Sterilising bottle tops?

[hong]

Although i keg my beer, i have been thinking more & more about bottling lately. i would probably use a mixture of bottles inc. PETs but i have quite a few glass bottles saved up now, ie Hobgoblin, old Peculiar, Speckled Hen etc. Even though i havent even got a bottle capper yet, would i have to sterilise the new caps?

[GARYSMIFF]

I would make sure they are as clean as your bottles so yes and cap onto foam.

[mrmojorisin]

I do, as I have a bucket of steriliser to hand I just chuck em in then a quick rinse before use.

[GrowlingDogBeer]

Yes, as others have said. I just put mine in a bowl of Starsan

[polymoog]

i have always just used mine straight out of the bag, and never had any trouble .
however better safe than sorry though, and i too reccomend bottling on top of foam as you can then be sure there is no air in the bottle.

[fatbelly]

Yes, as others have said. I just put mine in a bowl of Starsan

I have heard about Starsan and would lie to buy some but can't find it online or in my LHBS.
Any idea guys?

[GrowlingDogBeer]

Here

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... _227g.html

[GARYSMIFF]

one more point I would add, if your crown capper (when you get one) is the lever type you may find that the HobG bottle don't work due to the bulbous top

[mickhew]

Yes, as others have said. I just put mine in a bowl of Starsan

I have heard about Starsan and would lie to buy some but can't find it online or in my LHBS.
Any idea guys?

I have some Starsan you can have, you need 1.6ml per litre, and I have 500 ml sitting in my cupboard which I use, but this bottle will last me years, so can give you 20 ml, and I have a 2 handle capper I don't use any more. they are free, all you have to do, is pay for postage, p.m me if interested, or collect from East Sussex. The only thing you'll need to do is pay, then I'll send them, for which you'll have to trust me! Sound dodgy? Don't worry, I'm Police staff, you can trust me, I'll even email you a photo i.d before you send any money !

[Kev888]

I too just dunk all the tops I'm about to use in starsan solution and start using them almost instantly - I also put some starsan in a plant sprayer bottle and squirt it over the tops of the bottles to wash off and sanitise any spilled beer on their lips. Starsan is 'really' fab as a sanitiser for things that are visibly clean yet still need sanitising, and a little goes a very long way - it keeps quite well even when diluted, and can be re-used. In fact to me it first seemed like magic to one used to waiting for things to soak and then rinsing and so on.

However if you've not used it before note that its an acid sanitiser and if your tap water is alkaline (as many peoples is) it can defeat this when you mix it up - thankfully the solution goes cloudy if this is so, or if its old/exhausted, and so you can tell its not going to work. If so, then in addition to Mick's very kind offer, the simple answer is to get yourself some distilled or de-ionised or reverse-osmosis water, sold for topping up car batteries, steam irons, aquariums etc, or I hear that Tescos Ashbeck water (for drinking) also works very well and is even cheaper.

Cheers
kev

[Mucknbullets]

Milky/Cloudy! Really. Oh Crap! I have just bottled 40 pints of Euro and have done at least 2 batches before that with what con only be described as milk. Previous ones seem ok so maybe I jsut got lucky. I will make mine up from de-ionised water in future. Hmm I think we have a tap for de-ion water at work. I shall investigate.

[GrowlingDogBeer]

Whats important is the pH. Cloudiness is an indicator, but you can have cloudy Starsan that is perfectly OK. Some guy in the US did a load of testing of this, I'll try to find the link tomorrow.
I must get a pH meter as I am forever using cloudy Starsan. It seems to go cloudy as soon as it sees my brewery.

[Kev888]

Yes I remember that too, Steve. I think there was a thread on here about it as well; IIRC it 'can' go cloudy for other reasons but in the vast majority of cases its related to PH, and so is bad news..

Cheers
Kev

[undeadjed]

I dump mine in the sink with the syphon and all the other moving gear in a weak thin bleach solution(5ml bleach per 1l water)and rinse in cold water before use.

[baccus]

Strangely I've never sterilised my caps, and not had any bother. Still better safe than sorry I suppose, and soaking and rinsing the caps is probably an easier job than the other sterilising faff.