First of all, if you can’t tell by my question, this is my first time home brewing. I feel really nervous about bottling right now. I received a bunch of bottles from a friend whose been storing them for a while in his garage. A couple of days ago I cleaned the labels off and rinsed the outside and used the bottle brush to clean the inside. However, I do not have Star San or a Vinator or a fancy bottle rack or any other special equipment. The only sanitizer I have is the No-Rinse Cleaner that came with my brew kit. Can I just dunk the bottles in a bucket of the cleaner and set them upside down in the dishwasher for a while until they dry?
They key word you’re looking for is sanitizer. What do the instructions on the No Rinse Cleaner say? Is it a sanitizer as well?
Personally I am a fan of Star San. You don’t need a Vinator. I make sure they’re clean, dunk them or pour a little sanitizer into them, shake them to make sure all the inside was coated, and put them upside down to drain.
As far as I know this is sanitizer. This is what came with the kit for sanitizing all the equipment. It should work, but it does have a mild bleach smell that I worry could mess with the flavor of the beer.
Love starsan. And pdw powder. Me never bottle. But once a while have to to bring. Some to work. Clean bottle with water dilute with bleach. Rinse. Than pdw clean and rinse. Last thing. Starsan. Clean. As well the bottle cap. My kegs. Clean with. Pdw and starsan
I personally wouldn’t trust that as a cleaner/sanitizer. First, whatever you are cleaning will have sediment from what needed clean. If you dump it out there is still gunk stuck to the side of the equipment… which means you would need to rinse it out. And if you have to rinse it out it is no longer sanitized.
Welcome to the home brewing world!! If you get the bug like many of us have… You’ll be around here for a long time!!
This is your first brew… It’s good to dip your toes in the water before you jump all in! The cleaner/sanitizer you have will get you through this first one… Should decide to keep going, then star san will be the best product to keep your equipment as bug free as you can…
Don’t be afraid to ask questions… We’ve gone through the starting out stage too!!
Sneezles61
My guess is that stuff is the same as OneStep cleaner. I used that exclusively for years to clean/sanitize. I never had a problem I could attribute to it. Then I discovered Starsan. Now for just sanitizing I only use that.
Long story short. I agree with those guys. Go ahead and use it for your bottles but consider Starsan in the future.
BTW You can use a mild bleach solution but you will have to rinse the bottles out. In a pinch that works but is a PIA. Back in the dark ages of brewing that is all we had.