Bottling

[barry44]

Hi gents,

i am going to bottle my next brew at the weekend and wanted to discuss my bottle cleaning/sterilising with yourselves.

I use the coopers PET bottles which, following pouring the previous brew, are:

1 - half filled with hot tap water and shaked and emptied,
2 - rinsed out with hot tap water three times,
3 - shaken out,
4 - sprayed with 10 pumps of a sprayer bottle filled with a starsan solution,
5 - shaken until foamy and then stored away until bottling.

Prior to bottling, i give the bottles another shake, and pour out the starsan just prior to bottling.

I cant recall any off tastes as such but i noticed a plastic taste in a wherry that i bottled recently. Quite strong initially but has faded over time, 10 weeks in bottle. I had put that down to cleaning some bottles with youngs cleaner/steriliser and not rinsing enough, 5 times in cold water.

My next brew is my first extract brew and i am quite excited about it so do not want any issues with my bottling.

If the routine detailed above is thought not to be satisfactory, i am going to make up a solution of oxiclean or PBW in a spare FV and soak them in that, rinse them out and then spray the insides with starsan as above, shake them and let the foam settle, pouring it out prior to bottling.

The last time i bottled, i noticed a residual odour from the bottles but when the starsan solution was poured out this disappeared.

looking forward to your comments gents.

[jonnyt]

Excellent routine, I wouldn't change it other than perhaps a Oxy soak if the bottle is soiled in any way prior to the Starsan