pls recommend a system for small commercial bottle cleaning

[steve thailand]

hi all

i've had so much success with the wine kits i'm using that i'm planning to start a small commercial wine making operation here in Thailand. Import wine is very expensive here and the kits are cheap and light weight enough so are easy to import from UK, making a small wine business quite profitable.

however, i was wondering about getting the bottles ready for use. at the moment, most of my effort in beer and wine making goes into cleaning the bottle. i'm using old ones so i wash with soap, then sterilise with chlorine then rinse with boiled water 2-3 times. this all takes a long time for 30 odd bottles so for hundreds its out of the question.

i will be buying new bottles for the commercial business so i guess they don't need so much cleaning but i wonder what my most cost effective approach would be?

i'm trying to think of a system where i only have to handle each bottle once. i thought of steam cleaning but after reading a few threads on here that doesn't sound like a great idea. too much danger of cracking a few seconds in steam isn't guaranteed to sterilize anyhow.

if i use chlorine, i need to rinse a couple of times with clean water which is very time consuming.

i don't have access to anything like Starsan over here. maybe i could make my own if i could find the basic ingredients.

anyhow, does anyone have any suggestions about my situation?

thx steve

[Eadweard]

When I worked at a brewery they used bottles straight from the pallet, though I do remember reading that this only works if you can use at least a whole pallet at at time as once the pallet's unwrapped problems can occur.

[GARYSMIFF]

I know people who have ordered things from Thailand, so you could try the same,try and order some no rinse cleaner (Starsan)from another part of the world.

[steve thailand]

thanks. i did wonder about using the bottles straight from the pallet without further cleaning. it seems like they would benefit from a quick clean water rinse but perhaps they are already sanitised enough. i wonder how i can test that?

i can order Starsan that's true and its probably a good idea. on my first few batches i'm using airmail for the kits which costs more than the kits. when i get some volume i'll buy in bulk and use sea freight which is a small fraction of the airmail price. i can tack some Starsan into the order too.

thx for the ideas.

steve

[boingy]

Micro breweries bottle straight from the pallet and beer is much more suceptable to infection than wine so I would have thought you will be fine. Have you checked out the legal requirements for making and selling wine over there?