I will be bottling my second and third brewed beers this coming weekend. The first time I bottled I santized the bottles by submerging them in a bucket of diluted StarSans, which did the trick but took forever. I have heard people santize with their dishwasher set to “Santize” and “High Temp Scrub”. Call me lazy, but this seems way easier. Anyone do this currently? Do you put any detergent in the dishwasher? I hope to purchase a keg system next year not to deal with this going forward. Thanks.
I think the heat from the dishwasher has more to do with sanitizing the bottles than the water so use the heat dry not a “economy” setting. No soap either since it can leave a film in the bottles that might kill the head.
Running it one cycle empty with no soap might help to get any residual soap or rinse agents out first. I have never done the dishwasher trick but it sounds like a good option to me. Kegging is the best IMHO. Hopefully someone that dose use the washer will chime in here.
I have used the dishwasher many times. I use the high temp rinse and heated dry settings. I always rinsed my bottles after drinking with hot tap. Turned them upside down in the case. When it was time to bottle I just pulled them out, put in dishwasher, and then bottled. The rack was nice to pull the bottles from. I always put the bottling bucket next to it and mounted my wand to the bucket nozzle with a short piece of hose. Worked awesome when I bottled exclusively. I bottled well over a hundred cases this way and never had a gusher. I made sure the jet dry dispenser was empty. never ran any type of pre-rinse cycle or anything. Depends on how hot your dishwasher gets. You could use it and always use a vinator for a quick Starsan backup too if you were worried. I think the main thing is make sure they are clean before hand. The dishwasher won’t get to the interior of the bottles. :cheers:
[quote=“uberculture”]I’m sure I’m doing overkill on my bottles, but I’m pretty new, so paranoid. Here’s my bottling procedure:
After drinking, immediately rinse with super hot tap water.
Store upside down until bottling day.
Soak in PWB (maybe ten minutes per batch of bottles), scrub, rinse, put in dishwasher
Run through dishwasher (no soap) on potscrubber
Dip each bottle in StarSan (filling inside, soaking for 1 minute) and drain, then return to dishwasher until filling.
What’s crazy is the past two times, I’ve brewed and bottled on the same day. Good thing I don’t have a life…[/quote]
Yeah, that’s plenty. I do 1, 2, & 5, and I visually inspect every bottle prior to #5. If there’s anything visually “off”, it gets tossed in the recycling bin. For how long most of my bottles sit idle, if there had been anything left in there, growth would be visible.
I’m a big fan of doing it that way when I can get the schedule to line up right. There’s plenty of down time spent waiting on the mash or boil, and the kitchen’s already full of brewing equipment, so why not knock 'em both off at once?
Good stuff guys, thanks for the replies. I think my route will be dunk in StarSans for 1-2 minutes, drain, pop-in the dishwasher, let them cool down and then bottle accordingly. Basically adding the dishwasher step, but I have started to use the dishwasher initially, after rinsing, gets the bottle nice and clean on the outside.
I drink the prior beer
Rinse thoroughly after the pour
put in dishwasher with normal dishes
Store on rack when done
Soak in hot water on bottling day, then transfer to star san - drain, fill, cap
I used the dishwasher for the first time with my last batch. Seems to have worked well. I plan on using it in all future batches.
Used the high heat, sanitize setting, and no soap. Skipped the StarSans when doing this method as that would have defeated the purpose of the dishwasher.
Yep, if the dishwasher has a sanitizing cycle there is no need for the starsan rinse. Simply allow the bottles to run through the entire sanitize cycle with no soap or rinse agents.
This is the only thing I did (before going to kegging) other than rinse out the bottles right after pouring. Never had any issues. And, I set the bottles on the open dishwasher door to bottle. If you spill anything cleanup is a snap, just close the dishwasher door, it will get clean the next time you run it.
I rinse my bottles thoroughly after drinking. I inspect every bottle the night before bottling (if I can, sometimes it’s the day of), and give a PBW soak to anything that looks like it might have residue. I then run a rinse cycle on my empty dishwasher (just in case of soap residue), load the bottles and run another rinse cycle (for my own paranoia only, doubt this is needed - or even helpful), then run the sanitize cycle.
I don’t know about anyone else, but my dishwasher has pretty low clearance on the top shelf. I end up hoarding stubby bottles (SN, Green Flash, Redhook, etc) for my top shelf. Regular longnecks are just a half inch too tall.
Seriously? That could have something to do with my “Did I Make a Mistake?” thread.[/quote]
Ya jetdry is a surface tension braking agent so the beer can not produce a foam (also water spots woun’t form on dishes) if you use the dispenser on the washer to add jetdry I would not recommend using the dishwasher for bottles wash with one step and bake in oven at 325 for 15 min i think. The most important thing is to rinse out the bottles right after poring makes cleaning and sanitizing much faster. Cheers
Not wanting to step on any toes, but I’ve repaired a few dishwashers and there is no way I would trust a dishwasher to sanitize my bottles. If you’ve ever had there pumps apart you would see there full of a gross slime, not to mention all the crude thats in the filter traps.
Another idea might be to rinse the bottles really well and heat them in the oven. Sort of like an Autoclave
A sink full off Starsan and a bottling tree for me.
