Sediment in old bottles

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Pat Parks

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A friend gave me a bunch of wine bottles for my first batch of wine (I helped her empty some of them!). I can't seem to get all the sediment out of the bottles, though I did get the dust and spiders. I tried soap and hot water, and soap and boiling water, and let them sit a little before scrubbing, but even with a bottle brush I can still see sediment around the base of some of them. I even tried white vinegare and baking soda, but no joy. So I bought some new bottles for my first batch because I'm basically a coward, but would like to recycle bottles as much as possible. I usually rinse pretty well after emptying a bottle; is that sufficient to prevent sediment from lingering, or is it from the wine itself before emptying the bottle? I got a couple of products from a local winery after being warned off bleach; will they do the trick, or is there another method? After getting the labels off the recycled ones I hate to give up on them! I have B-Brite and Iodophor BTF solution from the winery.
 
Throw them all in a tub with very hot water and the B-Brite or Oxyclean(Walmart brand with no fragrance) and let them sit a few hours. I do this in my bathtub with bottles I retrieve from a recycle center and by doing this most of the labels just float right off all by themselves and all the scum inside the bottles floats out also like a red skin sometimes.

Bottles.jpg
 
You may aslo consider a bottle brush.
A paint scraper that uses a single edge blade will work on the foil ones or the ones that use super glue.
BTW WELCOME to the group :b
 
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One thing I've found that works pretty well for caked on sediment is to make up a strong sulfite/citric acid solution and put a little in the bottle and let it soak. After a few days, most of it will come out with only a light scrubbing.
 
Bleach does a great job if soaked in the bottle to remove deposits and kill nearly all "germs". In fact, I used to soak around 200 bottles in the bathtub filled with water mixed with a half gallon of bleach for that purpose. That was the label removing stage. They would still be soaked and rinsed again, dried, and then later re-sanitized by having a spray of sulphite water washing them before actual use.

The main problem with this method is that any compound used that releases free chlorine for any purpose is not great for the environment; even for clothes washing or whatever. Chlorine isn't an uncommon element, but most of it has been trapped in stable compounds throughout earth's history.
 
Soak in a "OXY" cleaner and a bottle brush works great[/SIZE]
 
Are you talking about old bottles as in really old, been sitting around a while gathering dead flies and so on?

I brought a 1/2 gallon bottle off our local auction site which turned out to be great (as it looked in its photo!) but when I turned up there were heaps of old bottles with dirt and stuff caked in them, they were really cool so I brought some thinknig suitable for sai or port or whatever...havent got around to cleaning them yet so Im intyerested in what the others suggest as i ca imagine its going to be 'fun' cleaning them.
 
Yes but i would rinse them out as best I could before throwing tem in the tub if we are talking dirty nasty. The ones I get from the recycle center can be nasty but usually not years old and 1/2 full of dirt. just old wine that has dried in there and maybe some small amounts of nasty stuff from everyone dumping stuff on top of those.
 
these were stored in a garage, probably over about two years, just the usual dust, but a sediment of wine right around the base I couldn't seem to dislodge. I scraped off the labels with no problem after a few soakings, but could still see the sediment ringing the bases if I held them up to the light. I have a cute buttiny clawfoot bathtub that even I can't take a bath in, and I'm 5 ft nothing; sounds like this is its new ordained purpose! Thanks all -
 
That would be the typical bottle that would go right in the tub then.
 
these were stored in a garage, probably over about two years, just the usual dust, but a sediment of wine right around the base I couldn't seem to dislodge. I scraped off the labels with no problem after a few soakings, but could still see the sediment ringing the bases if I held them up to the light. I have a cute buttiny clawfoot bathtub that even I can't take a bath in, and I'm 5 ft nothing; sounds like this is its new ordained purpose! Thanks all -

Do you have a bottle brush? If not and you can't get it out toss it it's not worth it for 1 or 2 bottles.
 

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