Bottle cleaning in the dishwasher

[gazpacho]

After cleaning the dregs out of my bottles and then sterilizing them in a bucket of bleach solution, is there any harm in giving them a run through a household dishwasher to ensure they are free from chemicals? Will that dreaded rinse aid liquid make it more trouble than its worth?

[MightyMouth]

If you run them through the dishwasher without any detergent or rinse aid it will be fine but if you have already cleaned and sanitised them then there is little point.

[Weejock]

Domestic dishwashers can introduce bacteria. I only know this because I sell and install thousands of dishwashers each year. Where hygiene is an issue (hospitals, catering etc.) we supply sterilizing dishwashers. They operate at 95° and have steam finish before drying, downside is they cost £3,000 upwards.

[MightyMouth]

Even a dishwasher at 95c wouldn't kill all bacteria, you would need one that went to over 150c to do that for sure. We are generally not looking to sterilise in brewing, we are looking to clean and effectively sanitise.

[StoutFellow]

I was wondering about putting my fermentation bucket/keg in the dish washer (at least as first stage in cleaning) - anybody tried it? maybe I'm just too bldy lazy.

[mysterio]

I found my dishwasher wasn't effective at sanitising bottles. I think a thorough clean immediately after use and a no-rinse sanitiser is the way to go.

[Weejock]

New postby MightyMouth on Wed Sep 16, 2009 5:37 pm
Even a dishwasher at 95c wouldn't kill all bacteria

MightyMouth you're right, 95c doesn't sterilize in the scientific definition, however it is good enough for things like baby feeding equipment and I guess sanitizes enough for brewing. I'm a homebrew beginner so would like to know if the "baby bottle" standard of sterilizing is good enough for brewing?

[MightyMouth]

I am of the opinion that there is too much worry about sanitisation. If you clean your equipment properly you will get away with a lot less in the way of actual sanitisation. I sanitise as a matter of course using Star-San but I feel that I could probably brew perfectly well without it, I just do it because it takes so little time in the scheme of things compared to the 6 or 7 hours of brewing that I don't take the risk no matter how small and I would kick myself if I didn't take the 5 or 10 minutes to do it and then got an infected beer.