TOPIC:

Yes, we've used the bleach/vinegar method for the bottles too. We have a bottling tree so once the bottles have been soaked for 5 mins or so they get hung on the sanitised bottling tree to drain a bit. We then empty and drain the bin we use for sanitising them and use that for syphoning the beer into with the boiled priming sugar (dextrose usually). By the time we've done all that the bottles are usually well drained, and it's go go go!

In the image TheBeerNut posted above you see the bin we use for sanitising and bottling. We use a sanitised auto-syphon and a bottling wand (which is malfunctioning recently) to make life easy, and it usually goes pretty smoothly.

Last time though, we used StarSan for the first time. I think we concluded the bleach/vinegar was better as we didn't like all the bubbles that were in the bottles.

"Adeptus":l01e9gm5 wrote: Last time though, we used StarSan for the first time. I think we concluded the bleach/vinegar was better as we didn't like all the bubbles that were in the bottles.[/quote:l01e9gm5]

The guy from starsan knows this puts people off but assures that it is not a problem, and I have had no problems so far. Am I the only one who keeps a load of pre-sanitised bottles capped with foil rather than sanitising them on the day?

Yeah, it was good to hear him on that Basic Brewing podcast explaining how any residue gets broken down into food grade stuff so it perfectly safe.

The pre-sanitised bottle store sounds like an intersting idea Thom. We'd do that but we're usually getting the bottles in piecemeal, so we wash them as they arrive and only sanitise them just in time. As long as there's no bottle washing to do on the day, it's relatively fast, especially with the tree to keep them stacked up.

How long could you safely keep them like that if you're just using foil?

I recently switched to Parafilm which is a lab cling film like thing which is purpose made for sealing vessels. The home brew book I read about it in suggest months and I tend to agree because they're air tight. I haven't had a problem yet, but it does mean I have a wardrobe half full of beer bottles ready to go.

Interior designers agree that a wardrobe full of clingfilmed beer bottles adds a delightful "Howard Hughes" feel to a room.

"TheBeerNut":16aldwr6 wrote: Interior designers agree that a wardrobe full of clingfilmed beer bottles adds a delightful "Howard Hughes" feel to a room.[/quote:16aldwr6]

I'll use this line to placate my already irritated girlfriend.