Cleaning and Sanitising Grolsh Bottles

Lucky you!

I take the flip tops entirely off the bottles when cleaning and storing them. I store the tops and seals separately from the empty bottles. After getting the bottles thoroughly clean (long soak in bleach water with dishwashing detergent, followed by good scrub and bottle brushing), I rinse them well and store upside down in their boxes. This lets them drain and dry out inside so nothing will be trying to grow in any residual puddles in the bottles. When it's time to fill them, I dunk them in a bucket of sanitizer, including an internal rinse, and let them drain while I'm getting the beer ready to go into the bottles. I put a sufficient number of flip tops and seals in a container of sanitizer and put them straight out of there, attach to bottles and seal them as I fill the bottles. I've never had a contaminated bottle this way. If you use acid sanitizer like Star-San, don't leave the flip tops soaking in it more than a few minutes or it will eat all the thin plating off the wire, leaving you with less attractive bare steel wire that will rust.

Cal

I use B-Brite cleanser for cleaning. Let the bottles soak for a few minutes in the solution then attack with a bottle brush. Then I rinse with a "Jet Bottle Washer" that I got from my supplier in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Scott

I'll hav eto agree that there was some botles with dried crusties in the bottles. I soaked them for a few hours and hot water and detergent and then scrubbed, most bottle got clean but got about 24 that still have a little film or crusty areas.

not too sure about leaving them updside down in the box right now as i jsut hastly made the cases. When I remake the better ones, ill make sure to make the bottle out of something that will allow me to leave upside down.

Like i said, i left them upside down for about 10 hours and then just left caps on with out seals and saran wrapped each bottle top.

Thanks for all the tips,

Michael

I use them all the time, it's great to be able to fill with one hand and cap with the other...

For saintization I just soak all my bottles in my laundry tub in a weak bleach solution. For Grolsch-style bottles I inspect the seals and re-use if not too worn looking. Spares are easy to get at most home brew shops. Bottles, caps, seals and everything go in the tub to soak for an hour or so. Then I dump it all out, and use a 2-bottle bottle washer (lotsa power) to give them a hot rinse and let them drain. Never had contamination. The key to getting the crud out is to rinse out the bottle immediately after drinking, let a little water soak in the bottom, it should all just dump right out. I store the bottles dry, upright, with caps on.

I have swing-top bottles in sizes from 12 to 40 ounces. Just keep an eye on the shelves at your local beer purveyor. I get most of mine that way. Fischer d'Alsace makes a nice 20 or 24 oz swing top. There are a couple German brands that do 18 or 20 oz tall bottles. I got my 40 ouncer from a Breckenridge brewery holiday ale. Also have three ceramic swing-tops. These require a little extra care for cleaning since you can't easily see in them, but they make a great presentation and you certainly don't have to worry about light getting in.

good luck and happy brewing. mkl