I work for a beer and wine distributor and have access to some “old” beer. By old I mean the store shelf life has expired, but it is still good and drinkable. The beer is a pale ale. I am wanting to get a few cases of the beer and use it for bottling. I dont want to clean/ sanatize anything since they are full of beer now. I want to open them, dump out the beer and bottle my homebrew. maybe spray some sanatizer on the tops, but thats about it.
What do you think? Good idea or not? I have a pale ale in my primary that I need to bottle so i figured that since the bottles are already full of pale ale its not a big deal. Maybe Im wrong though, thats why I am asking for some opinions.
I would recommend a bottling tree to invert the bottles as they dry, a rinser, along with a bottle washer that can be attached to a faucet.
In my opinion, you could dump the bottles of their contents, rinse them immediately with warm tap water, and put them on the bottling tree to dry and have them ready to go. The next step would be to use the rinser with some one-step solution - just to be sure.
The extra step would be to buy a large new rubber maid trash can, fill it with a cup or so of bleach and then complete full with water, and submerge the bottles. They can sit there indefinitely and will just need to be rinsed prior to use.
Of course, there is always kegging. So much easier!!
theoretically it would work… but i wouldn’t risk it. i would try drinking one. if it taste good, drink them all.
i would rinse them with hot water, then cleaner, rinse them with water again, then rinse with sanitizer just to be safe. it would be a shame to waste a perfectly good batch because of some crummy bottles
I agree with S. If the beer is good, drink them. But do a proper clean/sanitizing of the bottles.
Avoid the One-Step. It may have been an approved sanitizer at one time. I don’t see any approvals on it now.
IF you want to use bleach as a sanitizer, look for a podcast
http://hw.libsyn.com/p/3/9/0/390da96899933961/bbr03-29-07.mp3?sid=fbd81ed94e6a4783dda8a4f6e196dc3a&l_sid=18257&l_eid=&l_mid=1511169&expiration=1337354783&hwt=1cefd06f20215725d3a55eacbb81ebcd
with Charlie Tally from 5-Star back in 2007 about making bleach a better sanitizer.
A simple sanitizing process I and others have done is to run the bottles through the dishwasher, especially if it has a sanitizer mode, after you clean them. No soap and plug the “jet dry” dispenser with a piece of paper towel. Be sure to allow time for the bottles to cool.
Why avoid One-Step? I think it’s personal preference. I’ve always used One-Step and have never had an issue.
