[Ale Farmer]

"I clean my bottles immediately after use and then they go in storage until bottling day. I soak in hot pbw, rinse in starsan, dry, and bottle in the same day."

I do this too--except I use oxyclean when I soak my bottles--and in a big plastic garbage can. Labels come right off, too, if I'm adding to the collection....

[mabrungard]

I wouldn’t even consider using a dishwasher for preparing bottles. The is no guarantee that any flow made it into the bottle. A soak in some sort of cleaner followed by a sanitizer rinse is most prudent.

I’ll concur with Rob that bleach can be an excellent cleaner and sanitizer...as long as there were plenty of rinse steps between the bleach and the final sanitizer. The nose is a decent chlorine detector for many people. Bleach has phenomenal killing power in the cases where you have a persistent infector.

[coolman26]

When I used to bottle, I used the dishwasher for nearly every batch. I made sure they were rinsed w/o crud in them. Ran a cycle with heated dry and no soap. Never had an issue.


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[802Chris]

From what I gather, the dishwasher is only used for sanitizing (via heat). If I were to use mine I would soak/clean each bottle first. The dishwasher would be a way to sanitize and dry them. I could see how this could be good if you didn't have or want to use a no rinse sanitizer, because theoretically the bottles would be sanitary, dry, and all laid out nice for assembly line style bottling.

[yso191]

From what I gather, the dishwasher is only used for sanitizing (via heat). If I were to use mine I would soak/clean each bottle first. The dishwasher would be a way to sanitize and dry them. I could see how this could be good if you didn't have or want to use a no rinse sanitizer, because theoretically the bottles would be sanitary, dry, and all laid out nice for assembly line style bottling.

This is my purpose when using a dishwasher for bottles.

[brian_welch]

From what I gather, the dishwasher is only used for sanitizing (via heat). If I were to use mine I would soak/clean each bottle first. The dishwasher would be a way to sanitize and dry them. I could see how this could be good if you didn't have or want to use a no rinse sanitizer, because theoretically the bottles would be sanitary, dry, and all laid out nice for assembly line style bottling.

This is my purpose when using a dishwasher for bottles.

Same for me.  I've been using the dishwasher for bottling for years now. I put the bottling bucket on the counter above the dishwasher and sit on a stool in front.  All the drips land on the door of the dishwasher instead of the floor and cleanup after basically involves closing the dishwasher door.

The key for me is rinsing bottles with hot water immediately after pouring out the contents. 

BUT, last night I drank a 3 year old porter that was in the back of the beer fridge.  After a couple of rinses there were two small spots on the bottom of the bottle.  I added a small amount of TSP and some hot water and let it soak for a while then gave it a good shake and poured out the contents in a glass in case I needed to do a second cleaning.  A ton of gunk came out that I hadn't seen.  Other than the two spots I really thought the bottle looked clean. It really made me rethink my process. Granted, this was a 3 year bottle-conditioned beer, so had a fair amount of sediment, but it made me wonder.

[Charles]

I have used my dishwasher to sanitize my bottles for more than 25 years. I have never had an infection tracable to unsanitary bottles in that time.

I wash my bottles by soaking in PBW or OxyClean then rinse thoroughly and put in boxes neck down.

I run the dishwasher on "Sanitize" cycle, and bottle in the sink, taking the bottles out of the dishwasher and filling in the sink to catch overflow.

This has worked for me for many hundreds or maybe thousands of bottles. Your mileage may vary.

<Chas>

Charles L Webster
Hellgate Homebrewers
Grants Pass OR

[tld6008]

I always rinse my bottles right after pouring 3x with about half bottle of water then let them drain until dry. Before bottling I inspect and if no debris seen I rinse with starsan pouring from one to the next. If I see debris I spray a little diluted clorox inside  then let sit until other bottles are sanitized then rinse out clorox 3X . Never had a problem in 20+ years, In fact before starsan was popular I always used diluted clorox. Never have used dishwasher.

[CURT BIRD]

I have been sterilizing bottles that are pre-cleaned, in the dishwasher for 3 decades with never a problem.  The technique is simple but you must combine the best of both approaches.  No soap, PBW, or especially rinse aid, should be present.  A recently used dishwasher is fine. Just be sure the trap is clean.  Load the clean bottles - the rinse function is very effective in modern washers but should not replace a bottle brush.  Start the washer on sanitize cycle and listen for the fill part of the cycle to finish and the first sounds of actual water spraying to be audible.  Open the door and add 1 cup bleach to the water in the bottom and close.  Perfect sanitized bottles every time.  Curt.

[theoman]

I'm another with 2+ decades of sanitizing in the dishwasher with great success. And I concur: The bottles need to be clean BEFORE going into the dishwasher. No cleaning product, no rinse aid. Be sure to use the drying cycle. That will get the bottles good and hot and steamy. Keep the dishwasher closed (if possible) until you're ready to use the bottles.

[Philbrew]

My method which allows skipping of unnecessary scrubbing of about 95% of bottles.  I'm not going to describe label removal as that is a thing for another day.  Pay close attention and don't skip step #1:

1) When consuming a bottled beverage and you wish to reuse the bottle, RINSE WELL IN HOT WATER IMMEDIATELY 3 OR 4 TIMES, then add to your stash for as many days, months, or years as you want.

2) On bottling day, rinse each bottle 3 times again, then fill each bottle to the brim with hot water and set aside.

3) While filling bottles, if you notice an unusual amount of foam on top, set aside for stronger scrubbing later.

4) After every bottle is filled with hot water and you know which few are problematic by observing foam on top, scrub those bottles with a brush, rinse, then fill with hot water to the brim for the second time, repeating steps 2 thru 4 as necessary.

5) When no more bottles are problematic, fill a tub with several gallons water and StarSan, then set each filled bottle in the tub.

6) Wait a few minutes.

7) Drain all bottles and set into empty cases ready for filling.

Ta-da.  Every bottle is sanitized and you only had to scrub like 5% of them.

I've been doing this for >15 years on many thousands of bottles and never had a problem with inconsistent carbonation or random contamination, etc.

Dave, I am lazier than you.

I do your step 1. religiously and drain thoroughly.  I consider it the MOST important step.

On bottle day, I give each bottle two pumps of StarSan in a Ferrari Bottle Sanitizer (vinerator) and drain in a Fastrack bottle drain.  The Fastrack is more compact than a bottle tree and doesn't touch the inside of the bottle.

That's it!  In 4+ years I've never had a bad bottle of beer.

Note:  This is only for beers that I've consumed and know that I've done step 1.  Others get the whole soak/scrub/sanitize routine.