Bottling Question

[Wade E]

The sulfiter is an excellent easy to use tool which saves alot of time and you only need a little bit of solution.

 

[Mike777]

I just ordered the sulfiter and cheap bottle tree, as well as sulfite and cleaner, for our first bottle batch from George. I never asked or read much but felt like those were the things to have based on the descriptions and playing with them at the local. (With shipping George beat the local pricing 30% across the board.)

Question. Used bottles. We rinse the wine out with tap water and let dry. We don't save any with residue on the inside, just clean ones.

Should they be fully imersed in a solution bath before filling?

 

[masta]

I rinse my bottles with hot water (with faucet mounted bottle washer) and inspect to make sure they are visually clean then sanitize with Na-meta










via a sulfiter.No need to fully immerse bottles.


If you follow the simple rule of "visually clean and then sanitize" with everything that touches your wine you should never have a contamination problem.


link to bottle washer which also works great to rinse carboys:
http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=4796Edited by: masta

 

[Wade E]

If you are buying commercial wines and rinsing well when done and
sulfiting bottles before bottling you should be fine. As for bottles
received at a recycle center I would definetly get a cleanser like B or
C-Brite or One Step. You dont know what was in these bottles and what
germs can lurk on or in them.

 

[Mike777]

These are full bottles purchased at the store, I was just concerned with the exterior being handled by who knows and then causing contamination that is tranfered to the other equipment and bottles during the process.

 

[Wade E]

All utensils, equipment, bottles, and your hands should be sanitized
with k or N-meta using the 3 tble spoons per gallon method.

 

[Mike777]

Ok I guess in theory they should get a full bath the first time around to be sure. I would hate to sanitize everything and rinse the inside of a bottle nad transfer contamination from the outside to other things at the same time.

 

[PeterZ]

Mike, after removing the labels (soaking in a sink full of hot water with a little automatic dishwasher soap works pretty well on most) I run them through the dishwasher on the bottom rack, standing upside-down in the little posts. I'm confident that after that treatment a quick blast of hot water, followed by the sulfiter, will be fine.

One thing to remember - if one bottle has nasties in it, you've only lost one bottle. I'm a lot more careful with the carboys, which are washed within 10 minutes of being emptied.

 

[Wade E]

If removing labels, George sells a product called Straight A designed for stubborn label removal. I have not tried it as of YET
only because I just noticed it myself. Has anyone tried this product
against plain old soapy hot water or B-Brite and have a comparison?