So I am just starting out at this whole thing, what are some good ways to clean bottles?  My dishwasher has a sanitize function can I run them through a wash cycle then do a sanitize cycle or what do you all do to clean them.  This is my first batch I am brewing so I haven't made it to big league of kegs yet.  But I do have quite the stock pile of bottles. I did get for Christmas the nice white drying rack from Northern Brew.

Thanks for any help

Star San in a bucket or tub

I've used Star San as well as the dishwasher on sanitize. Prefer to use the dishwasher as it gets the whole batch of bottles done at once.

He asked for "clean" not "sanitize" to be specific and StarSan will not be a good cleaner.  Most bottles don't have much sediment, especially if you rinse them after pouring, but you do have to look out for it in the bottom.  PBW or OxiClean soak or quick swish with hot solution of one of the 2 for cleaning.  I really wouldn't trust the dishwasher to "clean" inside the bottle, I am unsure on the sanitize part, but I bet it hits the pasteurization numbers well enough.  

My method is to make sure I have run a load thru, and then use the clean dishwasher as my bottle rack (swishing Starsan thru each bottle and placing upside down on the racks) and bottle on the inside of the door so the mess just goes away when I close it.

Luckily I don't bottle too often, it is a pain.

I soak them in an OxyClean solution for 30 minutes to clean them, then rinse them well.  Then I sanitize using Star San through a Vinator bottle rinser.  The next time I bottle I am planning to try the sanitize cycle of my dishwasher in the place of the Star San.

1) Fill one side of the sink with water and a sprinkling of PBW.

2) Put as many bottles in as you can to soak.

3) Scrub the inside of each one with a bottle brush.

4) rinse

5) hang on a bottle tree.

Repeat steps 2-5 until all bottles are washed.



Highly recommend you get a bottle tree to hang the bottles upside down to drain.

Thanks all for the suggestions I am going to mix and match a few of them.  Plan is to take a day and clean the bottles and then brew day run each bottle through the sanitize solution before filling. Would all be within 48 hours of each activity.

I don't have a bottle tree, I got this for Christmas FastRack

I am enjoying this first round so far, already trying to figure out what I want to brew next, wife said I have to wait to see how first turns out before starting the next batch.

Once you get them clean the trick is to KEEP them clean.

After you pour your delicious beer into a glass in order to drink it, rise the bottle out with water. Then rinse it again this time plugging the top with your thumb and shaking vigorously. Once you dumped that bit out rise it out one more time. Now set it down and drink your beer. When you return to the sink, pour out that little bit of water into the sink and you have a clean bottle. Return to whatever location you use to store your bottles. The whole process should take about 30 sec.

I have never had a problem with this method. I use the dishwasher to sanitize the whole batch prior to bottling. Re cleaning bottles every time with chemicals is a waste of time and money if you just thoroughly rinse them out right after pouring.

Thanks for all the help, the bottles are currently in the FastRack drying after dishwasher run, hopefully Thursday I can bottle my first batch.

In case you don't know, OxyClean is the major ingredient in PBW and works just as well for cleaning. I use OxyClean Free (it does not contain the perfumes and dye that regular OxyClean does) and soak bottles that need it. OxyClean does a great job dissolving the glue that holds labels on. The labels fall right off after a good soak and I can then use any pop-top bottle I buy.


Rinsing bottles after drinking is key to saving time. If you rinse them well, you won't need to do anything besides sanitize them. I still prefer the Vinator with Star San over the dishwasher, but that's personal preference.

Have to disagree with the red, but I still use both, just depends what I am doing.  But PBW definitely seems to clean a little better.  My personal go-to for real cleanliness is LLC -- Liquid Line Cleaner -- Basically sodium hydroxide (caustic), you do have to be more careful with skin and eyes, but it DOES get stuff you didn't know about...

Newer brewer here.  I'd saved a bunch of of the bigger 1/2 quart bottles for my 1st batch, but I didn't know you are supposed to rinse them (plus, to be fair, I'd just drank a half-quart of beer so who's gonna remember something like rinsing?).

Anywho, some bottles had a nasty, black, rubbery, tough mold-patch that just did not want to wash out, no matter what caustic cleaners I tried.

Trick that worked was:  I put a dozen small rock pebbles in there with hot water and swirled them around for a minute or so.

The pebbles scraped it right out!  Followed that with another trip through the dish washing machine and some Star-San.  It worked for me!

Sucks ass, kegging is the way to go....



That said, Star San is great. Dishwasher on sanitize works well to get the lot. What I do, this is anal but ensures you don't get contamination. Step 1, rinse all bottles. Step 2: Dishawher with oxyclean set on sanitize cycle. Step 4 rinse cleaned bottles with Star San and fill. You can skip step 3 but I've had bottles still be contaminated without the SS rinse.

Then I started kegging.....

Yes I learned after my first batch why my neighbor/mentor does kegging.....it sucks but for my first batch it works.  Find out this Sunday how the first batch went with bottles and if it will make it to the Family Super Bowl Party....American Wheat kit came out to roughly 5 percent when I tested it.  So we shall see..

I used my bottling bucket and fill it with hot water and beer brite, fill the bottles so they sink, then scrub out each one with a bottle brush, empty it, use a faucet mounted bottle washer, then drain on a bottling tree

Kegging is the way to go but Wheat aka weisen style beers need to be bottled to fully enjoy a consistant beer each time. The yeast profile is what make this style and the yeast drops out of suspention so it needs to be roused prior to consumption. I was shown in Germany by a bar maid to pour 2/3s of the beer into the glass, place thumb over the mouth of the bottle and swirl vigorously and pour the remaining into the glass. This captures all the yeast sediment, and provides the enormous head assoicated with this stye. Kegging a Weisen will pump the majority of the yeast sediment into those first glasses diminishing overtime and the flavor profile change will as well. Some folks are ok w/ this. Me? I'd rather take the time to wash a few cases of bottles to have a better glass of beer.

Kegging is superior in most instances but with Wheats or beers that have the yeast as the big flavor profile in the beer not so much.

Brew on!

fas2c thank you very much for that information, alot about the pouring of the beer!

Cordless drill and a long handled baby bottle brush ;)