Washing obviously dirty bottles

[beattun]

I think my coopers mexican brew is just about ready to be bottled, ive got about 70 used carlton draught stubbies sitting here, but they havent so much as been rinsed, they probably been sitting from 2 - 3 months.

I have milton which might work for sanitising the bottles, but im not sure the best way to go about it, i also have coopers sanitiser and the brigalow powder as well.

Could anyone suggest an efficient way to go about this? I've got the missus roped into helping me as well.

Thanks!

Brian.

[PenroD]

I did a very similar thing to this, my last brew. You'll probably have some mold and scum in there, spiders, etc.
All i did was rinse the bottles with hot tap water to get the lumps out, then the cleaning solution. Just make sure all the marks and stains are out of the bottles, and you should be fine to sanitize. Some of my bottles were sitting around for more than a year, you should have no trouble to clean them up.

[beattun]

thanks, so just rinse and scrub, but after that should i make up a spray with the milton to sanitise, or should i soak all the bottles in solution?

[PenroD]

I just soaked the bottles, then rinsed them with plenty of clean water. Its up to indvidual preferance i guess as to how you like to rinse your bottles, i havent lost a bottle yet from not being clean enough.

[Chris]

When ever I've had particularly dirty bottles, I soak overnight in a garbage bin full of a bleach solution. Cheap, and no effort other than hot rinsing them afterwards. No scrubbing.

[beattun]

might try that chris, just water and bleach? how much is too much?

[Chris]

Depends on the size of the bin you use.

60mL or so in one of those round plastic bins is more than enough.

[gregb]

I use and recommend Pink Stain Remover (available from your local HBS) for any particularly grubby bottles.

Cheers,
Greg

[Lachy]

I picked up a load of very badly soiled crown seal bottle from a friend some months ago. They obviously still had the labels on but also had a thriving community of mould living in the bottles as well as general muck and grime.

A soak in a sink full of hot water with some cheapie dishwashing powder added got them all nice and sparkley. 400 bottles for me, yay!

[SpillsMostOfIt]

When I was accepting bottles from anyone and anywhere, I would soak them in nappy wash for a week or so before rinsing well.

There's not much that can fit in a bottle that will survive that sort of treatment.

[rohanbutler]

I just did a batch of similar stubbies. In the sink with hotwater and napisan for half an hour. Then cordless drill with the bottle brush attachment, drain, rinse and on the bottle draining tree. Clean as a whistle, all I need to do is sanitise and they are ready to go.