Cleaning / Sterilizing Bottles

[studio1]

Bottling up my frist brew today into a mix of bottles / plastics. With the bottles (which I rinsed after each was used), I have placed in a full dishwasher cycle with no detergent. Should I then proceed with star san or sodium met?

[Chris]

Yep, ideally sanitise with whatever product you use, rinse (with boiled or distilled water) and drain. Don't forget to sanitise the bottle tops.

[MrC]

I fill each bottle about 1/4 full with sodium met, shake it, leave it for 20 mins and then rinse with cooled boiled water.

[Reviled]

Use starsan mate, then its gonna be no rinse...

[Kempicus]

I put a bit of hot water from the tap in mine and give them a shake.....that's it....never had a problem!

[Reviled]

????? Kempicus, are you saying you NEVER steralise your bottles??

[Kempicus]

Yep never have, never will....never had a problem!

[Grant]

Same! I never steralise bottles, I reuse green plastic lemonade and scrumpy bottles, a quick tripple rinse of cold tap water when drunk the last product, screw on the cap and I'm sweet for bottling!

[denimglen]

Yup, agree with that as long as it's mixed to the reccomended concentration.

I'd advise against the dishwasher if you have a rinse-aid type product in there. Would be head-killer to the max I reckon.

[Steve Baker]

When I used to bottle, my sanitation would consist of putting clean bottles through the dishwasher without any detergent.

The steam should get hotter than boiling so this should be more than enough to prep the bottle, as long as the bottle was clean to start with, and the dishwasher doesn't have too much scum buildup.

[James P]

Iodophor is my chemical of choice, but boiling water should have the same effect.

[Soren]

You can also sterilize your clean bottles by baking them in the oven. I stick mine in the cold oven and warm it up slowly (over an hour or so) to 175 C, bake them for an hour, turn of the oven, let them cool over night and bottle in the morning.
Some people would argue it damages the glass and increase the risk of exploding bottles, but I'ven never had a problem. I think the trick is to warm the oven slowly and cool the bottles even slower.

I have also used the dishwasher trick before, full throttle and no detergent, bottle after cooling but no extra sanitizing. Works fine. However, expect PET bottles to shrink in the steam. Obviously this would also happen in the oven:)

Caps I put in cheap alcohol or a no-rinse sanitizer and drain before use.

[Barry]

dishwasher always worked for my PET 750ml bottles, lids in the cutlery basket, bottles anywhere else.
no detergent, pull em straight out and put beer in them (bottle primed individually). easy as.