills potential bacteria contaminants in the water and boils off the additives so kindly placed there by my municipal water supplier. 3) placing them on a bottle rack (upside down) to air dry

a perfect solution? probably something else that i could do, but haven't had any problems with this method, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

bob p.

that didn't even cross my mind but it's a very sound way to kill bacteria (either heat, cold, or chemicals or a combination). Anyone remember what the temperature for sanitation is (somewhere above 60C/140F?)?

Just for the record, I don't know anybody who actually "sterilizes" their bottles. That's a bit cost prohbitive. Everybody I know does "sanitize" the bottles, but that's not the same thing.

excellent point, i mixed the terminology up. A very common mistake though, I meant sanitize as should be obvious. After a quick google i found autoclaves are a bit price prohibitive :) (and a little to small to do all the bottles at one time). Not to mention how impractical it would be, your brew area alone would make your "sterile" bottles short-lived sterile, plus at the point of bottling the beer has alcohol so there would be less worry about infection/bacteria anyhow.

Anyone tried a "steam wand" or one of those wallpaper removers (with a pointy end) for cleaning of bottles? Not as easy as the dishwasher, but if you have one why not?

I soak my bottles in bleach and water and then store them upside down. When I'm ready to bottle I do a 2nd soak in iodine and then place them on the rack of the dishwasher to dry. Then I bottle.

Dave

what dilution of iodine? And i assume by soaking you mean in a tub or basin.

their bottles. That's a bit cost prohbitive. <

If they fit in an oven and you heat them to 150 C for 30 mins that will do it and not too expensive either. But only small bottles will fit, a 5 gallon bottle would be a problem in my oven.

I think you guys are all working too hard at something that's easy...just soak the bottles in Iodophor for a few minutes and you're good...no rinsing, no hassle. BTW, various tests (and reports from those who have done it) show trhat dishwashers are not as effective at sanitizing bottles as you'd think.

------------>Denny

That won't come anywhere close to sterilizing anything. Spores can easily live throught that low heat. Hell, sometimes spores live through steam autoclaves which produce significantly hotter temps that what you are describing.

Well, they do make autoclaves big enough to walk into. That would allow you to do pallets of bottles.

considering the bar-fridge sized ones seem to be around $16,000 american (what is that in canadian dollars? yikes!) and the one i could afford could effectively do one bottle at a time, i think the walk in is a little beyond me.

So is that how they sterilize pets these days, a walk in autoclave? Just kidding :D

I tried this method a couple of times. I had some brew that had terrible head/head retention. The local homebrew shop advised that using the dishwasher may not be the best solution. Most diswashing liquid have an anti sudsing agent in them. Even if no liquid is added to the wash when you actually do the bottles, the residual chemicals can have an adverse affect on your brew. All I know is that after I quit using the Dishwasher I get good head!!!

mark

I heard of people using things like Starsan in the dishwasher. I opted for the larger bottles with swing tops until I can convert to keg. I'm tired of bottles, period.