how to use starsan to clean bottles

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pwokeefe Initiate (0) Nov 27, 2014 Illinois

My first batch from a Northern Brewer starter kit is sitting now at three weeks, and it is almost time to bottle. My wife and I have been downing beer obsessively to have enough empty bottles to use.
How the heck do I know whether they are clean? I can't see in them. We rinse them out right when we pour the original beer, but, it's not like I can see in there to know what's going on. It's dark inside. How do I make sure the bottles are ready to go, just StarSan them and hope for the best?
JackHorzempa Poo-Bah (5,242) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
Society

For my homebrewed beers where I reuse my bottles my process is pretty much the same as you: I rinse them out immediately after pouring the homebrewed beer out and then I sanitize them prior to using them again for bottling.
One thing I have 'learned' is that if you hold the beer bottles up to a light source you can peer into the neck end and observe the bottom of the bottle to see if there is any crud or gunk on the bottom of the bottle.

Cheers!
witster18 Devotee (489) Aug 23, 2006 Tennessee

wash them right after drinking them... then later before bottling re-rinse, and look through the opening tilting the beer up towards a light source(lightbulb on the ceiling?), and you'll be able to see if anything looks unkosher... look in the tiny little grooves along the inside outer-bottom edge... if anything is left in there that's where it will be... it there's really nasty crud in those grooves you're prob better just recycling them for real...
IMO, don't just use StarSan and trust that your rinse was good enough. I put a little Oxiclean (no odor) and hot water in my bottling bucket. Fill each bottle about half way with the hot water/oxi mixture through the bottling valve. Shake the ever-loving shite out of the bottles and keep the mixture in the bottle as you fill the remainder. Once all bottles are filled, start with the first bottle, shake, pour out oxi/water mix, rinse 2 to 4 times with hot water. Repeat for all bottles.
Then I fill the bottling bucket with StarSan and cold water to about the 2 gallon mark. Do the same process of filling the bottles and shaking, only this time when you pour our you do not need to rinse the StarSan. I also have a FastRack to drain bottles by storing them upside down. Great investment IMO.
witster18 Devotee (489) Aug 23, 2006 Tennessee

cleaning sedimented crud is prob harder than removing labels... best to just do that thorough wash right after drinking, re-rinse before use, ck in light, star san, dry, use
pweis909 Poo-Bah (1,933) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
Society

If they are brand new, you should only need to rinse and star San them. Or you could scrub with a bottle brush and consider it practice for all the times in the future that you will want to do this.
I immediately rinse out a beer bottle 3 times even when not reusing a bottle. I just hate the stink of stale, sticky beer when doing the recycling.
Tis a lot of work. Nothing more I hate than putting in all that time making a beer and having my bottles eff it up (happened only once, and I'll never trust the rinse again). I only bottle in 22 oz. format though, so basically cuts down to half the bottles.
Also, some of do not have (or want) a dishwasher in our homes.
Yeah, I started rinsing out beer bottles years before I took up homebrewing. Mostly to keep the fruit flies away in the summer.
Buck89 Poo-Bah (3,188) Feb 7, 2015 Tennessee
Society Trader

This might be overkill, but I quickly clean with a little PBW, rinse, dry, put foil on the top and sterilize in the oven at 275 overnight. I put them in before I turn on the oven so they don't heat too fast and thus avoid thermal shock. I then consider the bottles good to go indefinitely as long as the foil remains intact.
I rinse bottles immediately after pouring original beer, the I boil used bottles for 10 minutes and bottle my new beer. Never had contamination issues. If I have new bottles I just use some starsan.
one word...dishwasher...assuming you have one. It's come in handy many a time.
pwokeefe Initiate (0) Nov 27, 2014 Illinois

I do have a dishwasher... I assumed the detergent and rinse aid would be problematic.
pwokeefe Initiate (0) Nov 27, 2014 Illinois

Taking the easy route, I see...
One step that a lot of people omit is filling the bottles with hot water and oxiclean or pbw. No bottle brushing is needed unless you skimped on the soap. Let them soak overnight. Rinse 3x. Sanitize. You don't necessarily have to do this every time. Some beers rinse clean. Others leave a film.
If you never do it, try it on one bottle and compare that bottle to your other bottles. Fill them with water and hold them up to a light bulb. The difference will be obvious.
stealth Zealot (558) Dec 16, 2011 Minnesota

Oxyclean soak + rinse + starsan here as well. Too much time/effort invested in the beer to blow it on such a simple thing. Although, I'm surprised to read in some reputable brewing books that the authors often do not do more than rinse out their bottles (no sanitation used) and they do not have issues.
Count me in the camp of hot water rinse immediately after pouring + sanitize cycle without detergent in the ol' lavaplatos.
You can really see built up crud by looking through the neck with a decent light source outside.
I always do a quick rinse with some hot water shortly after drinking. Keeping mold from growing is 90% of the cleaning battle
When I'm reusing bottles (from commercial beer) for the first time, I'll soak them all in Oxyclean for a few days to take off the labels and allow any gunk in the bottles to dissolve. After that, I do what others have mentioned, rinse well after each use and then dry and store. Before I use them again, I rinse again and sanitize very soon before bottling.
I'm in the rinse and StarSan camp. It will reduce all microorganisms to negligible levels. I used to cover the lids in foil and bake the bottles for hour in the oven at 350, but I decided it was overkill after reading more books on homebrewing and talking to people at my homebrew supply.
ssam Aspirant (284) Dec 2, 2008 California

Yea, don't use detergent. Just the High Heat Sterilize Setting. I put a drop of iodine in each bottle before I run it and after I drain them into the sink, shake them dry the best I can, and bottle.
stealth Zealot (558) Dec 16, 2011 Minnesota

I've touched upon this in other threads..but I really wonder how hard it is to infect a batch, esp through stuff like rinsed out bottles, etc. I've made one gallon batches with intentionally 'poor' sanitation practices (ie: no starsan, just hot water rinses/cleanses on anything touching the wort, but still ensuring they are 'clean') and have yet to have something go awry. Might have to do with each of these experimental batches being really hoppy ipas, but it's interesting regardless.
Dumsboa09 Initiate (0) Dec 21, 2011 Pennsylvania

My regiment looks like this.
Drink beer
Soak in oxi clean or PBW
Rinse
Dishwasher on sanitize
Soak in star san
Fill
Cap on foam

If new glass:
Dishwasher on sanitize
Soak in star san
Fill
Cap on foam

Never had an issue, even with filling from a keg
JrGtr Devotee (456) Apr 13, 2006 Massachusetts

I guess I do things the easy way. I rinse out a couple times when I empty the bottle.
WHen it's time for filling, I rinse one more time, then do the "look down the neck out the window / at a light bulb" think (Make sure you drain it well; I've gotten more than one eyeful of water this way...)
Presuming everything looks clean, I dunk in Starsan for a couple minutes, then put in the box upside down on a clean paper towel. If it doesn't look clean, I either put it aside for recycling if it looks real gross in there, or if it's a bit of gunk (mold gets straight to recycling) I wash with bottle brush and return to coda.
ashellen Initiate (104) Mar 26, 2009 Virginia

you need to run the dishwasher on the hottest temp setting you have and use the heat dry, all without detergent and rinse aid. basically you are steaming the bottles to get rid of any unwanted living things that may cause funk or bombs. you do need to start with clean bottles.
basically I drink and then rinse the bottles several times (until I cant see anything by holding up to light or smell beer) with hot water, let them dry and store. These bottles are "clean" but not sanitized. then the night before bottling day I line them up in the bottom rack of the dishwasher upside down and run the washer. next day they are sanitized and cool enough to add beer.

some people have suggested adding a little bleach to the detergent part, but I never do this. a guy who worked at a homebrew store advised against this, he said the bleach can eat little pits in the glass which would make it very difficult to get this part of the bottle clean in the future.
Soneast Champion (859) May 9, 2008 Wisconsin

My process for bottling with used bottles is: I consume the beer, rinse the bottle out good and put it in a case upside down to dry. On bottling day I pull out my case of bottles, grab a bottle, squirt a bunch of starsan mix into it using a vinator bottle rinser, fill bottle with beer, cap. Rinse and repeat until the whole batch is bottled. I've never had an infection, and that includes beers that I have aged for as long as 5 years. Seems like some homebrewers go overkill on this, but whatever works for you.
Never had a problem with detergent from the dishwasher. My old kenmore doesn't have a sterilize setting. I just use Finish tabs.
EdRoss Initiate (0) Feb 26, 2015 Maryland

After I drink a brew I triple rinse with hot water. Then on bottling day I give them all quick swab with a bottle brush and bath in star San. Then hang em out to dry. Some nights with the guys I can't be a nanny and keep track if bottles are washed out. So I hit em with a brush. Just good cleaning and sanitation, I wouldn't want to drink out of the same coffee cup over and over just by rinsing it out.
This is my exact method also, and I've never had an issue with carbonation or bottle bombs. Can get a batch of 50 bottles washed and sanitized in about 45 minutes. The only reason it takes that long is because my bottle tree doesn't have enough tiers/limbs to fit all 50 bottles on it (I know I can buy an extra tier to add to I just haven't really felt the need) so I have to wait for the first batch of bottles to try before finishing the rest.
Why wait for them to dry? I'd just give them the required 2-3 minutes for the StarSan to do its thing and then take them off to make room for the rest of the bottles. Don't fear the foam!
Hanglow Champion (823) Feb 18, 2012 Scotland

I rinse out with water then let it dry then a couple of squirts of sanitiser on the bottling day
If there is a bit of crud there then it'll get a half hour soak in percarbonate, then rinse then dry.

I've never had a bottle bomb from doing that, the only time I've had an infection was from my boiler that I used as a bottling bucket, an old hop from the previous brew had got stuck in the tap and I didn't notice until I started to fill the bottles.
ssam Aspirant (284) Dec 2, 2008 California

If you use detergent you run the risk of killing your foam. Its not a risk I'm comfortable taking. To mitigate it, a really good rinse is needed. Behind those closed doors in the dishwasher, I don't trust that its rinsing the inside extremely well, especially since some bottle will have some water still in them at the end (with at least some soap in it if you use detergent).
If you don't have sterilize setting I'm sure you have a hot temp setting, which is basically what I meant.
storm72 Initiate (88) Jul 4, 2010 Illinois

I try to be diligent about rinsing bottles I plan to reuse for bottling immediately after drinking them. The day before I bottle, I soak the bottles in OxiClean and rinse thoroughly with hot water. On bottling day, each bottle gets a few squirts of Star San from the viniator right before I fill it.
Yeah, I don't know. I know the foam isn't supposed to cause any problems but I'm still a little bit paranoid about filling up my bottles with beer while there's still StarSan foam hanging around in some of the bottles. Just doesn't seem right to me even though I know it's fine.
Sure, we all take whatever risks we are comfortable with. I have laughably never had a problem with my foam in the bottled beer being killed. I chuckle because, we've been maybe more on the other side of that problem. I think it is influenced by what your water quality is. Mine is on the tad hard side. Softened hard water may not do as good of a job. (I do NOT have a water softener, I think those things are largely evil). YOu can read your DW manual and see how much water it's using and when it uses it.
I don't ever have bottles with water in at the end, it may be the peculiarity of my own dishwasher or whatnot.

I always put them in the bottom rack in the middle.

anyway, everyone's dishwasher is different, the water quality will be different, and the cycles will be different.

I've had no problems with my kenmore and finish, but obviously ymmv.