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Need to sterilise new bottles from kit?


graemeUK

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Just about to bottle my first batch from a craft beer kit. Do I need to sterilise my new bottles that came in kit or will simply a wash in hot water suffice as was recommended for rest of kit? No guidelines on DVD. If I have to sterilise do I riinse with water after and how dry do I need to get the bottles before beer goes in them?

 

Initial taste of beer impressed me and I'd hate it to go bad now.

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Graeme, what ever else you do, don't wash or rinse the PET bottles in hot water. Just as Jackgym says, the could get out of shape and you could be in for a bottle failure in future. Mate just give them a rinse in cold water for now and get your beer into them.

 

Cheers

Bill

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And Graeme, I forgot. In home brewing we are not equipped to sterilize anything. What we do is sanitise, and the active ingredient you want to look for is "sodium percarbonate". This is a non rinse sanitiser so after use just soak your bottles in a cold water solution, and then drain them.

 

Cheers

Bill

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From what I can gather, this VWP stuff is basically chlorine bleach in powder form. One site listed a safety measure as not to be mixed with acids as it will produce toxic gas, which straight away suggests chlorine bleach.

 

That being the case, you will want to rinse those bottles very thoroughly before filling them with beer, and given that hot water can't be used on them, you may find the bleach odour difficult to remove.

 

Personally I find a combination of sodium percarbonate for cleaning (which technically doesn't have to be rinsed although I do anyway because it leaves a soapy residue) and spraying equipment with Starsan for sanitising (acid based sanitiser) works really well and with little effort in regards to rinsing off the cleaner.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

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