Is this dishwasher method to clean just to save time? Wouldn’t soap and water work? I’ve used a very mild “green” liquid dish soap to clean all equipment so far. Would this work for bottles?
I’ve been using a big square tupperware thing. It’ll comfortably hold between 6 and 8 bottles with room to maneuver. I’m filling off a keg, so sometimes I get a fair bit of foaming before I get the caps on. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’ve poured the spilled beer into a cup and enjoyed it…
I tried to drink the last few ounces out of my bottling bucket last night.
Note: bottling buckets are too wide to make good cups.
But racking canes can double as straws!
The dishwasher is to sanitize, not clean. I clean the bottles first before storing them, and use the dishwasher to sanitize the day of. It works best for my schedule on bottling day. I load the dishwasher when I get home from work, then go pick up my son from preschool. Later on after I put my son to bed the bottles are ready to go. Since I don’t need to sanitize them I can just pull them out of the dishwasher one-by-one as I’m bottling. Once I get a good rhythm going I can bottle a case in about 15 minutes, give or take.
you want to avoid soap as much as possible because it can be very difficult to rinse thoroughly. and if not rinsed well it could cause head retention problems down the road.
for almost all cleaning I recommend a softly abrasive cloth and hot water immediately after use. For stubborn stuck on debris its PBW or Oxiclean.
I typically sanitize in iodophor, stack on my bottling tree and then begin bottling. I’ve not tried to break things up, but see where that could be more convenient. With my schedule, though, I’m usually bottling during the week and brewing when ever I get a free Saturday or Sunday. My two teenage boys really monopolize the weekends with sports, scouts, etc. So, even though it’s a longer sessions it is the time I have available. maybe I’m just getting quicker with practice.
I’m starting to like the oven idea a lot.
Some dishwashers have a sanitize setting that super-heats the water to kill bugs. It won’t work in a dishwasher with regular hot water.
My problem is that I usually just filled the dishwasher while clearing the counter for bottling equipment.
Got it, so people are using dishwashers to sanitize in place of a product like Star San.
Bingo. Like it was mentioned before, just make sure your dishwasher has a true “Sanitize” setting. Hot water isn’t hot enough to kill any bugs.
[quote=“Jimmy K, post:13, topic:13591, username:mtnrockhopper”]
If I were looking to buy a bottle tree, I’d probably get this instead. I have a red bottle tree and it takes up space and only holds 45 bottles. An inconvenient number since a 5 gallon batch is ~52 12oz bottles.
http://thefastrack.ca/homebrew/
My bottle tree is expandable; just unscrew the top hub/handle and screw on another “wheel” of nine drying “branches”. When I got it, it had five wheels that could hold 45 bottles; I added another to get to 54 to handle a 5 gallon batch.
I’ve been wanting to do that, but can’t find single “layers” for sale. Do you know where to get them?
Why is using the dishwasher a better idea that Starsan? Seems much faster to just submerge in a bucket for a couple of minutes.
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=bottle+tree
Austin homebrew supply.
I got mine from my LHBS (where I bought the original tree) here in SE Michigan a couple of years ago. Seems to me it was only a few of bucks for the additional piece.
Here’s an example - not exactly like mine, but same idea:
http://morebeer.com/products/bottle-tree-addon-ring-9-posts.html
I don’t know if it’s better for everyone. Like most things in homebrewing, it’s just one way to do things that happens to work well for me.
[quote]Why is using the dishwasher a better idea that Starsan? Seems much faster to just submerge in a bucket for a couple of minutes.
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I’ve heard some horror stories from a local HBS about dishwasher sanitizing. In this case, a guy was having sanitation issues from an unknown source - until they did a culture on the insides of his dishwasher and got all sorts of scary stuff growing on the plate. I’m sure this depends a lot on the dishwasher - is it new, stainless, does it have a real sanitizing cycle?
I’m a bottle-only guy, and have probably capped at least 1200 in the past year. Personally, I soak re-used bottles in oxyclean or PBW for a couple of days, bottle brush as needed, rinse, dry, store, then soak again in a tub of starsan on bottling day. I’ll sometimes use the dishwasher to rinse after a cleaning soak, but I always go with the starsan soak before bottling. I have a classic (non-spraying) bottling tree, and can’t imagine bottling without it. The caps are dumped in a bowlful of starsan beside me on the floor, then the fun begins.
I don’t sanitize caps and haven’t had any problems. The O2 absorbing caps have some metabisulfite in them.