Sterilising a bottling stick

[suitsyousir]

I sterilise using Milton, and trying to work out the best way to sterilise my bottling stick. I normally put 10L of water and two tabs in the bucket, put everything in and leave for at least 20 mins, giving it the occasional slosh round.

I normally suck some water up the syphon tube and shut the tap off to hold the water in. I have tried doing similar with the bottling stick, but when I put it back in the bucket the needle opens and drops the water out. If I put it on its side or upside down the water trickles out of the open end. Can I use a tissue or piece of cloth or something to block the open end and out this in the FV in the water, or is there another little trick that you folks use???

Cheers

[gregorach]

I have a length of PVC pipe, a bit longer than my bottling stick, with one end closed. Fill it up with the sanitiser of your choice and drop the stick in. Simple.

[DeadFall]

I clean it as soon as I finish using it by running hot water through it. I rarely take it of the end of the syphon tubing so I clean the lot in one go. When it's time to use, I'll make up some oxi for cleaning and run some through the syphon and then dangle it over something so the end isn't depressed. Then I'll leave it for 10 minutes before running hot water through it. I usually use a 2ltr batch of star san and all of this gets run through the syphon before I use it on the other equipment (usually I syphon from the jug into the kegs/bottles when I sanitise those). I also have a spray bottle of star san, the outside of the stick gets a good spraying with this just before I use it.

Miltons is a very expensive way for doing this.

[suitsyousir]

thanks for those tips gents. I buy the milton tablets for about £1 something from Wilkos and use 2 tabs per ferment or 2 tabs per bottling session, they seem to last ages.

[Cully]

Fill mine with Videne, leave a few mons then void it out.

[jmc]

Recommend what you don't do..

I'd bottled some lambic brews recently so last-night I thought it would be good to pasteurise bottling sticks.
(1 brupaks and 1 stick from little bottler)

85C water in LIDL boiler used to pasturise some silicon tubing & sticks.
Leave / forget for 5 mins

Return to find banana shaped bottling sticks, and worse the little-bottler one changed diameter at end/ (shrunk)