So I have a bottle brush from the lhbs and these things suck. Has anybody found anything better? Problem is donated bottles i get aren’t rinsed after they are emptyed
I’ve had pretty good luck with this bottle blaster
. Prior to bottling, I’ll ususally run all of my bottles through the blaster and then sanitize with Star San. The only caveat would be that the bottles are generally surface clean before I blast them.
Give the bottles a soak in PBW/Oxi or a bleach solution to loosen up the mold/debris.
Do you have a drill? Cut the handle off the brush and attach it to the drill.
I started having problems with dirty bottles. Seems nothing would work. I bought the “Power Bottle Brush” that Rebel Brewer sells. It works great for me. Tricky to get the hang of (read the reviews) but it really cleans bottles good.
I’ll try the drill and check out the others, washing solutions ain’t touching this film
That must be some stuck on stuff. The PBW soak prior to brushing has always worked for me.
Buy a wooden dowel that is 3/8" in diameter or smaller and 2 inches longer than the bottles. Drill a hole in a slit formation with a 1/8" drill bit and slide a length of cloth through it.
Add hot water, a bit of PBW/cleaner, attach new bottle cleaner to power drill and “drill baby drill!”.
This is what i use to clean my dirty/moldy bottles that i find or get from friends.
This is also another possibility
http://brewhacks.com/projects-rod.phpI know you mentioned that soaking them hasn’t worked, but have you soaked them in Oxy Clean for several days or more?
I got some old bottles spotless by soaking them in Oxyclean for a week in a large tub in my garage. After the soak, I hand scrubbed (with that annoying brush) each one. I had to rinse them one at a time too, but they were eventually like new. I simply sanitized before bottling, but the key factor was the long term soak. If they absolutely aren’t coming clean, I’d consider not using them.
If a soak in PBW and a quick scrub doesn’t work, I’d just trash them. I mean, how often do you buy commercial beer or how often do friends donate bottles to you? I buy a mixed 6 pack of commercial beer maybe once or twice a month and if I put out the call to my friends to save bottles for me, before I know it, I have like 2 or 3 cases. For me, waiting days for bottles to get clean or going crazy with scrubbing just isn’t worth it. It’s way to easy to find bottles other ways.
For real stubborn bottles, I mix up a solution of either PBW or B-Brite and then boil them in it. I guarantee that will make them sparkle like new. The added heat is the trick.
+1 if a soak in PBW doesn’t clean a bottle it gets recycled. Bottles are too easy to come by to spend too much time worrying about them.
I understand your thinking, I just hate throwing something I can use away, plus we don’t have recycling here so I’m just doin my part:). I was thinking of making my own was just having a brain fart on how, Thx for the link
did this today and seemed to work great thanks for the tip
One tip: Start kegging.
I’m working on it
