Beer Making: Part 4

Apr
11

2007

Okay … we have filled the fermenter with cleaner and now we are ready to clean and sanitize the bottles. I bought 3 cases of bottles. The recipe makes just over 2 cases of beer so I am going to wash 2 1/2 cases of bottles. Start by soaking about 1/2 case of bottles in the cleaner along with the bottle brush:

One at a time, scrub each bottle with the bottle brush:

Note: Using the fermenter as a container to wash your bottles is a bad idea. This was my first batch and I made a few mistakes. There is a risk that you can bang up the inside of the fermenter and make small scratches which can increase the possibility that bacteria will be able to hide in the scratches and infect future batches of beer. Once the fermenter becomes scratched it is better to discard it and get a new one. A scratched fermenter is virtually impossible to sanitize.

This is the best shot I can give you … I had to shoot the photo with one hand … I also bought a Turbomatic Carboy and Bottle Washer to speed up the rinsing process. It fits over the threaded end of a faucet:

After washing each bottle with the bottle brush, rinse thoroughly with HOT water:

Gather up all the bottles. The next step was to sanitize all the bottles, the fermenter, the Auto-Siphon, the whisk and all the other utensils. Here is a shot of the sanitizer:

Follow the instructions for whatever product you are using and mix about 5 gallons of sanitizer … enough to fill the fermenter. Fill each bottle with sanitizer and let stand for the recommended time. In my case, the instructions called for the sanitizer to stand in the bottles for 5 minutes:

In my case, I lined the cardboard cases with paper towels on the bottom to drain the excess sanitizer:

After emptying the sanitizer back into the fermenter, turn each bottle upside down in the cardboard case to drain the excess sanitizer from the bottles:

The sanitizer instrructions called for the bottles to drain dry and not to rinse. Sanitize the Auto-Siphon, filler tube, whisk and other utensils and let dry or rinse and let dry – whatever the instructions call for. In the next post, after the bottles are all dry, we will add the priming sugar and bottle the beer!

Continue to Beer Making – Part V

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