Is this overkill?

[QCStang]

I'm hoping to save myself a little time and effort, cleaning my bottles seem like a real chore, this is what I do.

1) Rinse bottles immediately after drinking - 3 times.
2) When I have about 20 or so, I spray 3 shots of a Sansol (pink stuff) water mix. From there, I put them in a large landry tub with dish soap and scalding hot water (not boiling,but too hot to put my hands in) and let the water cool - about 20 minutes.
3) I take them out, one at a time, 1/2 full with soapy water, put my thumb over the end, and give them a vigorous shake before emptying.
4) When they are all soap washed, they all go in for another HOT bath in the landry tub, the water drained, and each bottle gets rinsed in free running water. Then they dry on the bottle tree.
5) After they dry, I have another spray bottle of sodium metabisulfate and citric acid, each bottle gets a couple of squirts.
6) I put the bottles upside down in bottle cartons, the bottom of each carton has 2 layers of paper towels, and stacked until needed.
7) The day I do my bottling, 30 bottles get a rinse and dry on the tree.Note that when I turm shem upright, the smell of sodium metabisulfate and citric acid is still there.

Is this overkill? Or is there steps I can delete?

Dan

 

[ibglowin]

Thats probably what most all of us do with the exception that many of us use Oxyclean. Its a perfect cleaner for wine bottles. Main thing is NOT to use anything with Chlorine in the ingredients.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I do the same I rinse my bottles well after drinking them. I will pressure rince with hot water, let sit , and go back and pressure wash with a meta solution and drip dry and fill with wine all in the same day. I personally would not want soap in my bottles and why - they were already rinsed out after drinking them.

here is a pic of my pressure wash system

 

[DoctorCAD]

I use a bottle brush with the handle end cut off. It fits into my cordless drill and each bottle gets about 30 seconds of high-speed spinning brush scrubbing while in the oxyclean soak. Really makes cleaning easy!

 

[ibglowin]

"Tim the Tool Man" would be proud!

I do the same I rinse my bottles well after drinking them. I will pressure rince with hot water, let sit , and go back and pressure wash with a meta solution and drip dry and fill with wine all in the same day. I personally would not want soap in my bottles and why - they were already rinsed out after drinking them.

here is a pic of my pressure wash system

 

[robie]

For me the key is to rinse the used, commercial bottle really well right after it is first emptied.

I use Oxyclean. If you do, be sure to not let the Oxyclean solution stay in the bottle so long it forms a film.

Rinse with a Kmeta spray the same day you bottle. Let the bottle set upside down to drain until you fill it.

Eventually get yourself a vacuum pump assisted bottling setup. It will save you lots of otherwise spilled and wasted wine, not to mention save you lots of time.