Is there anything better than....

[mcgster]

Cleaning old bottles from the bottle return... This must be the best part of homebrewing.

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[Keith]

What a god awful process, I'll be doing this soon for the Decembeer exchange. ugh.

[amartin]

Just ask around, and start saving them. You have a few months.

[Keith]

Yea I'll have plenty of bottles. Just hate the cleaning part. haha.

[mcgster]

I wish I had one of those industrial dish washers... Although I must say these 12oz musoka bottles are a huge time save because the labels fall off in one solid piece every time. At home I had a couple hundred grolsh bottles so I never had to do this. I just washed them after each beer.

I picked up 36 and the local bottle exchange charged me 15$ which isn't bad but I was paying that for grolsh bottles at home.


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[Keith]

If I get back into bottling I'll be gearing up a bottle washer of sorts.

[amartin]

If you rinse them right after use, you don't need to clean them later, just a quick dip in some star san is fine. Not that helps you with the bottles you have now though.

[gm-]

Pretty horrible task, when I bottled, I usually put them in the dishwasher, threw out the ones that didn't get clean in there, and then sanitized before bottling with star san or in the oven.

I am planning to bottle my sours, so I will have to start stockpiling some grolsch bottles again.

[Keith]

Yea I typically get Grolsch bottles as well from the Depot as well, friggin nasty job.

[mcgster]

GM how soon are you going to bottle the sour?

I pitched my bugs about a month ago now i wasn't sure how long i should leave it in the carboy until i bottle it. I'd like to brew another batch and pitch on the cake too... now that i have all those critters in there.

Pretty horrible task, when I bottled, I usually put them in the dishwasher, threw out the ones that didn't get clean in there, and then sanitized before bottling with star san or in the oven.

I am planning to bottle my sours, so I will have to start stockpiling some grolsch bottles again.

[gm-]

I was going to wait for at least 3 months. Hoping to bottle in November so I can give out my Oud bruin for the December advent calendar.

[mcgster]

Ok thats what i thought too. Have you tried a sample yet? I can't wait to try it i'll be home for a weekend in october and i plan on trying a sample then.

[Tim Gregory]

Sour beers generally need a lot of time. Mine are both over a year on the carboy right right now

[dean2k]

Can't complain with the Muskoka bottle labels. Those babies peel right off. There's a prom night joke to be made there, but I'm too classy for that.

[McGruff]

I keg and bottle. All of my bottles are from Steam Whistle and Mill Street. No labels. I brew 10 gallons at a time, 1 goes in a keg and I bottle 48. I don't have a lot of keg space so I have to do this. Yea, I hate bottling but it's nice to see cases of tax free beer on the shelf

[mcgster]

Do you prime and bottle or bottle off a keg?

Thats a good way to do it though. Especially if you have some house brews that you like doing all the time.

I keg and bottle. All of my bottles are from Steam Whistle and Mill Street. No labels. I brew 10 gallons at a time, 1 goes in a keg and I bottle 48. I don't have a lot of keg space so I have to do this. Yea, I hate bottling but it's nice to see cases of tax free beer on the shelf

[CurtisD]

Is there a "best practice" for cleaning and sanitizing bottles? I've been accumulating the 1L swing-tops from Howe Sound, 500ml swing-tops from Hacker-Schorr, and the Propeller 650ml bottles...the only thing stopping me from getting started with a Festa Brew is not really knowing how to properly clean and sanitize the bottles. A Google search gives me a bijillion different methods....I don't want to screw up my first batch!

[Keith]

Curtis I soak mine in pbw for 2-3 hours, rinse well then spray down in and out with starsan just before filling.

[mcgster]

Curtis I soak mine in pbw for 2-3 hours, rinse well then spray down in and out with starsan just before filling.

+1 to this, really hot water and pbw works like a charm... usually after a good spray down they look like new.

[McGruff]

I prime the bottles and let them age as long as I can which wasn't that long this summer.