Your Bottle Cleaning Process: Lets hear them!

I’m going to do some mad bottle cleaning this upcoming weekend. What are y’all’s preferred cleaning process? This includes “delabeling”.

Help a Rookie out!

Cheers!

Soak in PBW for a long time and get a good scrubber for the label glue

I soak mine in hot soapy water till the labels are ready to come off. Some come off easier than others.

I have removed labels using a good soak in hot soapy water before. worked well but really time intensive

I soak mine in a light chlorine solution overnight then use a wire brush scrubber on the outside and a bottle cleaner attachment on my sink for the inside (blast each bottle for just a couple of seconds with that puppy and nothing will survive :smiley: )

Long soak in hot soapy water and peel the label off. If the label requires scraping at that point ( ala Sam Adams), I say forget it, and toss the bottle in the recycle bin. I santitize using the dish washer with no soap or rinse aid.

I soak bottles in hot water with Carlson Easy Clean to remove labels and glue. I also use the dish washer with no soap or rinse to sanitize. The dish washer usually removes any remaining glue from the labels too if they’re on the bottom rack.

I soak mine in oxyclean (warm water) for about 1-2 hours and they just fall off. Very little scrubbing involved - except for fat tire bottles. Very easy process!!!

I soak in hot water in a utility sink and then use the blunt edge of a butter knife to scrape off labels. I use a green scrubber to get off residual glue if needed. I rinse twice with hot water then let dry upside down and store cleaned bottles upside down.
When it comes time to bottle, I put about one gallon sanitizer in a keg and dispense with the beer gun into each bottle and shake a couple times. Put in rack upside down to drip and then bottle from the kegs. The trays from my kegerator have square holes in them they work perfectly to hold 20 bottles or so upside down to drip dry as I bottle

Mine has gotten real easy. Soak in hot water which typically gets the label right off. Then use the sanitize feature on my dishwasher. The day of bottling throw them in the dishwasher again. Make sure the bottles are the only items in the dishwasher and close the jetdry outlet. Did this for my last two beers, all good.

First of all ALWAYS triple rinse after you pour a beer. Your bottles will pretty much be ready to just sanitize on bottling day. Otherwise, soak in oxiclean overnight and most labels fall off, some need scraping.

New bottles: soak in PBW or oxyclean to remove labels. Scrub with brush if needed. Rinse well with water. Dry upside down. Put into box upside down until bottling day.

Reuse my own bottles: Triple rinse with hot water after drinking. Let dry upside down. Put into box upside down until bottling day.

Bottling: A few squirts of starsan from my vinator, then add beer.

Soak them in a cooler full of hot water and Oxyclean Free for at least 4 hours.
One pass in and out with a bottle brush to make sure the neck is clean.
Wipe down outside with cloth soaked in the oxy solution.
Use wire brush to remove any stubborn labels.
Rinse with bottle-jet on hot.
Cover bottles with square of aluminum foil.
(use “goo gone” on bottles with adhesive residue.)

I don’t worry about perfectly draining them. I use a sulfiter to spray sanitize the insides at bottling time, and then I don’t fear the foam.

Simply rinsing them out right after opening them goes a LONG way to saving time cleaning :wink:

I always do this!! I rinse every bottle after I pour it out. Then on bottling day, I use the dishwasher to sanitize. Easy peasy!
:cheers:

[quote=“Porterman”]
I always do this!! I rinse every bottle after I pour it out. Then on bottling day, I use the dishwasher to sanitize. Easy peasy!
:cheers: [/quote]

This is what I do.

All bottles get 3-4 rinses of hot water immediately after pouring. For delabeling I soak bottles in unscented OxyClean and hot water until the labels fall off. Glue generally wipes right off at that point with a blue scrubby pad.

On bottling day I first run a rinse cycle on my empty dishwasher just in case there are any residual detergents in there. Then I load my bottles, run one more rinse cycle and let it sit for a couple of minutes just in case there was something that was rinsed out of the bottles. Then I run the sanitize cycle and leave the dishwasher closed until I start bottling.