Every homebrewer knows the struggle when the bottle day is nearing, yet there are no available clear bottles in the surroundings.
Reusing old bottles is sometimes the only way to bottle the batch of freshly brewed homebrew and in this article, I want to share useful tips with you I learned the hard way.
So, can you reuse bottles for homebrewing, and is it smart?
Reusing bottles in homebrewing is possible and it’s a recommended practice as otherwise, it would be too expensive to homebrew. It’s important to take care of the bottles in advance and have high criteria for reusing as otherwise old reused bottles could bring problems.
While caps are also reusable, they are extremely cheap but bottles aren’t.
Moreover, some bottles are not worth your time and the risk. I bought the first 200 bottles and since then only kept reusing them, but I also tried to reuse old bottles from local pubs, and trust me it wasn’t a good idea.
Along the way, I also learned that some mistakes would cost me lots of time on a bottling day and an infection all due to poor preparations, so to spare you from nightmares let me share a few tips with you.
Wash them ASAP
The best advice is to wash the bottles as soon as they’ve been used and this is the advice I can’t highlight enough. Anything else, no matter how good the cleaning method won’t come nearly as useful as the advice to wash the bottles ASAP!
Yes, don’t even let the bottles stay in the dirt overnight if you can immediately clean them. Since I overcame my laziness of leaving the dishes for the next day, I saved myself from hours of cleaning and wounded hands on a bottle day all due to the preparation.
If you don’t have time to fully clean the bottles immediately when they are ready, at least soak them in warm water and let them stay that way.
The reason behind this what I am saying is that no dirt or stains will ever form if you can only prevent it in these early days after the bottle’s been emptied.
Otherwise, the dirt will dry and the stains will be extremely difficult to remove even with a detergent, soaking in hot water and the help of a bottle brush and you’ll hate yourself.
Don’t trust a bottle brush
When I bought my first set of bottles I also bought a bottle brush from the same shop. On my second bottling day, I was happy to reuse the bottles and I thought some warm water, soap, and a bottle brush would clean the dirt off in a matter of minutes.
The next thing I know is that I spent 2 hours cleaning the bottles with rice and soaking and I even had to use bleach for some bottles (didn’t end up using them for bottling out of fear I could poison someone).
The nasty ( I’d like to curse here but can’t), bottle brush was too wide to enter the bottle although it was the only bottle brush in the store that sells equipment specially made for brewing. Therefore, make sure the store you are buying from doesn’t do the same to you.
However, even if it were the right size, it’s still difficult to remove dirt with it if it’s hardcore as it’s simply not effective as they market them.
How to clean used bottles
Prevention is the best way to clean used bottles and nothing comes close to it, yet there are effective methods to clean dirty bottles.
Soak them overnight
For light, to moderate stains, you can soak the bottles overnight in hot water/dish detergent solution and simply rinse them tomorrow. Soaking should really be done overnight as there won’t be enough time for dirt to come off if you hurry it on a bottling day and it will be more difficult.
Use a dishwasher
A dishwasher is an effective way to remove even the hardcore stains, but sometimes the dirt may not come fully off and you’ll need additional manual checks and rinsing.
Use a cleaning solution
These cleaning solutions are made for removing hardcore stains and they are useful homebrewing equipment. Although this is a really good way to remove any nasties, you’ll still need to soak the bottles for 30 minutes in warm water and spend extra money.
Don’t use bleach
Bleach is a poison and it shouldn’t be used for homebrewing purposes unless it’s absolutely necessary. However, situations, when it’s really necessary, are almost non-existent if you really need something that will run the dirt off there are special food-grade cleaning solutions on the market. Moreover, a dishwasher machine or soaking overnight can also solve such issues.
My point is, that bleach isn’t necessary for anything, and by using it you risk your health unless you rinse it properly and let it evaporate from the plastic or glass. I used bleach once a long time ago to remove the dirt from an airlock and it didn’t even help that much so I still had to use a brush and a toothpick and manually remove the dirt.
I probably counted 10 times as I rinsed with water and still was a bit paranoid about using it, but I guess with enough rinsing and drying it, bleach won’t be dangerous for small parts. Yet, using bleach for bottles means there’s a lot of surface and people directly drink from it, so it’s a big no for me.
Removing labels
Labels will go down easily when you soak them overnight in almost any detergent/water solution but you’ll need a very rough brush. Don’t worry that you’ll scratch the glass, a good brush must be rough or the labels won’t go down easily.
Homebrewers often don’t even care about removing labels, but I think that if there should be a label on your bottle it should be the one designed and printed only by you!
Final take on
You should reuse your bottles for homebrewing, but be careful and have high criteria as even the smallest signs of dirt at the bottom or on the bottle walls can cause infection. It’s not enough to remove most of the dirt, you must remove the whole visible dirt and if there’s still a visible stain it must go off before you sanitize.
Laziness is the number one cause of infections in homebrewing, sometimes we brewers believe the bottle is clean and throw it into the sanitizer and bottle, yet that little stain at the side contained nasty germs that couldn’t be killed by sanitizer.
If you find it hard to clean all those bottles, think about using a keg or a barrel as bulk cleaning really saves time and nerves.