Bottle sanitation

[czumbrum]

I’m getting ready to bottle a Cab Sauv from a wine kit. I’ve used the high heat/sani-rinse/heated dry on my dishwasher setting. Do I still need to further sanitize the bottles with Star San? If I don’t, how long can I let the bottles in the dishwasher before I would potentially need to use Star San?

Thanks!

 

[distancerunner]

• Star San to bottling tree.
• Bottling tree to filler.
• Filler to corker.
• Rinse bottles if you're as sloppy as we are.
• Box.
• Done.

TL;dr: Use Star San. It's cheap insurance.

 

[Christopher Anderson]

I’m getting ready to bottle a Cab Sauv from a wine kit. I’ve used the high heat/sani-rinse/heated dry on my dishwasher setting. Do I still need to further sanitize the bottles with Star San? If I don’t, how long can I let the bottles in the dishwasher before I would potentially need to use Star San?

Thanks!

CLEAN EVERYTHING. Including your hands that touch everything. Think about the "germs" that might get into your bottle. What you don't want is that one bottle that becomes contaminated that you give as a gift that fails.

 

[Ohio Bob]

I wouldn’t trust my dishwasher to be able to rinse out the inside of the bottles, leaving a soap film.

 

[winemaker81]

I agree with @Ohio Bob, the dishwasher is not the best choice.

I'm the odd man out on this topic -- I follow professional winemakers, who take bottles out of the box from the factory and plunk 'em in the bottling line with no other steps.

My current process is to soak bottles in Oxyclean, which removes any previous film. They are dried on a rack and visually inspected. Any that fail get scrubbed. Those that pass go into clean cases, mouth down. The bottles are effectively sealed, nothing can get in, and there is nothing inside the bottle that anything can grow on.

At bottling time they are visually inspected again -- any that fail go to the back of the line (this very rarely happens), and I bottle with no intermediate steps.

 

[czumbrum]

Thanks everyone for your responses - very helpful!

 

[Christopher Anderson]

I agree with @Ohio Bob, the dishwasher is not the best choice.

I'm the odd man out on this topic -- I follow professional winemakers, who take bottles out of the box from the factory and plunk 'em in the bottling line with no other steps.

My current process is to soak bottles in Oxyclean, which removes any previous film. They are dried on a rack and visually inspected. Any that fail get scrubbed. Those that pass go into clean cases, mouth down. The bottles are effectively sealed, nothing can get in, and there is nothing inside the bottle that anything can grow on.

At bottling time they are visually inspected again -- any that fail go to the back of the line (this very rarely happens), and I bottle with no intermediate steps.

So not even a rinse with sanitizer? I have watched the big bottlers who plunk them in the line and then they are sanitized upside down, flipped and filled.

 

[winemaker81]

So not even a rinse with sanitizer? I have watched the big bottlers who plunk them in the line and then they are sanitized upside down, flipped and filled.

Wineries I'm familiar with put corks and bottles into the line with no processing.

My process ensures the bottles are fully cleaned and dry, with dry being critical -- without moisture or something to consume, nothing will grow in the bottle, and the mouths are effectively sealed against the bottom of a clean case, so nothing can crawl in. Storage conditions are important, as if the bottle develops condensation inside during storage, it's not clean.

I've been doing this for over 2 decades and have yet to have a bad bottle. I've had a few problem batches, but the causes had nothing to do with bottling.

Keep in mind that sanitation is reducing the the level of microbial life to levels below which they are not a threat. Simple cleaning accomplishes this on a normal basis, and sanitizers are insurance.

Note that all equipment is cleaned and sanitized prior to use, as there is no guarantee that it has remained clean. This includes racking/pumping K-meta solution through tubing and canes, and periodic treatment with One Step.

 

[Shurt1073]

On a personal side note to bottle sanitation, I was gifted 100 bottles or so from a friend who had them in his barn for a number of years. All of the bottles had either spiders, mold, wasps, mold, beetles or mold and more mold. Yep, hauled those suckers back to my house and looked at those bottles for a few days before realizing it was a job I didn't want. He didn't want them back so I got rid of them through recycle.

 

[distancerunner]

I agree with @Ohio Bob, the dishwasher is not the best choice.

I'm the odd man out on this topic -- I follow professional winemakers, who take bottles out of the box from the factory and plunk 'em in the bottling line with no other steps.

My current process is to soak bottles in Oxyclean, which removes any previous film. They are dried on a rack and visually inspected. Any that fail get scrubbed. Those that pass go into clean cases, mouth down. The bottles are effectively sealed, nothing can get in, and there is nothing inside the bottle that anything can grow on.

At bottling time they are visually inspected again -- any that fail go to the back of the line (this very rarely happens), and I bottle with no intermediate steps.

Agree wholeheartedly. Following what the professionals do is usually a really good idea.

The guy who runs the other crush that I participate in buys new. Though, he sprits with Star-San before filling.

When we finish our inventory of used bottles we're done dumpster diving. New bottles, from case to filler.

Of course, the bottles from our own stock, which have hang tags rather than labels, will be cleaned, rinsed, and recycled to the warehouse.

 

[BarrelMonkey]

I agree with @winemaker81, if the bottles are brand new I use them straight out of the box (and can confirm that at least the professional winemakers that I know do this as well...)

When I'm done with consuming a bottle that I plan to reuse I rinse twice with water and leave to dry, then store upside down in wine boxes. I know of home winemakers who just use them straight from the box like this, but for reusing bottles I like to give them a dunk in acidified water with KMBS/K-meta for a few minutes, then leave to drain before bottling.