sanitising bottles

[johnluc]

Hi all, if using sodium metabisulphate to sanitise bottles do i need to rinse ?

[Naich]

I can't answer your question, but I can offer the advice that sanitising by heating them is easier than doing it chemically. Load the oven up with clean bottles with aluminium kitchen foil wrapped round the tops to seal them, set the temperature to 170C and cook them for an hour. It's far easier than all that sloshing, rinsing, bottle trees etc.

[Kev888]

Sodium met can be added to wine etc so is supposedly not terrible to consume in reasonably dilute solutions. But whilst it can be effective, it isn't as broad as even many chemical sanitisers in what it will kill off - there are better no-rinse sanitisers available such as starsan. If you're looking for cheap alternatives and would be willing to rinse then bleach is a good one - for example cheapo unsented thin bleach at a rate of about 5ml per L of water for 20mins (or 50ml/L for cleaning).

However, I'd fully second Naich's post on heat; that is very effective indeed and probably the easiest way for home brewers to get near to the realms of sterilizing rather than sanitising.

Cheers
kev

[johnluc]

too late for that now sanitiser in bottles ready for tht morning.