Cleaning Bottles

I hate when “Past John” leaves work for “Future John”. It’s strange…we’re the same guy, just separated by time.

“Past John” is lazy…or at least inconsiderate…when it comes to cleaning.

To bottle up our beer that we made at IncrediBREW back on October 6th, I needed to gather up all the 22 ounce bottles I have kicking around in the basement.

I can say the first case looked clean but the other two cases had a lot of funkiness. Ugly white and green clumps of mold were stuck to the bottom of a large number of bottles.

Last night, I got out my PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) and followed the directions on the package to make a nice soaking solution in my bottling bucket.

I used the spigot on the bucket to fill each bottle with the solution and I just let them soak overnight.

This morning, I gave some of the more funky bottles a shake. The PBW had broken up the mold and now big, wildly shaped particles were floating in the bottle.

This stuff works great! No scrubbing needed.

So this time, “Future John” was ok with the work that was left him…but that’s not always the case.

The lesson I need to learn and follow is to clean homebrewing equipment and materials as soon as I am done with them. Don’t leave it for later.

To rid my life of bottle cleaning, I could throw money at the problem and buy kegs and kegging equipment. 🙂