Cleaning Bottles

[Mharris335]

I know this has been asked, so sorry I have to ask it again. I
have dirty bottles from my drinking and a winery with a tasting room
bottles. I have the labels off already. Is the next step
cleaning with brush and cleaning chemical. Then to sanitize them
or do I need to sanitize them if I give them a really good
cleaning? Then I store up side down in a box?
Please help!

 

[NorthernWinos]

I store my recycled bottles out in an old shed....When I first get them I sort according to bottle style and put them in boxes up side down and mark the box according to bottle type......I box separately the bottles I can't use to be recycled or given to people who can use them.

At some point after I start a batch of wine I will get the bottles and soak them in a laundry tub in HOT water, sometimes soaked with Straight A, most times just HOT water....some labels will float right off...others have to be scraped with a knife or pot scraper....scurried with a curly steel pot scrubber, rubbed with a green pot scrubber...What ever it takes.

Replace them in a tub of clean HOT water... look through them at a bright light....use a jet bottle washer, a wire bottle brush, jet bottle washer again and place them in a box lined with a thick layer of clean newspapers and paper towels and place them upside down till bottling time.

With the bottles we drink, I will removed the label, rinse, re-rinse and store in a box up side down till needed.

On bottling day I look at them against a bright light....rinse them with the jet washer, place them in a tub of Straight A, rinse well again with the jet bottle washer, rinse the outside and place in a tub of Sulfite solution..[a bottle rack and sulfiter...would be nice at this point]

Then the fun...bottling the wine...

 

[masta]

I do the same thing basically.....visualy clean, rinse with hot water, sanitize, then fill.

 

[Mharris335]

Cool...thank you both. Thats what I thought but was not sure if I needed to Sanitize or not.

 

[geocorn]

Excellent advice, NW.

 

[Wade E]

MHarris, feel free to ask questions even if theyve been asked before.
Someone might lead you to a earlier post only to help you, not to make
you think you should have looked there. Even people that have been
doing this for awhile can learn from a newbie as new ideas can arise
and be the best thing since sliced bread!

As far as cleaning bottles, I soak them in hot water and C-brite then
rinse them out with hot water and dry on yhe bottle tree. Then I box
them upside down. At bottling time I use my sulfiter and bottle tree
them again!

 

[PeterZ]

I soak bottles in hot water with automatic dishwasher soap. Then I invert them on the posts of the bottom rack of my dishwasher and run it. (I don't have a source of "recycle center bottles - Memphis does that on the garbage truck and there is no way I want what they collect) After that is is into a closet until bottling time where they will get a blast of hot water followed by a squirt of sulfite.

 

[Mharris335]

Wade, thank you so much for the good advice and the warm welcome.

Peterz. It sounds all your ways are close in how you do it...thank you too.