I hate bottle soaking…trying to get a bunch of bottles in a tub of bleach-water or other cleaner/sanitizer.The easy answer is to keg but thats beyond my budget. So I reversed it.I store all my bottles in a plastic sterilight busness file folder box.(they hold a case) and wont fall apart like cardbord. so I make up my solution, put it in mybottling bucket and fill the bottles in the case…I save some mess and water and have good, clean bottles… :cheers:
I use the avvinator bottle cleaner and a bottle tree. No problems so far. 3 pumps for each bottle is all you need. So easy.
I always triple-rinse bottles right after pouring, just with tap water. Put it upside down in a dish drainer to dry, then put on a fastrack until I need it. When it’s time to bottle, I fill 2 bottles with Star-San, and pour the solution from those two bottles into two more, and repeat until all bottles are sanitized.
The only times I soak bottles is if I want to remove the labels, or if the yeast for whatever reason leaves a film. Some Belgian yeasts tend to do that, but most rinse right out. If you rinse bottles right away, there’s usually not much point in soaking them.
Almost the same procedure as porkchop.
I hook up the jet washer to the brew sink faucet. Luckily I can leave it installed until I need the faucet for other uses. Hot water jet rinse then cold water rinse. The cold water rinse is to remove the minerals taste the hot water might leave. Dry in Fast Rack then move to cases.
Donated bottles will get a PBW soak for cleaning. They usually have some crud in them and labels.
