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Don't worry about it too much Blandy, by the time youv'e thought about it someone has used more energy than you'll ever use in your lifetime.
Homebrewers are insignificant, you use more water and energy doing a load of clothes than three brews combined.

we are literally small fry

Phantom

Yes, quite right. Most water is used by agriculture and industry. Regular people are then encouraged to feel guilty about their use.

Boonie wrote:I steralise as I found a cockie in a bottle once. The cockies come from the sewer..............gross.

I am certainly not anal when it comes to cleaning but cockroaches do like to "wander" and search.

I steralise as I cannot stand the thought of faecal matter crawling through my beer..........bottoms up

Cheers

Boonie

Mmmm .... water comes from dams; fish live in dams, kangaroos and other animals including cockroaches live in catchment areas - methinks you best give up drinking all together Boonie.

Seriously though if you put the bottles upside down in a broccoli container a cockroach is not going to get in.

mikey wrote:I store my bottles in broccoli containers lying on their side so no junk gets in.

Ahhh, you store yours upside down............Okey Dokey, that's better.The water in Newcastle has that much Chlorine/Fluoride in it nothing survives.

Mind you, have you ever seen the inside of one of the old water pipes I'll give up drinking water not beer though.

I'll admit I have done a batch that I did not steralise the bottles and nothing happened, I was just too tired to bother. I think I might give that a go for a couple of batches and see how she goes......food for thought, anyway, but I will still do my fermenters

Cheers

Boonie

Have only rinsed my bottles with hot tap water and left upside down to dry. Then off to the cupboard without a lid to wait for a new batch, rinsed and filled.
Same way the last 20 batches and no probs... (yet)

Rinse after you drink, then using the bottle rinser i use the no rinse sanitiser. Works well

around 1 litre of water used

I do as Stekings. Although after this thread I looked at my bottle tree and found lots of crap on it including what looks like mould. And you guessed it....a cockroach!!!

I suggest if you live anywhere remotelt warm the sterilisation is a must.

My brewery is under the house in the garage so that probably says a lot.

Boonie wrote:

mikey wrote:I store my bottles in broccoli containers lying on their side so no junk gets in.

Ahhh, you store yours upside down............Okey Dokey, that's better.The water in Newcastle has that much Chlorine/Fluoride in it nothing survives.

Picked me up on that one . However which ever way I put them in the boxes (it depends on how many empties I have) I have never had a cockie (at least that I know of) in them.

The most important thing when using this method is rinsing (2 or 3 times) not long after drinking and then storing the bottles upside down so they dry properly. I don't know who wrote it here but no moisture in affect means no nasties as they cannot live without it.

You could also keep your old caps and put them on the bottles to keep out dust cockies etc between uses. My friend who lives ain the country does this. When cracking a bottle she takes the lid off carefully so it doesn't buckle very much (on old style tallies).

She also sterilises - just mixes up a cupful of steriliser and transfers between bottles using a funnel. Of course you still have to rinse but it's much quicker and uses less water than filling a bucket.

Anyway give it a go. It saves a lot of time and I have never had an infection in one stubbie.

I also don't sterilise my fermenters - just rinse straightaway after bottling and put the next brew in straightaway. I believe that the hot water used in
dissolving the fermentables will kill anything hanging around the tap etc if by any chance it got in in the small amount of time the fermenter is empty.

mikey wrote:
She also sterilises - just mixes up a cupful of steriliser and transfers between bottles using a funnel. Of course you still have to rinse but it's much quicker and uses less water than filling a bucket.

Anyway give it a go. It saves a lot of time and I have never had an infection in one stubbie.

That's how I sterilise, but with 2 Litres+ of steriliser and a funnel, shake the bottles and re-use the steraliser in the fermenter.

I will definately give it a go as I hate doing the steralising, it is a tedious task.............

Cheers

Boonie

bottles don't really need to soak in a steriliser, do they? Just a bit of a rinse and a shake should do it? I sometimes wonder if i leave the water in long enough for the steriliser to do its job ...

kangarool wrote:bottles don't really need to soak in a steriliser, do they? Just a bit of a rinse and a shake should do it? I sometimes wonder if i leave the water in long enough for the steriliser to do its job ...

I don't soak mine. I just pur in, leave for a minute and shake, then empty.

Especially as producing electricity uses heaps of water.

blandy wrote:I'd question the enviromental benefits of heat sanitising vs liquid. Energy's just as important as water.

We're on GreenPower at home - so all our electricity comes from wind and solar.