Expert: John Snyder - 10/31/2004

Question
One other thing, what's the best chemical for cleaning bottles? Thanks for your help.-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
I have been told of two ways to sterilise your bottles. The first is to rinse bottles and let them dry (after drinking them) and then when the next batch is ready to be bottled, sterilising, rinsing and bottling straight away.  The second way is to spray the sterilising solution in your bottles after drinking them and then capping them and when it's time to bottle all you need to do is rinse them. Is the second method a valid way of sterilising your bottles and does it affect the quality of the beer?
Answer -
The first thing to remember,before sterilizing your beer bottles in the methods you described,or any other method  the bottles have to be cleaned with a cleaning solution first.Sterilizing solutions,do not clean,and improperly cleaned bottles,will shield bacteria,from coming into contact with sterilizing agents.Either method above will be fine as long as proper procedures are followed.Another thing to remember,if rinsing with water after sterilizing,that water needs to be preboiled.Beer taste will not be affected,if all cleaning,rinsing,and sterilizing procedures are done correcrly.

Any additional info required,let me know.
         John

Answer
A 2% caustic solution,(sodium hydroxide)is best,for cleaning residue from beer bottles,or fermenting equipment.It does the best job,as it is a good remover of protein,and yeast residue.

My recommendation,is a product called "greased Lightning",super strength.It can be found in Wal-mart,Menards,Kmart,Ace hardware etc.It is a 10% solution of caustic.Use 1-ounce of the cleaner to every 4 ounces of water.
        The cleaner is cheap,and as i said does a great job