Easy Dishwasher Sterilization of Bottles
Easy Dishwasher Sterilization of Bottles
I think everyone is looking for the most efficient techniques for dealing with the most labor intensive and repetitive parts of brewing. Nothing fits this description better than the process of cleaning and sterilizing bottles. Years ago Bruce Smith introduced me to this technique and with the advent of more modern dishwashers it works brilliantly but even older dishwashers work well. This assumes your bottles are generally clean and the labels are already off. It also helps if during the one or two regular dish runs before a bottle run you rinse the dishes before placing them in the dishwasher to remove the chunks. Otherwise, the odd food particle will escape the macerator in the dishwasher although they are still quite sterile!
To prepare, clean your bottles first. Doing this with several rinses at the time you empty them is definitely the easiest way. Store them inverted, if you can, to avoid dust entering. On bottling day wash them lightly by hand - I use normal dish soap and a bottle brush followed by 6 rinses with warm water from a bottle adapter at the sink. Others skip this step. Remove the silverware caddy from the washer and load the bottles in the bottom rack. Load tightly so they all stand up straight and if you use swing top closures ensure they do not droop below the rack where they can block the rotation of the spray arm. If you need a few more then 12 oz. bottles will usually fit in the top rack especially if your washer has a top rack with adjustable height settings. Set the washer far a regular wash with the sanitize cycle on. Run the hot water in the sink to ensure the hottest water available, turn off the hot dry or use energy saver (if not the default setting) and start the washer. NO SOAP is added - ever! No special sheeting action additives should be used either - just fresh hot water. Wait for the washer to fill and just as the agitation/spraying cycle begins open the washer to pause the cycle. Add 1 cup of bleach (unscented) to the wash water and close and let the cycle run its course (about 2 hr in my washer). Sanitize your bottling bucket and equipment at about 1.5 hr and when the sanitize cycle ends you are ready to bottle.
A few years ago Zymergy ran an article on this techniques and described several versions of the dishwasher sterilization method and assayed bacterial contamination of the bottles following. They were unimpressed with the results due to a failure to get the bottles hot enough or detection of residual soap on the bottles. If you review this article you will note none of the approaches use the technique described above. They either did not use bleach or worse added soap. I have never had a contamination problem in many years of using the method described and there is no risk of contamination with soap, bleach, iodine or any other chemical sanitizer. Enjoy! Curt.
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