The brewing of beer, ciders, or mead on a small scale for personal or non-commercial purposes is called homebrewing. The brewing of alcohol has been in existence for a very long time. Some countries have a lot of legal restrictions on the brewing of alcohol. For instance, in the United States, you will need a permit before you can distill spirits like moonshine. Some people homebrew their beer to avoid the high cost of buying alcohol or beverages. In contrast, some others do that to enjoy exploring different recipes that may not be available in the open market.
Homebrewing would require the use of bottles for storage purposes, and if you are interested in it, you may want to ask yourself if you can use old bottles for homebrewing. Of course, you can. Old beer bottles can be used for homebrewing, but you need to clean the bottles first before sanitizing them so the beer can be safe for drinking. Before using the old beer bottles, you should soak them in an OxiClean-free solution or PBW solution, then use a brush made specially for washing beer bottles to wash the bottles mechanically. And then, you should make sure you remove the labels on the bottles while cleaning. Although, the OxiClean solution is meant to remove the labels automatically.
How many times can you reuse beer bottles?
You shouldn’t feel bad for reusing beer bottles, it is a normal thing that most people do, and it is safe too, as long as you clean them thoroughly. A lot of the bottles you find in grocery stores are likely reused ones.
It is estimated that the average beer bottle is reused about fifteen times in its environmentally-friendly life cycle.
You can reuse old beer bottles as many times as you want as long as they are not cracked or chipped.
Also, make sure that you should properly clean and sanitize old beer bottles thoroughly before reusing them.
Whether you’re reusing old beer bottles for personal or commercial purposes, do well to make sure they are clean, not cracked, and safe for usage before you reuse them.
If your country does not permit the reuse of old beer bottles, please do not engage in it, so you don’t get penalized for disobeying the law.
How do you sanitize and sterilize beer bottles?
You need to know that most of the work involved in homebrewing is cleaning. If you don’t clean old beer bottles thoroughly before reusing them, it could end up ruining the beer content in them.
Cleaning, sanitizing, and sterilizing are three basic terms in brewing that you must know.
Cleaning has to do with removing any visible dirt, soil, or stain in old beer bottles. You should ensure that all the equipment you use while brewing should be spotless. Make sure it is void of dust or grease. Don’t scratch the surface of plastic items when you’re cleaning them so that you don’t end up creating a space for microorganisms to grow on.
Sanitizing usually comes after cleaning. It entails removing any likely source of microorganisms spoilage. That is, eliminating those things you can’t see with your eyes can quickly spoil your drink or beverage. It is not just enough to clean the equipment you use in brewing, and you should also sanitize them because it is very vital.
Sterilizing your equipment is the next thing you can do when you are home brewing your beer or any drink. Sterilizing is getting rid of any form of microbial growth on your beer bottles. There are things you can use to sterilize your old beer bottles.
So, how do you clean, sanitize and sterilize beer bottles? There are specific steps you need to observe to help you do that. Check them out below.
Before cleaning and removing labels on your beer bottles.
1. Get your beer bottles and keep them in a gallon tub.
Carry your beer bottles and keep them in a gallon tub or your sink. Then, place a stopper in your drain. Just ensure that your gallon tub or sink is large enough to carry your beer bottles.
2. Get cold water and fill your gallon tub or sink with it.
Ensure that your gallon tub or sink is filled with water so that your bottles can quickly get submerged in it. Mix about one to four tablespoons of bleach per gallon of water. Then, take a stick or mixing spoon to stir the bleach solution into your beer bottles.
You can also use OxiClean or Powder Brewery Wash (PBW) to clean your beer bottles, but if you must use either of these, you will need to use hot water and not cold water like that of the bleach solution. Then, you followed the same procedures that apply to that of the bleach solution.
1. Give your bottles some minutes to soak
Allow your bottles to soak for about ten to fifteen minutes after using that bleach solution or OxiClean solution with water in it. But if a commercial cleaner is what you use, you should allow your bottles to soak for thirty to forty minutes.
2. Get rid of the labels
It is usual for you to see the labels on your beer bottles peel off by themselves after soaking them for a long. But if they don’t peel off, wear a pair of protective nylon gloves and peel them off gently.
You might see remnants of glue on the beer notes after you have successfully peeled the labels off; use a sponge with an abrasive surface to get rid of the adhesive.
3. Scrub the internal part of your bottles
There is a special brush meant for scrubbing the inside of bottles. Before you start cleaning the bottle, fill it with a bit of quantity of the solution, then scrub the internal part of the bottle until all the specks of dirt are removed. Look through the bottles with the light to be sure that all the traces of dirt have been washed away. Then, keep the bottles upside down on a drying rack before it gets sanitized.
Sanitizing with the dishwasher
- Carry your bottles and keep them upside down in your dishwasher. The bottle caps should also be in the dishwasher. After that, close the door to the dishwasher.
- Let your dishwasher be in the sanitize setting. The heat cycle should also be on so your bottles and caps can be sanitized. Make sure the washer completes the entire process so the bottles can get thoroughly sanitized. Avoid using detergent when you’re sanitizing your bottles to tamper with the taste of any liquid you put in the bottles. Please don’t wash your bottles alongside other dirty dishes while sanitizing them.
- After the cycle is over, the bottles will. Be very hot, so you should allow them to cool for about fifteen minutes before using or storing the liquid in them.
Sanitizing with bleach
1. Fill a gallon tub with cold water
After filling a gallon tub with cold water, mix a tablespoon of bleach solution for every gallon of water. So, Let the bleach you are using contain about five percent of sodium hypochlorite.
2. Place your bottles carefully in the tub
Carefully carry each bottle and place them in the tub, ensure that they get submerged in the solution, then use a mixing spoon to stir the bottles so the solution can spread. Allow the bottles to soak for about thirty minutes.
3. Keep your bottles on a rack to drip dry
When your bottles have finished soaking, keep them upside down on a drying rack. Your dishwasher rack can help you do it.
Don’t join people who use a piece of cloth or rag to dry their bottles. Why should you not use them? They may contaminate your sanitized bottles. If you are sure you used the correct dosage of bleach solution for sanitizing your bottles, you don’t need to rinse them again, but to be on a safer side, do well to rinse the bottles.
4. Rinse your beer bottles with boiled water
Pour some amount of water in a pot, allow it to boil very well before you bring the pot down from the fire. After removing the pot from the fire, it will enable it to cool for about five minutes. Then take each beer bottle and rinse it with the water. After rinsing all the bottles, place them upside down on a rack so they can quickly dry.
Avoid using cold tap water to rinse your bottles; it will end up contaminating them.
Before sterilizing your equipment, ensure you have cleaned them. A natural sterilizer should not make you rinse off the bottle after cleaning; instead, a sterilizer should be the last thing your bottle should contact before the brew enters it.
Most people use Sodium Metabisulphite for sterilizing their bottles. It is an effective traditional product that you can for sterilizing. It would be best to use Sodium Metabisulphite as a cleaning agent; it is meant solely for sterilizing. Sodium Metabisulphite helps to fill a bottle up with inert gas like Sulphur Dioxide or SO2 and then push out all the oxygen that was contained in the bottles out. When oxygen or air is absent in a bottle, it shows that it has been sterilized.
After rinsing off the Bottlewash, your bottle is set to be sterilized. Pour a teaspoon or 5 grams of white Sodium Metabisulphite powder for each liter of cold tap water used. You don’t need to fill the bottle with the solution. Ensure that you use a clean and new solution, avoid storing and reusing the solution. This is because, over time, it could get contaminated with bacteria.
After pouring the solution into the bottle, allow it to remain there for over 15 minutes so it can ultimately push out the oxygen. Then, drain the bottle totally, but you are not allowed to rinse it. You can only sterilize your bottle immediately you want to use it. You can not sterilize your bottle and use it a week after; it can only be used directly it is sterilized to avoid the build-up of bacteria.
If you have plenty of bottles to sterilize, pour the new or fresh solutions into each of them one by one. Please don’t take the solution from a bottle and pour it into another bottle to avoid cross-contamination with the sterilizing solution. Don’t put the bottles in a solution in your sink; instead the solution should be poured into your bottles. If you are asthmatic, you should be very careful when using the Sodium Metabisulphite solution. Also, do not try to rinse your bottles after using this solution on them; this will help reduce the yeast sediment deposit in your beer bottles
Don’t use Sodium Metabisulphite on your Spirit Still or spirit bottles if you are a distiller.
Always store your Sodium Metabisulphite in a dry place. This prevents moisture from touching it because if water touches it, it will activate and produce its gas in your container. Don’t use your Sodium Metabisulphite if you see lumps in it or if it has a foul odor.
Use a dry teaspoon to measure your Sodium Metabisulphite when you want to use it, then seal it very tightly after usage. Don’t purchase it in advance if you don’t want to use it immediately.
Everyday things you should know about cleaning and sanitizing old beer bottles.
- Ensure you follow the instructions on the packaging of any chemical you purchase for sanitizing your beer bottles.
- Always wear rubber gloves when handling anything stronger than washing-up liquid and do well to prevent it from splashing on you.
- During the dilution of chemicals, make sure you add the chemical to the water and not the water to the chemical so that you don’t jeopardize the effectiveness of the mixture.
- Always make sure you clean your equipment immediately after using them with a cleaner or sanitizer. It would be best if you also cleaned them before using them.
- Washing-up liquid is suitable for cleaning and not for sanitizing. Avoid the use of scented cleaners when cleaning your old beer bottles.
- You can use bleach for cleaning and sanitizing beer bottles, but you will need to do it carefully. Always dilute the bleach before using it so that it will be very effective. Using bleach to clean plastic, brass, or copper containers can blacken them, so be very careful with what you use them on. For equipment that is not glass, don’t soak them in bleach for more than thirty minutes. If you don’t carefully clean the bottles after using bleach solution on them, it could alter the flavor of your drink. So, ensure you rinse the bottles thoroughly in boiled water.
- For proprietary mixes, they can be used for both cleaning and sanitizing. PBW and VWP are prevalent ones. They help you clean your bottles well, sanitize them, and get rid of any form of odor in them.
- No-rinse sanitizers should be used solely for sanitizing. Use them immediately before and during a brewing process. Please don’t use it for cleaning.
- If you intend to reuse your beer bottles again, you should practice rinsing out any dirt immediately after drinking so that the work of cleaning and sanitizing would be a lot easier for you when the time for using them again comes. Running clean bottles through a dishwasher cycle without detergent will sanitize them as long as they are clean.
Does the dishwasher sanitize beer bottles?
You can use a dishwasher to sanitize beer bottles. You should pre-clean your beer bottles before putting them in the dishwasher to sanitize.
Can you boil beer bottles to sanitize them?
Yes, you can. You are free to boil beer bottles to sanitize them.
How do you sterilize plastic beer bottles?
Do not sterilize plastic beer bottles with hot water; it will damage the shape of the bottles, or it could even make them melt. To sterilize plastic beer bottles, use a quarter teaspoon of sterilizer In cold water, then pour this mixture into each plastic bottle and shake thoroughly for about thirty minutes. Rinse every bottle one by one about four times so that no remnant of sterilizer would be left in them.
Do you need to sanitize beer bottle caps?
The beer bottle caps are as important as the beer bottles themselves. You need to sanitize your beer bottle caps too. Please don’t leave them out so they don’t contaminate the content in the bottles.
Best beer bottles to reuse for home brewing
It is not enough to ferment or mash your beer; the bottling process of homebrewing is also essential.
If you want to choose a bottle for your drink, you should consider the lighting and oxygen level. It would be best if you had an environment where your beer can carbonate quickly when selecting a bottle too. If you’re going to store your beer in a place that is not dark, you should put your beer in a dark-tinted bottle. It will get rid of light and warmth put in your bottle.
Whatever bottle type you choose to use for homebrewing, always make sure they are airtight so they don’t end up altering the taste of your beer or drink.
Check out some of the best bottles you can use for homebrewing below.
- Swing top bottles: You can quickly close these bottles, they are portable, and they come with reusable caps. There are different sizes.
- Nip or Grenade Bottle: This bottle existed for a long time, as far back as the 17th century. They are pretty small, and you can get them in most supermarkets.
- Long neck bottle: Almost all grocery stores in America sells this bottle. It is prevalent. They come with metal caps and can contain about 12 oz. of drink or beer.
- Belgian Bottle: This bottle is quite similar to a long neck bottle, but the neck is curvier than the long neck bottle. It is not meant for only Belgian beers.
- Oxygen Barrier PET bottles: These are PET bottles that come with an oxygen barrier. They are very nice if you intend to make beer that has about three weeks of carbonation time. They are thick and can help you remove any form of oxidation in your drink.
Can you reuse twist-off beer bottles?
It would be best to reuse twist-off beer bottles because they are not strong enough for reuse. Instead, you can reuse pop tops. Also, twist-off beer bottles do not seal properly, and this can spoil your drink.
Conclusion
Now that you are aware that you can use old beer bottles for home brewing, feel free to rock it but make sure you follow all the steps involved in cleaning, sanitizing, and sterilizing them.
Avoid using hot water to sterilize plastic beer bottles. Also, don’t try to use twist-off beer bottles, so they don’t end up ruining your beer.
There are many empty beer bottles you can get from the supermarket or grocery store if you are considering home brewing.