How do u clean your bottles ??
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I just wash them out and store. When I'me ready to bottle I use a bottle blaster type hooked to the faucet, then a soak in EasyClean, then a rinse in BeerClean. Nothing wrong with the dishwasher method.
Clever!
I usually wash and bottle brush minutes after I empty a bottle. Star San, store with the opening down. Star San again just before use.
If I have bottles given to me (which doesn't happen enough, dammit!) I'll add the canning jar treatment - into a 200 degree oven for 20 minutes or so. Hey, I don't know where those bottles have been!
I usually wash and bottle brush minutes after I empty a bottle. Star San, store with the opening down. Star San again just before use.
If I have bottles given to me (which doesn't happen enough, dammit!) I'll add the canning jar treatment - into a 200 degree oven for 20 minutes or so. Hey, I don't know where those bottles have been!
If they are new to me but used and nasty I usually rinse and soak in water and bleach and use a brush to listen the crud. It’s easier to clean the inside than the just side these days. Whatever glue they use is a pain to get off.
If the bottle is a new acquisition in goes into a 5 gal bucket with hot water and OxiClean for up to 24 hrs at which time I clean the label off. Next I physically scrub the inside with a bottle brush. Next I rinse the inside with stainless steel carboy and bottle blaster then set aside inverted to dry. Then to storage. If it's one of my empties it gets rinsed and set aside to dry. In preparation for bottling all bottles go through the Bottle Rinser (Italian Vinator) charged with K2S2O5. Set on a Fastrack Stack and Store Wine Bottle Rack for awaiting the wine. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.
It depends on the label glue.
BTW, do not use bleach. It can cause problems in very minute concentrations
If it's a donated bottle, I soak in hot water with Dawn dishwashing soap for a few hours. Then I scrape the label and remove the glue residue with Mr. Clean eraser. If that doesn't work, I recycle the bottle. If it does work, I rinse the bottle 3 times to get all the soap out, then dry upside down on FastRack stack and store bottle storage things for a day or two.
If it's one of mine, I do the same treatment but my labels come off much easier.
Then I put right side up in an open box for several days to a week so that the inside is for sure dry. Once it is dry, I turn the bottles upside down in the box for storage.
If it's one of mine, I do the same treatment but my labels come off much easier.
Then I put right side up in an open box for several days to a week so that the inside is for sure dry. Once it is dry, I turn the bottles upside down in the box for storage.
Bleach is cheap and it's in tap water already. I rinse really well. Never had a problem. It works well to soak clean carboys without scrubbing too.
It works fine until it doesn't. Your wine, your call.
https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2019/08/the-complete-guide-to-cork-taint
Ahhhh the Mr. Clean Eraser… another use! I love those things!
I hope your luck keeps holding
Luck has nothing to do with it. Rinse a few times and it’s basically tap water in them. I put on the drying tree and there is no risk.
Might just be my crazy but I’ve never liked the no rinse sulfite method. I could be wrong. I even like to rinse starsan. But it’s probably all in my head.
man that's a gamble - all that work, time and money??? not worth it - not even a consideration in my wine repertoire
How is it a gamble? Forgetting to rinse? Or do you mean rinsing after sterilization?
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I would definitely stay away from bleach.
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Rinse the Star San and defeat the purpose of Star San.
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When I finish a bottle of wine I rinse thoroughly with tap water then submerge in a six gallon bucket mixture of PBW. I always have one going. Leave the bottles in the six gallon pail until I can’t get any more in. Usually seven or so. Remove the bottles rinse twice and dry. Before bottling, I dip in a star San solution to sanitize.
I'll be blunt -- you're wrong. The process is to take a clean item and douse it with a no-rinse sanitizing solution, e.g., K-meta solution, Star San, or other (can't recall other names). These are "no rinse" because they cause no harm to the wine, and in the case of K-meta solution, provide a bit of extra K-meta.
When you rinse a sanitized item with unsanitary tap water, you have undone the effort of sanitizing. This is not opinion, this is chemistry.
Do a search -- bleach and the substances used to chlorinate municipal water are not identical. Similar, but not the same.
Personally, I don't care what you do to your wine. As I said, your wine, your call. However, professional winemakers and wine researchers state that bleach in a winery is a bad idea. The following excerpt is taken from this page:
https://www.awri.com.au/information_services/ebulletin/2020/03/27/winery-sanitation-and-covid-19/
"With regards to sanitising, chlorine-based bleach solutions are typically mentioned as part of sanitation regimes by the World Health Organization (WHO), DOH and CDC. However, chlorine-based sanitisers and bleaches are NOT RECOMMENDED in a winery setting due to their potential to generate chlorophenol and chloroanisole taints."
