Cleaning the inside of bottles, tool

[masraum]

What good tool do you have/use to clean the inside of bottles. Most of the bottles that we'd clean would be ~12" tall with a 1" mouth, but we do have some Grolsch-style bottles as well. The Grolsch bottles came with a brush that was twisted wire with plastic bristles. That one doesn't fill me with confidence that it gets the inside, especially the bottom, of the bottles clean because the bristles bend and the end of the brush ends up with practically no bristles.


We've been able to mostly use an Oxo bottle brush like this for the bigger necked bottles, but it's not perfect either.



I've seen a lot of hype about silicone bottle brushes too, but I suspect they won't work in the beer bottles.



Surely there are some homebrew guys here that have come up with the best way to get their bottles clean.

[stevej37]

I don't use it...but something like this might be handy......
https://www.amazon.com/Holikme-Attachments-Scrubber-Attachment-Bathroom/dp/B07T8FDKD3/ref=sr_1_20?dchild=1&keywords=farm+use+bottle+brush&qid=1633538795&sr=8-20

(a lot of useless pieces included)

[masraum]

Originally Posted by stevej37

I don't use it...but something like this might be handy......
https://www.amazon.com/Holikme-Attachments-Scrubber-Attachment-Bathroom/dp/B07T8FDKD3/ref=sr_1_20?dchild=1&keywords=farm+use+bottle+brush&qid=1633538795&sr=8-20

(a lot of useless pieces included)

If the bullet shaped will fit into the bottle, yeah, that would probably be pretty good. Not that I'm expecting this, but having some sort of sleeve that you could push forward that would bend all of the bristles forward and could then be retracted once inside would also be great. Probably wouldn't be that hard to rig with some narrow metal pipe too.

Apparently, I'm not the first to have thought of this.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/rotary-beer-wine-bottle-washer.html

[vash]

i dont like the bristle ones.

i actually push a soapy sponge in and push it around with a long cooking chopstick. all my bottles have larger openings tho.

[TimT]

Some star-san, then this:

Bottle Washer

[stevej37]

^^^ That is cool! (the video shows it working)

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by TimT

Some star-san, then this:

Bottle Washer

I had one of those when I homebrewed. Worked great!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by TimT

Some star-san, then this:

Bottle Washer

That seems really cool. My concern is that without some sort of physical scrubbing action, or super hot soapy water, you aren't really going to get everything off.

[cabmandone]

I always rinse my flip top bottles after using them. Then they go in an oxyclean bath, then into starsan. I use a brush, like the first pic in your OP, to clean the inside.

[craigster59]

When i used to brew, dead soldier bottles would get rinsed before stored. When bottling, they would first soak in a tub of water and 1/4 cup bleach for 30 minutes, then a hot rinse with the contraption Tim T posted. Drain on a bottle tree until dry, then fill 'er up!

[Por_sha911]

My aunt showed me how to put quarter size pieces of sandwich bread into the bottle and add a little water and soap. Shake and swirl like crazy. The bread with the water became heavy and did the same thing as a sponge with pressure. The wet bread will easily come out and then rinse.

[masraum]

Thanks, everyone.

[Tobra]

Try an outfit that supplies clinical labs. They will sell stuff that will work great