Cleaning bottles tonight

[LittleLeroy]

Well is anyone else cleaning bottles like me tonight? I need to bottle a batch tomorrow and my bottle are not clean. Well i guess it is a good thing that I don't have hundreds of bottles like some of you. But boy I really wish I did. This will be my forth batch this year and ever. I really enjoy this "hobby" obsesion. Hope all is having a great night and a great Cristmas season. Merry Christmas to all of you.


Jim

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Mine (over 150) are actually CLEAN (whew!) but I didn't have enough 1/2-sized ones for the cherry desert wine I'm bottling tomorrow. My search for good bottles took me to a store across town I hadn't gone to before and I really liked it (I will be back!). Does buying a case of desert wine bottles count? I will be giving them a good bottle-blast and K-meta spritz...

Merry Christmas to you too! Good luck with all of your bottles tonight. May your insides be well-rinsed and your labels not so sticky.

 

[LittleLeroy]

The insieds of the bottles are good. I rinse them as soon as they are empty. It is the lables that I don't like. But after reading what people have said here I don't think I am alone.

 

[vcasey]

I really need to bottle my Black Currant Wine but am in no mood to clean bottles. I decided to bake cookies instead since its the cookie baking season. I still have some more cookies I want to bake but I also need to bottle that wine. Maybe tomorrow!
VC

 

[Joanie]

I have stumbled upon an easy way to remove labels. I fill five bottles with hot water and set them in a pot on the stove that is also filled with hot water. (Watch out for the displacement!) Turn up the heat and let them sit for a few minutes. As you pull them out (a lot of the labels will peel right off), reuse the hot water that's in that bottle for the next one. I did a case and a half today and it took no time at all.

 

[LittleLeroy]

I really need to bottle my Black Currant Wine but am in no mood to clean bottles. I decided to bake cookies instead since its the cookie baking season. I still have some more cookies I want to bake but I also need to bottle that wine. Maybe tomorrow!
VC

Next weekend is cookie time for me. I will be baking four ginger bread houses for the family to come and decorate. That is always a good time. And this year I have wine to share. Boy I love this season!!!!

 

[Brewgrrrl]

I'm still a fan of my dishwasher-on-hot-cycle method for label removal. Most of the suckers steam right off and the rest scrape off easily with a table knife.

Jim - we always rinse our bottles but I've recently had friends give me over 100 that were just sitting (unrinsed) in their garages for years. YUCK!

'Glad you don't have to deal with THAT!

 

[Joanie]

Don't you have labels and glue all over the bottom of your dishwasher? Yeesh!

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Ha ha. After about a 1/2 hour I stop the cycle, pull a few bottles out, and then let it keep going while I remove labels, then pull a few more out, etc. etc. Otherwise - yes, I would have labels and glue everywhere. I also check the bottom of the washer when I'm through because really, a lot of them just fall off in the steam!

 

[Goodfella]

I'm still a fan of my dishwasher-on-hot-cycle method for label removal. Most of the suckers steam right off and the rest scrape off easily with a table knife.

Jim - we always rinse our bottles but I've recently had friends give me over 100 that were just sitting (unrinsed) in their garages for years. YUCK!

'Glad you don't have to deal with THAT!

How did you deal with that? the outside seems easy to clean, But the inside..... That hard gunk on the bottom.....

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Aha! That's the beauty of the hot cycle dishwasher method - it loosens all that gunk and then you just bottle-blast it away. There were two or three stubborn bottles (out of over 100) that I had to fill with a bleach solution, but even the gunk in them was loosened and the bleach killed it off - then I bottle blasted those again. For almost all of the bottles though, hot cycle + bottle blast took care of it all.

 

[paubin]

I usually wait until I have a half dozen or so then fill the sink with hot water and a lil bleach, then lett'em soak till the water cools down. labels and any crud come right off. The last time a freind dropped off a mess of bottles I just did a couple batches every night so it wouldnt get to tedious till they were all done.


Pete

 

[admiral]

I did 7 this afternoon in the dish washer using the "hot" cycle. I had Mcday labels on all the bottles and they were off, with minor scrubbing in 20 minutes. I agree with paubin, a few at a time and it is not too bad.

 

[Brewgrrrl]

I always used bleach/cold water before, and it does work just fine. I don't like having to be careful about bleach though, and with the large amount of bottles I was given recently it would have taken me forever to clean them that way. With the dishwasher, the steaming seems to loosen the labels better and there's no risk of bleaching your clothes or whatever might be around. After letting it run for a while, I can clean over 40 bottles at a time, averaging less than a minute per bottle. I only had to run the dishwasher a few times to do all of my bottles and I didn't have to worry about rinsing bleach. At the same time, soaking in bleach does kill off anything that might be growing in old cruddy bottles. Like I said, I had a few stubborn ones that I had to use both methods with. I think everyone has to kind of figure out what works best for them.

 

[Wade E]

I just throw 45 at a clip in my bathtub with hot water and Oxyclean (Walmart Sun Brand) and wait an hour and wala, most of the labels are floating and the rest come off easily with a swift swipe of a razor scraper across the bottle.

 

[Brewgrrrl]

... the rest come off easily with a swift swipe of a razor scraper across the bottle.

Me + sharp things = one more reason for the dishwasher method.

I've heard good things about Oxyclean though - I'd like to try that sometime (AFTER I master that dern autofiller...)

 

[Wade E]

Like I said though, most will already be floating, then make the man do the rest!

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Thanks, Wade. I think I'll quote you on that.

 

[Wade E]

I think Im far enough away that he'll cool down before he gets to me!

 

[hannabarn]

Sun Brand version of Oxyclean is not just a Walmart item. It can also be found at Family Dollar stores. I don't like it as well as Oxyclean but it does work!! It is less expensive!