Re-Sanitizing Sealed Empty Bottles & Carboys

We all know what a chore scraping, cleaning & sanitizing bottles can be. I never try to do all that plus bottling on the same today. So I do it prior to anticipated bottling date.

My routine is soak bottles in hot water an hour or so, scrape off old label & rinse outside, use bottle brush to wash inside thoroughly in warm B-Brite cleanser solution, rinse well with bottle washer attached to water faucet, soak several minutes inside and out in 5 Star iodine sanitizer, no rinse, drain on bottle tree overnight, then seal by twist wrapping a 5" square of Saran wrap over the neck & bottle opening & store upright.

Should I soak bottles again in sanitizer before bottling? I would probably use them without re-sanitizing if they were done & set aside only a week or so before bottling, but this latest batch was done a month or more ago.

Related to this is my prior cleaning of glass carboys, same wash & sanitizer & similar routine but I leave a few inches of sanitizing solution in the carboy, cap with a cork & turn the carboy upside down now & then & shake it all around. If the solution begins to appear too dilute, I add some more iodine to keep it at a good strength. Should I empty that old solution & sanitize the carboy again before I use?

NS

You really should sanitize just before you fill the bottles.

After cleaning, I would not bother sanitizing right then, unless you are bottling immediately, of course.

De-label, wash, and rinse them; place them upside down in a box and don't worry about sealing.

At bottling time, quick rinse once more, sanitize and fill them. I don't know about the particular sanitizer you are using, but if it should be rinsed off, do it before filling the bottles.

Like Robie said sanitize before right before bottling. If you use a meta sanitizer there is no need to rinse afterwards.

My LHBS specializes in beer but does wine. Maybe that explains why they recommend the 5-Star iodine based sanitizer. They would probably argue that it is a more effective sanitizer than traditionally used K-Meta. (It may be more expensive too.) To its advantage, the iodine does not have to be rinsed.

Thanks for your recommendations. I agree there's little need to take shortcuts in sanitizing items if it entails increased risk.