Better Bottle Mold

Systems, Gear, & DIY
1

I was catching up on some cleaning the other day and came across a Better Bottle with some mold.  I usually fill my carboys after rinsing them with warm-hot oxyclean solution and let them soak overnight or two, etc.  Apparently I forgot about this one and didn’t rinse it as well as I should, because in the neck of the bottle was a nice disc of mold the width of the neck.  And did it smell bad.  :-[

I dumped the solution (and the mold) , rinsed several times and then stuck it on my carboy cleaner with hot oxyclean for about 40 minutes.  After rinsing with fresh water 2-3 times, it doesn’t smell anymore and looks clean.

Do you think I can assume it is clean and no mold spores are living in it after all that?  Since it’s a better bottle, I really can’t hit it with flame or extremely hot water to sterilize it.

Thanks.

2

Maybe hit it with some Camden tablets? 1 tab/gallon?  Otherwise, bleach I suppose.

3

1 tab / gallon isn’t enough to be used as a sanitizer. To sanitize equipment with sulfites, use 2-3 Tablespoons of sulfite per gallon, preferably also with 3 Tablespoons of citric acid. That’s 30-45 grams and 1 campden contains 0.55 grams.

Bleach would be better anyway.

4

You could use a hot PBW soak or some other caustic. I keep sodium hydroxide around for making soap but it also does a bang up job on the fermenters.

5

Not sure what bleach will do to a better bottle.

I’d do a hot soak with a cleaner followed up by sanitizing with whatever you use to sanitize.

I’ve had some smelly stuff in my better bottles, but never got mold.  They’re still working just fine for fermenting.

6

Bleach (sodium hypochlorite) will not effect polyethylene (HDPE).  I would hit it with bleach and give it a good rinsing.  Both Clorox Cleaner with Bleach and Clorox Bleach, itself, are sold in HDPE containers.