How do you sanitize your bottles??

I'm starting to bottle last year's vintage, and I wonder how everyone sanitizes their bottles. My local brewshop recommends using an iodophor solution as a final rinse after using soap and water, but I don't like the ida of the iodine smell in the bottles. In years past, I've used "One-Step" as a final rinse. But I wonder if just washing the bottles with a solution of soap and water and then making sure the soap is rinsed away is enough.

What do you all do?

Lee

Reply to
LG1111
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Lee, I wash bottles all year long. The clean bottles are placed points down in clean cartons and the cartons are stored in my garage. When I bottle, I remove the bottles from the cartons and fill them with wine. I have been doing about 250 cases of grape wine a year for 20 years, and I find nothing else is required. lum

Reply to
Lum

Reply to
Jake Enns

Good advice from Lum and Jake.

I do the above, but in addition, I put a couple of tablespoons of generic "clorox" bleach in a quart of water and pour that from bottle to bottle and then rinse the bottles by squirting water up into the inverted bottles and draining them before filling.

To do that, I bought a three-foot length of flexible plastic tubing at a hardware store, in a diameter that would fit snugly onto a screw-on hose fitting that, in turn, would screw on to my laundry tub faucet.

Then I bought a foot-long piece of rigid plastic tubing that would fit snugly into the flexible hose. It's very handy for washing and rinsing bottles, carboys, etc.

vince norris

Reply to
vincent p. norris

Ditto, except after I clean the bottles I pour about 2 ounces of 1% sulfite solution in each bottle, leave it standing upright for 2-3 minutes, then empty and turn upside down to drain-dry. Store upside down in clean cases until needed. Never had a problem. However, I echo those who say to at least rinse all bottles as soon as empty, even if you intend to clean them later that day. I probably toss 2-3 cases of bottles a year that friends give me because they allowed residue to linger and mold grew inside the bottom. It can be rendered aseptic with sulfite, but is often simply too difficult to completely remove. I just don't fool with it, but I do try to educate my friends.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

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Reply to
Jack Keller

After I wash & dry the bottle, I wrap a small square of aluminum foil over the top to keep anything from crawling in, then store it away for later use.

Reply to
Joe

Sorry for replying to a very old post, but I am starting from the beginning of the list and catching up.

So, say I order a case of bottles. I can sanitize them, stick them back in the cases and then store them till I need them and put wine right in? I had assumed I needed to sanitize right before bottling to kill any possible wild yeast or such before bottling.

Also, what about loading them in a dishwasher with no soap? Will the heat of the water and the drying period be sufficient to kill anything off, or is there more to it that I am missing?

Reply to
<no>

If you buy your bottles new, I would just store them in the box until use. Before use, I wash with hot water and a bottle brush (really hot water), rinse out anything that could be in there, then soak in sanitizer. Take them out, put them upside down to drip dry for a bit then fill and cap (or cork). After drinking the bottle, I will rinse really well and put it away, upside down. I have used the dishwasher to clean beer bottles, but I still soak in sanitizing solution afterwards.

-- Joe Romero Panama City, FL

Reply to
Joe

The wonderful thing about wine, is that it is its own preservative. That is, it has a high enough alcohol content to protect it. And we use appropriate levels of sulfite (SO2) to keep bad things at bay. There really is no need to sanitize a clean dry bottle - the wine is a sanitizer itself.

Reply to
Greg Cook

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