Bottling Day....

[daveyk]

As my first bottling day approaches, my thoughts turn to this.
it might be another couple of days before the brew is ready for bottling but in preparation, i wanted to get some bottles steralised.

I was thinking to steralize, rinse, dry the bottles then cover the top with foil or cling film to keep the air out.

Is this a good idea to save time when bottling or should it all be done at the time of pouring the liquid in??

Also do i need to steralize the caps??

Dave.

[Wauny]

I clean my bottles in advance, but sanitise them immediately prior to bottling. I'm not sure how long they remain sanitised once soaked in bleach solution - maybe someone more experienced can add their thoughts?

Regarding caps, I tend to boil them in water for 20 minutes before use.

[Buzz]

I always sanitize my bottles on the same day. Occasionally I have done it the night before and kept them in a brewing bucket with the lid on.

As for the crown caps, I just put them in a bowl of water with a campden tablet.

Have fun.

[Curious Brew]

I just bung the crown caps into the bleach solution for twenty minutes and then rinse in water and then in a sodium metabisulphate solution to remove all traces of bleach - same as the bottles in fact.

[Madbrewer]

In a papazian book, he recommends dunking the bottles in bleach, drain them & cover them with foil, but not rinsing them till bottling day. I've done this before for a few days not encountered a problem.

[oxford brewer]

A guy in our local brew club re-uses the bottles of shop bought beers.All he does is rinse them out well with tap water after pouring, place a piece of tinfoil over the top of the bottle then fill with his latest brew when ready.
He brews high gravity beers and he reckons he hasn't had an infection problem so far!

Not so sure I would trust this method but as he said,it was sterile when he opened the bottle so there is no reason it shouldn't be sterile still after rinsing with tap water

[anomalous_result]

Exactly. Sanitising is surely only reducing the chances of an infection, not ruling one out. The question 'how long can I leave a clean bottle before it becomes infected?' assumes a definate answer, and that the bottle's clean, which it probably isn't completely. What you have to decide is how much you want to risk it as the longer you leave the bottle the more likely the presence of a viable infection population of nasties becomes. Best practice must, therefore, be to sanitise immediately prior to bottling. If, in your experience, you find this unnecessary and over the top then fine, you can say that the chances are increased insignificantly for your purposes, the high gravity brewer being a case in point.