# Cleaning Bottles



## Mharris335 (Feb 16, 2007)

I know this has been asked, so sorry I have to ask it again. I
have dirty bottles from my drinking and a winery with a tasting room
bottles. I have the labels off already. Is the next step
cleaning with brush and cleaning chemical. Then to sanitize them
or do I need to sanitize them if I give them a really good
cleaning? Then I store up side down in a box?
Please help!


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## NorthernWinos (Feb 16, 2007)

I store my recycled bottles out in an old shed....When I first get them I sort according to bottle style and put them in boxes up side down and mark the box according to bottle type......I box separately the bottles I can't use to be recycled or given to people who can use them.

At some point after I start a batch of wine I will get the bottles and soak them in a laundry tub in HOT water, sometimes soaked with Straight A, most times just HOT water....some labels will float right off...others have to be scraped with a knife or pot scraper....scurried with a curly steel pot scrubber, rubbed with a green pot scrubber...What ever it takes.

Replace them in a tub of clean HOT water... look through them at a bright light....use a jet bottle washer, a wire bottle brush, jet bottle washer again and place them in a box lined with a thick layer of clean newspapers and paper towels and place them upside down till bottling time.

With the bottles we drink, I will removed the label, rinse, re-rinse and store in a box up side down till needed.

On bottling day I look at them against a bright light....rinse them with the jet washer, place them in a tub of Straight A, rinse well again with the jet bottle washer, rinse the outside and place in a tub of Sulfite solution..[a bottle rack and sulfiter...would be nice at this point]

Then the fun...bottling the wine...


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## masta (Feb 16, 2007)

I do the same thing basically.....visualy clean, rinse with hot water, sanitize, then fill.


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## Mharris335 (Feb 16, 2007)

Cool...thank you both. Thats what I thought but was not sure if I needed to Sanitize or not.


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## geocorn (Feb 16, 2007)

Excellent advice, NW.


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## Wade E (Feb 16, 2007)

MHarris, feel free to ask questions even if theyve been asked before.
Someone might lead you to a earlier post only to help you, not to make
you think you should have looked there. Even people that have been
doing this for awhile can learn from a newbie as new ideas can arise
and be the best thing since sliced bread!

As far as cleaning bottles, I soak them in hot water and C-brite then
rinse them out with hot water and dry on yhe bottle tree. Then I box
them upside down. At bottling time I use my sulfiter and bottle tree
them again!


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## PeterZ (Feb 16, 2007)

I soak bottles in hot water with automatic dishwasher soap. Then I invert them on the posts of the bottom rack of my dishwasher and run it. (I don't have a source of "recycle center bottles - Memphis does that on the garbage truck and there is no way I want what they collect) After that is is into a closet until bottling time where they will get a blast of hot water followed by a squirt of sulfite.


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## Mharris335 (Feb 23, 2007)

Wade, thank you so much for the good advice and the warm welcome. 

Peterz. It sounds all your ways are close in how you do it...thank you too.


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