Sterilising glass bottles is one of the most important parts of home brewing. Find out how to sterilise glass bottles perfectly with these simple steps, and enjoy hygienic home brewing!
How to sterilise glass bottles properly is the real secret to successful homebrew. Without thorough sterilisation, you’ll end up with a powdery, mouldy film across your creation, and it’s likely to smell and taste more like vinegar than the tasty tipple that you were aiming for!
In order to avoid the risk of lurking bacteria or mould spores spoiling your brew, some heavy-duty cleaning is required. Read on to find out how to sterilise glass bottles and how to sterilise wine bottles like a pro.
How to sterilise glass bottles
Sterilising glass bottles can be fairly labour intensive, especially if you are sterilising a lot of them. However, cutting corners could risk spoiling your brew, so it’s well worth taking the time to do it properly. Follow this step-by-step guide on how to sterilise glass bottles so there’s no risk of spoiling your beverage.
First, give your bottles and bottle tops a thorough initial clean.
If the bottles still have labels attached to them, soak them in hot water with a good dishwashing liquid, for about 10 minutes.
Peel.
Peel off the label and any sticky residue.
Make up a solution.
Don a pair of plastic gloves to protect your hands before making up a solution of 1 gallon of water and 1 tablespoon of multi-usage bleach, like Domestos.
Soak.
Soak the bottles and bottle tops in the bleach solution for a further 10 minutes, before using a nylon bottle brush to scrub the interiors of the bottles. Use a small brush or clean toothbrush to scrub the insides of the bottle tops.
Use water that has been boiled.
Use water that has been boiled to rinse the bottles thoroughly until all traces of the bleach have been removed. It’s a good idea to allow the water to cool after you have boiled it, to avoid burning yourself by accident. Do not use plain tap water as this could lead to contamination of the bottles.
We’re a very wasteful society. Even when you look at some of the best nations when it comes to recycling and reusing, there’s still a lot of room for improvement. It all starts with a collective effort, and one of the best ways that we can reduce our carbon footprint is to look for alternative solutions that don’t damage the earth like reusable items. For example, learn how to sterilize glass bottles to reuse them
