CLEANING BOTTLES?

[slopenutz]

I was given 5 cases of empty bottles but don't know if they were rinsed out when they were used. Would soaking them in OXYCLEAN(WalMart Sun) take care of any mold, etc that might have built up in them? I have heard of using this method to remove labels but will this help clean them as well?

Would PBW be another possible option?

 

[grapeman]

It should work just fine. If you want to insure they are sterile, use some other form of sanitizer afterwards. I have been cleaning carboys that some of had bird poop in. I soak in clorox to kill all the nsaties and then use oxiclean to get rid of any residue. I triple rinse after all that and then use a cleaning strength k-meta solution. The carboys are spotless when done and I am confident they are strile enough to use. Besides if they aren't totally clean it will add to the character of the wine - ode de bird poop. SOme wines are described as having a barnyard smell- can't be worse than that!

 

[rhoffart]

I have been cleaning carboys that some of had bird poop in.

should we ask How ... or Why?

 

[AlFulchino]

ditto on the question

 

[xanxer82]

Tweety Blanc?

 

[Waldo]

Visions of pigeons I see

 

[grapeman]

Alright, since you all asked. I find myself short some carboy space this fall. A friend has some extra carboys - 5 gallons- that someone gave him from a water bottle company. They had been in a warehouse for a number of years in wooden holders. You all should know what happens in old warehouses after a while. The birds get in and, well they roost inside and you know what comes next. Apparently these carboys were below their perch. The first thing I did when I got them home was to take the hose to them and get rid of most of the extraneous organic matter all over the outside of them. They mostly had corks in them so they were fairly clean inside.

 

[Brewgrrrl]

I have (for both beer and wine equipment) always used a mild bleach solution (a tablespoon or two per 5-6 gallons of water). Very cheap and easy to find if you find yourself far away from a wine store but have to clean something ASAP. If you soak anything in that solution, the organic deposits break down and it is sanitized at the same time. You just have to make sure to rinse really, really well in hot water to completely get rid of the bleach.

Fortunately, I have not had to try this out on bird poop. I also don't have friends giving me free carboys though so - that would actually be a good tradeoff...

 

[PeterZ]

Appleman, I hope you saved the guano for fertilizer. Waste not want not!

 

[uavwmn]

Appleman, maybe the saved "stuff" can run your car around town???

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Okay, I just cleaned and de-labeled six cases of really cruddy (but free) old bottles that are now as good as new and I think I've perfected my system. I was really happy with the ease and relative speed, and ALL of the bottles now look brand-new.

First, I fill a large plastic tub with bleach water (in our actual bathtub so that I can't bleach anything else) and let the bottles soak for a while to kill the mold and anything else that's in them. Then I use a large bucket to carry the bottles to the kitchen, where I load them into my dishwasher and start the hottest wash setting I have (while this is going I start soaking more bottles in the bleach solution). Running the hot wash for about 30-45 minutes loosens or even steams off the labels and also loosens any remaining crap (just a figure of speech, Appleman). Hot water also completely neutralizes the bleach. I then use a kitchen knife to scrap off labels that are still stuck, polishing off any remaining glue by using a kitchen scrub pad under running water. This sounds like work but the labels are so soft at this point that it takes about five seconds, and I'd say this method completely cleans 99% of the bottles. For the really stubborn gummy label bits on the last 1%, I use first "goo gone" and then, after rinsing, a brillo pad, and this completely cleans them.

Final step is a good bottle-blasting, which gets rid of any remaining mold or other crap (again, just an expression) on the inside of the bottle. After being bleached, heated and bottle-blasted even the most stubborn mold typically flies right off. Out of six cases yesterday, I had only two bottles that some sort of insect had nested in and the egg cases wouldn't all come off right away (ew! this is not a story that drinkers of my wine need to know). Because I don't have any scrubbing equipment for the inside of the bottle, for the two stubborn bottles I repeated the bleach-soak with a stronger solution, left it overnight and bottle-blasted them away.

So - that's what works for me, but I think there are a lot of effective recycling systems out there and different ones work best for different people. Good luck.

 

[Waldo]

OxyClean in a tub of hot water works every time for me

 

[Brewgrrrl]

How much do you use and do you then bottle-blast to make sure it's all off?

 

[Waldo]

How much do you use and do you then bottle-blast to make sure it's all off?

I will typically add 4 scoops to about a half tub of hot water, stir it up good then submerge the bottlesand just let them soak brewgrrl. Never had to to do no blasting. I just give each one a good shaking as I empty it then Rinse wellin cold water and they are ready to be sanitized and filled with your fine wine

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Does this remove the labels as well? Up until now, I've avoided using any chemicals other than bleach because of I'm familiar with how to neutralize the bleach with hot water and I wasn't sure if anything else would leave residue. My bleach/hot water/bottle blast method works well, but it is somewhat time consuming and if OxyClean gets rid of labels then I'll give it a try.

 

[Runningwolf]

I also use OxyClean. The labels are my main concern. I do them in a laundry sink. I fill all of the bottles up with hot water then I fill the sink up with hot water and 3-4 large scoops of oxyclean. I let them soak about 30-45 minutes then scrape the labels off with a razor blade scraper. This works pretty good for most of the labels. I use Avery labels on my bottles and those labels will be nearly floating off when you go back and check on them. I use one step for cleaning the inside of the bottles and put them on the draining tree until I am ready to use them. Just before I am ready to bottle I give them a rinse in k meta.

 

[Waldo]

Does this remove the labels as well? Up until now, I've avoided using any chemicals other than bleach because of I'm familiar with how to neutralize the bleach with hot water and I wasn't sure if anything else would leave residue. My bleach/hot water/bottle blast method works well, but it is somewhat time consuming and if OxyClean gets rid of labels then I'll give it a try.

It willtake the majority of them right off brewgirrl

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Thanks. I'll give it a try sometime and see how it compares.

 

[hannabarn]

I use Waldo's method and I find it is the easiest I've tried. Sometimes I leave them soak for 24 hrs or more and then it is really easy to remove labels.

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Yes, I will have to try it sometime. I like my method because I can do it without having to soak for a long time - bleach kills the mold right away and then steaming off the labels in the dishwasher takes about a 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. There are a few I have to scrape, but even those just fall away. But I can see the OxyClean would probably save water/energy and I'm curious about how it compares in the ease of removing labels.





I love all of the good ideas here!