I have just been using baking soda to clean my beer glasses for a while and this works fine for head retention especially on my nitro beers out of the tap. ( Hot water rinse, hand clean with baking soda, hot water rinse followed by cold water rinse and air dry on rack. ) But, they’re always little spots that no matter what I do, I can’t get the beer glass sparkling clean, residual baking soda I guess.
So I’ve been reading about Oxiclean. What do people use? Just the Oxiclean free powder? Amazon also has a triple action dishwashing booster liquid? Do people use that as well? Any opinions or help?
Thanks
I just use non-fragrance dish soap, hot rinse, drip dry, and dry fully with clean towel.
No spots, no mess, great pours.
Heh. Mine just go right in the dishwasher.
I just use the regular Dawn or whatever that sits by the kitchen sink. And I rinse very, very well, probably excessively well. Sparkling glass, no foam problems.
I mostly just do a hot water rinse and air dry. Anytime that I have some PBW mixed up and in use for washing brew kettle or whatever, I will wash the glasses with it. Occasionally I will use dish soap with thorough hot water rinses. The hot water rinse is the most important, whatever you are using before the rinse is less important, as long as it gets oil and particulates off.
I use the same procedure and product. And I always rinse the glass in very cold water just before use.
If you’re getting water spots on the glass, it’s most likely because you have hard water. Therefore, I suggest towel drying your glasses to prevent the hard water from drying on the glass.
I do have hard water. The problem isn’t the spots, the problem is head. I’ve poured my nitro stout out of the tap into a glass washed in the dishwasher right next to one washed with baking soda only. The dishwasher beer has absolutely no creamy foamy head and tastes like flat Cola whereas the one washed with baking soda only, has an inch head of wonderful nitro foam, and tastes wonderful.
Like many, I use a fragrance free detergent. I also would see many water spots on my beer glasses until I realized I had to hand dry them after they were washed. My glasses sparkled after I added that step and I haven’t looked back. Not as easy as letting them drip dry on a rack - but I can’t stand the look of water spots!
I do the same as Rob. I never put my beer glasses in the dishwasher as our regular kitchen glasses tend to etch after a while with the stronger dishwasher detergents and our extremely hard water (just replaced out 23 year old water softener to help reduce this problem). I rinse well and put them out to dry. The surfactants in the Dawn liquid prevent spots on the glass and I have no problems with either head retention or the telltale bubbles on the side of the glass that proclaim that the glass is not clean.
I also rinse my glasses with cold water right before pulling a beer as this also helps retain the head on the beer.
I’ve never tried rinsing with cold water before pouring as some of you mention. I’ll have to try this and see what it does!
Dishwasher for the “general use” glasses, all logo/etched/painted glasses get hand washed.
Nothing I’ve every tried on the hand wash glasses ever cleans as reliably as the dishwasher. Always end up with bubbles somewhere.
Like Beerery, I just throw mine in the dishwasher. I also do the cold water rinse right before use. Although the intention was to rinse out any dust that may have floated into the glass. I never thought to look for a difference in head retention. I’ll have to check that out myself.
Regarding the poor head retention in a glass from the dishwasher vs. one cleaned with baking soda, I’ve seen certain dishwasher detergents that include a water softener. I wonder if this might help with the problem.
I recall in the UK everything from tea to soap is formulated specifically for each region’s water supply, so the product you buy in Leeds is not the same as you buy in London. Now I bet the whole idea started with some chaps down the pub complaining about the state of their glasses! You can indeed buy laundry and dish detergents specifically made for hard water. I would think they’d be readily available in areas where this is a problem.
I use my hand, fragrance free soap, and hot F’in water on all my glasses. Then a soft towel to dry.
My Chimay glasses seem to have a forcefield that activates when they get near the dishwasher.
Mrs. Meyer’s dish soap. Use it for all light cleaning. One of the best things about it is that it rinses off quite well. As far as the fragrance, once you can’t smell it, it’s gone! Towel dry and you’re done.
This is one of my fundamental principles of brewery cleaning and sanitation. I like a product that comes with a built in sensory indicator.
I use my wife and daughters. I empty the glass and rinse it, set it with all the other dishes and it gets cleaned magically. Whatever SWMBO uses is what they get washed with. ;D
I think it only works because I move all the snow and fix everything that gets broken or damaged around the house. :
Paul
** Edited to fix typos because I can’t proof read.
Sounds like another job for wife & daughters. ;D
Just tried rinsing with cold water, here’s my impression. Seems to me to have inhibited foaming during the pour, leaving less, not more, head, and my pint too gassy. I believe in forming a nice foam stand at the start, which will remain as the pint is drunk as long as your beer has the colloidal cojones to maintain it, although this extra gas may keep generating lacing as the glass goes down.* But it’s all out of balance and looks kind of decapitated. Not worth the extra step; as my pour wasn’t broke, I ain’t gonna fix it. (You know, I always figured the old ritual of the bartender rinsing the glass on a fountain, as well as knocking off the head with a beer comb, was just theatrics to make an inflated price seem more plausible.)
*[EDIT Nope, regular pour gives superior lacing too.]
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the bartenders in Amsterdam pour their Heineken and take a theatric knife pass across the top to create a line of a dozen or so perfect beers for the ladies to deliver. Beer tastes better when the atmosphere is awesome. Good times. Worth every penny.