Removing mould spots from bottles

[booldawg]

Someone at work gave me a decent size collection of bottles. Unfortunately most of them have a few mould spots at the bottom as they've no doubt sat around for some time and not been rinsed out after use.

I've tried to shift it with warm water, vwp, alot of shaking and a bottle brush. The brush doesnt really get into the area where the mould is (on the bottom around the rim).

Does anyone have a foolproof method of removing mould? I'm debating whether or not a long flat blade screwdriver could be used to scrape it off.

[simple one]

Theres no easy way of doing it.

You can either scrub. Or soak for a day with a strong deteregent.

I usually soak them in the bath.

[Manx Guy]

Hi!

sorry for the late reply...
Anyway FWIW:

I find soaking in a (stronger than usual) solution of sanitiser (like VWP), using warm/hot tap water for 48 hours or so 'lifts the mould'... then all i need to do is rinse and sterilise again prior to use... It also get the labels off too... lol

I can't say that using a flat bladed srewdriver is a good idea incase you scratch the glass... Thus giving any future nasties a nice place to live... a small point granted but best avoided...

did you get the mold off?

I rewash/sanitise my bottles until they sparkle-if they dont they go back for another cycle until they do!
Its a real ballache to be honest, but save having spoiled beer!

Good luck!

[booldawg]

OK, I'll give them 48 hours on soak. They only had about 10 minutes yesterday before I was banished from the kitchen sink..

[Northern Brewer]

I'm a big fan of dish-washer powder for such cleaning purposes. It's amazing what a solution will it will chomp through given time.

[booldawg]

OK, I'll give them 48 hours on soak. They only had about 10 minutes yesterday before I was banished from the kitchen sink..

was the missus getting withdrawl symptoms then ?

Funny how unseemingly important tasks need to be carried out in the kitchen when I'm trying to sort brewing issues

I'll give the oxyclean stuff a go.

[steve_flack]

I find antiformin works a treat. It's also good for bleaching dead wasps....

[timmydog]

I seem to remember Graham W recommending putting some rice inside the bottle with some detergent and giving it a good shake, in a thread on this forum.

I think that the concensus was that it worked pretty well...

Tim

[kevthebootboy]

I was wondering what I was going to bleach my dead wasp collection with

Fwiw I have a small collection of old glass bottles i've found in the New Forest over the years, mainly the type with the internal screw stopper, some of which are from local breweries that not longer exist with one being in the region of 100 years old. All have come up spotless with oxyclean, some of which i'm now using to keep beer and wine in. I found regards physical cleaning it generally performs better than beer line cleaner (so presumably antiformin too ?) but only while its fizzing, after that it turns into washing soda.

i dug this up at work a few weeks ago, im pretty sure its over 100 years old, its a bottle of fellows syrup of hypophosphites.

just thought i throw that in there.....

[kevthebootboy]

mmmm make mine a double!