efficient ways to clean bottles

[Beau]

also does anyone bother to bottle in stubies?

I have about 1000 stubbies and about 200 long necks.
I picked up about 700 more stubbies tonight and sanitised about 500 of the bastards tonight, my arms are aching like hell.

[Boonie]

also does anyone bother to bottle in stubies?

I have about 1000 stubbies and about 200 long necks.
I picked up about 700 more stubbies tonight and sanitised about 500 of the bastards tonight, my arms are aching like hell.

I had 480 stubbies and I thought I had alot.
I started collecting stubbies before my friend helped me get quite a few longies + I bought some off ebay.

Soon I was chucking the stubbies.

My other mate, who also likes HB, still does stubbies as they are easy to store in the boxes, after they are dry .

With mine, I always bottle about 20-25 longies and 6+ stubbies. The stubbies are tasters until the beer is to my liking. Then I will crack the longies.

IE Stubbie at 2 weeks, 3 weeks and so-on, then crack the longies. No use wasting 750-800ml compared to 330-375ml.

Longies, less washing. Stubbies, more washing but mixed with longies, no worries.

Kegs, less hassle, but unless you have a superb set-up IMO, you cannot sample 6-7 (minimum ) different brews per night.

I have 420+ Longies (mainly crown seal taken over 18 months to locate) and about 200 stubbies.......keeps me going

[blandy]

I use a mix of both.

Currently my main suppliers of bottles are my father, who brings home about half a slab of empty stubbies from work every Friday. And a friend who lives around the corner who seems to be going through longnecks faster than I can fill them.

There's a place in this world for both stubbies and longnecks. I prefer using stubbies for beers that I'll be drinking on my own (as in ones i'd take to BYO parties, in front of the cricket etc), and longnecks for the specialty beers, because most of them seem to be consumed while friends are around.

As for bottling time, I don't mind the extra 20-30 mins bottling in stubbies adds, in that time I can have another beer!

[Cortez The Killer]

i usually go 15 longies and the rest in stubbies

[scblack]

I used to be like Boonie and bottle mostly longies but a few stubbies for tasting, and BBQ's.

Now can't be bothered, and bottle only in longnecks. Less cleaning, bottling, storage space.

Just easier I find.

[gregb]

I like the 640's and 500ml Erdinger bottles, but still use tallies, stubbies, 345, 330's and Darwin Stubs.

Cheers,
Greg

[501]

hey I like the jet washers as mentioned by DrTom.

Others such as YardGlass Have made their own rinsers with great success.

I find 99.9% of gunk in repatriated bottles can be removed with the washers and if you are using these soak them in sodium percarbonate / homebrand
napisan / pbw overnight first and they will be sparkling with little blasting.

I didn't catch if their was one who is to be obeyed involved.?

Anyways;
The best way IMO is to get an outdoor tap on the laundry sink outlet, a brass 2 way adapter with a length of garden hose on 1 port and the blaster on the other.
This way you can easily clean the outsides as well.
The hose length also acts like a shock absorber for your pipes.
This way you are also using hot water to blast / rinse in.

Jet Washer (I got mine from Roy @ coolum hbs) try the web?


Washer setup ->

[Shaun]

This thread makes me remember why I went to kegs, much less cleaning.

When I was bottling I raised after pouring then left stored up side down. I then gave them a hit of no rinse sanitizer before bottling.

To clean a large number of dirty bottles quickly I used a bottle brush with the top of the handle cut off and placed the brush in a cordless drill. Fill bottles with sanitizer/cleaner and take to them with the brush and drill takes off any muck in seconds.

[Pale_Ale]

I just rinse after drinking, then rinse with boiling water before I bottle. It's the easiest thing in the world, and I have never had any problems. In fact, I just opened a 1.5yo brew twist top and it was fine!

[melbourne man]

how many times would you reuse a bottle before it lost its strength?

[rwh]

Er, until it smashed? Never happened to me though; I wouldn't worry about it, so long as you're using a bench capper.

[timmy]

How about this for an idea:

If I rinsed each bottle thoroughly after drinking then, on bottling day, fill up the dishwasher with upside-down bottles and run through a cycle with no detergent. Not so much for cleaning, but for a final sanitise using the steam.

I was also thinking about making a bottle steamer so I can sanitise 8+ bottles at a time over a wok of boiling water (similar to those baby bottle sterilisers you can get)

I'd rather sanitise this way because of the water required to rinse the suckers after using the bleach/sanitising solution. Or do the 'no-rinse' solutions really work that well (I'd be worried about the taste coming through in the final product....).

Tim

[dags64]

How about this for an idea:

If I rinsed each bottle thoroughly after drinking then, on bottling day, fill up the dishwasher with upside-down bottles and run through a cycle with no detergent. Not so much for cleaning, but for a final sanitise using the steam.

I was also thinking about making a bottle steamer so I can sanitise 8+ bottles at a time over a wok of boiling water (similar to those baby bottle sterilisers you can get)

I'd rather sanitise this way because of the water required to rinse the suckers after using the bleach/sanitising solution. Or do the 'no-rinse' solutions really work that well (I'd be worried about the taste coming through in the final product....).

Tim

I actually do this, I rinse all bottles after drinking, they get put away where they stay clean then when I am ready to bottle, they go into the dishwasher on the glasses cycle with no detergent, I also make sure I clean out the filter of all the gunk
I have been doing this for about 25 brews and have never had a bad one
I put in long necks, stubbies and grolsch swing tops

[pacman]

Hi dags64,

What effect, if any, does your dishwasher method have on the Grolsch swingtop seals? Or do you remove the seals, and put them back on after they come out of the dishwasher?

Reason I'm asking is the various opinions regarding life span of swingtop seals. I estimate that I have so far recycled my swingtops as many as 6 times, and have not yet replaced one seal. Have maybe turned about a dozen seals inside out (or back to front, or reversed them, or whatever the correct terminology is), but that is all.

Would, or does, the dishwasher high temps have an adverse effect on the seals?

[Hatchet Juggla]

i'm brand new to hb. i have around 160 stubbies, 10 grolsch swingtops, 1 longneck (heh) and 24 of those tiny little VB bottles.

i'm not quite sick of cleaning bottles yet.

the tiny VB bottles are perfect for my 'test' brews. 1 bottle fits perfectly into a pot.

[dags64]

Hi dags64,

What effect, if any, does your dishwasher method have on the Grolsch swingtop seals? Or do you remove the seals, and put them back on after they come out of the dishwasher?

Reason I'm asking is the various opinions regarding life span of swingtop seals. I estimate that I have so far recycled my swingtops as many as 6 times, and have not yet replaced one seal. Have maybe turned about a dozen seals inside out (or back to front, or reversed them, or whatever the correct terminology is), but that is all.

Would, or does, the dishwasher high temps have an adverse effect on the seals?

hiya Pacman
I have reused my some of my grolsch bottles about 10 times now and the seals seem to be holding out
I do give them a visual when I am getting my bottles together to see if they are deteriorating or not, so far so good

[drsmurto]

I'm a scientist so i generally approach these things with my lab coat on etc. But its not rocket science.

Clean bottles after using, loads of people have already agreed with that one. Easy for the first bottle or 2 but gets harder after that .

I had access to Sodium met from work but have since moved to homebrand bleach, dilute, quick rinse, no scrubbing. Not one infection. Ever. No need for extra bits of equipment.

Its that easy. Altho the keg people are the ones thinking. Not just for lack of bottle cleaning but also the pleasure of pouring your own pint from a tap. Jealous

Cheers
DrSmurto

p.s. with water rations in for the garden i do this all on the lawn - dilute bleach solutions dont harm the lawn!

[mark68]

I rinse all my bottles twice after drinking and then line up 50 bottles on my outdoor table.I use a nappy san mix to sanitise them,then line them up again.I then fill the bottles with water to semi rinse them.I then empty the water out of them and repeat the first process,by filling the bottles with water,Then rinse once more an dthere ready for bottling.It usually takes me 1 hour to do the bottle sanitisation and then 30 minutes to fill them.

[lethaldog]

That seems like alot of work, i rinse well after emptying then steralise with sterex on the day, all is well so far and takes about 20 mins to steralise bottles for a whole brew

[111222333]

I rinse all my bottles twice after drinking and then line up 50 bottles on my outdoor table.I use a nappy san mix to sanitise them,then line them up again.I then fill the bottles with water to semi rinse them.I then empty the water out of them and repeat the first process,by filling the bottles with water,Then rinse once more an dthere ready for bottling.It usually takes me 1 hour to do the bottle sanitisation and then 30 minutes to fill them.

I gotta say, thats a gross waste, hope your at least emptying onto the lawn.