Bottling day tommorow

I tend to sanitize right before bottling. I clean my bottles to make certain they don't have any crud/mold/dust/less-than-tasty-things in them and then soak in Star San for a few minutes. I try to get as much Star San out of the bottles as possible, but they are definitely still wet when I fill and cap them.

I've read a few threads about "not fearing the foam" that explained how residual Star San isn't at all harmful and won't have any impact on the flavor of your beer.

 

I bottle with the starsan in there. Doesnt have any effect.

 

I would not leave my bottles in the dishwasher all night. There is usually a lot of mold and mildew hiding in and around dishwashers. Not to mention the drain line is tied to the kitchen sink drain. I've never had a problem sanitizing in a dishwasher, but I just wouldn't leave them in there after its done.
Also, if you pour out the star san slowly you can minimize the amount of foam left over. But either way it won't hurt your beer.
I don't recommend drying in the oven. The high heat work hardens the glass over time and they will become more brittle. Plus I don't feel its necessary.
Just out of curiosity, why are you sanitizing with star san then resanitizing in the dishwasher?

 

Edit: brain fart. Nothing to see here.

 

Good question. If you have a modern dishwasher with a sanitary rinse setting, you should be good to bottle straight out of the dishwasher.

 

I read it as he was only using the (sanitized) dish washer as a medium to hold the bottles, not running them through any cycle.

 

Just StarSan them and bottle. Truly, don't fear the foam. I always bottle and rack onto plenty of leftover foam.

 

Just put the bottles on the dishwasher racks upside down and run them through a cycle (as long as you don't have JetDry in your dishwasher). They they will be sanitized and on the "holding racks" ready to bottle. That's what I do and it works well. No sense in the extra steps.

 

I think you're right. I got confused by the "sanitized dishwasher" language...which still begs the question: why sanitize the dishwasher and the bottles separately?

When I got my brand new dishwasher and realized I could wash, rinse, and sanitize bottles all at once, I felt like I was cheating.

 

Not to disparage your method, which works fine for heat sanitizing, but I would seriously recommend making sure your bottles are clean before sanitizing in the dishwasher. I would not rely on a dishwasher to thoroughly clean every bottle, because of the small openings, random trajectories, and random angles (away from 90 degrees) of the bottles.

 

I didn't mean to imply that the dishwasher was the only thing that cleaned the bottles. I rinse out each bottle I plan on using right after I drink the beer, then soak all of them in Oxyclean overnight, then quickly rinse again. Using the dishwasher to "wash" them takes the place of a final rinse before sanitizing.

 

I pull from my over night Oxi soak, rinse in tub of clean water, submerge in tub of StarSan, dump, place on dishwasher rack until I have enough on there to bottle the whole batch, then start at the front corner and work towards the opposite back corner (closest to chair at bottling bucket to furthest from chair). I also load the washer in the same order as I pull from, so by the time I am bottling the foam is fairly dried and they have been in contact for a good 10-20 minutes (at least).

 

+1. I also rinse very well after drinking which leaves very little for the dishwasher to clean. I overnight soak in oxiclean if the bottles have labels or if they need a little something extra in which case I also use a bottle brush.

I've read about not using jet dry on your glasses but what is the concern with using jet dry on bottles? The jet dry reduces head on the beer. I've never worried about head in the bottles.

 

I dunk my bottles in starsan and empty them right before I fill them. Those starsan suds come right out the top of the bottle when I fill it with beer and I know everything is sanitized thoroughly.

 

I use a spray bottle of StarSan and shoot about 5 sprays into each bottle... I then rotate to coat all surface, dump, and fill er up. I put my 8 gallong brew kettle upside down on the counter above my dishwasher, put the bottling bucket on top of that, and open the dishwasher so that any drips/spillage land on the door... Makes clean-up a breeze!

 

I use my bottling bucket and wand to fill each bottle with a bit of starsan...count to three! Then shake em up, pour out the starsan, and put on the bottling tree until ready to fill.