New to Brewing

[ddonlon]

Im almost ready to bottle , Looking for advice on if I have to sterilise the coopers PET bottles that came with my kit, I checked youtube and it said they came pre sterilised.
Do I need to rinse them out or just use them as they are
Thanks

[DEMPSEY]

If you have sterizer use it as although the bottles might be super clean they still might need a no rinse clean. You can make this up using vinegar and bleach.  DO NOT MIX THESE TOGETHER WITHOUT FIRST PUTTING THEM INTO WATER. Sorry for shouting but this can Kill as the gas is seriously dangerous. 

[bassman]

Be careful using the Budweiser bottles

A lot of them have very thin glass and might explode under the pressure of home made beers

Grolsch swing tops are the best you can get (My view) and you also get the pleasure of drinking the beer as well

[Leann ull]

Starsan for sanitation, bleach and vinegar!!

[DEMPSEY]

+1 on the bottles as some beer bottles mostly the green ones but some brown too are considered "use once" bottles. They can break at the neck when you go to cap them.
I mentioned bleach and vinegar and should have explained it more. Remember that sanitise and clean are two different things in brewing. Sanitise will not clean but will kill bugs

the method of creating a cheap sanitiser is as follows,
1 use a clean plastic bucket and fill with 20 liters of clean water,
2 add to the water 31 mls of bleach and stir well,
3 add to the water 31 mls of vinegar and stir well.

you now have a no rinse steriliser with a low PH that will kill almost all known bugs in just 30 seconds of contact.

if you mix the vinegar and bleach neat you create chlorine gas which will mean we all get a day off work to go to your funeral ,so don;t .
the cheapest bleach with no added crap to it and plain malt vinegar is all you need.

[Leann ull]

"Leg of frog and wing of bat"

Any new brewer I'd be pushing them in direction of starsan

Sorry if that sounds disrespectful to the "old ways"

[DEMPSEY]

The recipe of vinegar/bleach actually came from the inventor of starsan, Charlie talley of five star chemicals when talking about this on "basic brewing radio". way back in marsh 2007
http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/3/9/0/390da96899933961/bbr03-29-07.mp3?c_id=1452161&expiration=1449845691&hwt=b16d9118a8bca7bfa25a64f82ab0caf1

[Garry]

My first kit was the full Coopers DIY kit. The instructions said rinse with water and drive on. I knew noting about sanitation at the time so I just did as the instructions said. I just gave the fermenter a splash of tap water and the beer fermented out fine. I rinsed out the PET bottles with tap water too and had no problems.

So it's fine as long as the bottles are perfectly clean. But how can you be sure? It's safer to sanitise.

Starsan is the berries but you might not have time to get some. The bleach/vinegar no-rinse sanitiser recipe is: Add 30ml of vinegar & 30ml thin bleach to 20 litres of water. As stated already, DO NOT mix neat vinegar with neat bleach. It will create chlorine gas which can be lethal.

[Leann ull]

30 or 31mls how do I measure that?!!

[nigel_c]

Go with just under a shot glass. Simples.

[Leann ull]

My shot glasses are 50cl hic

Bleach and vinegar if you have no other option, it doesn't ferment out and if you get it wrong ️

[cruiscinlan]

30 or 31mls how do I measure that?!!

Just measure it on your digital scales sure, how else are you doing your hop additions!!

Great suggestion on the no rinse sanitiser Dempsey, I was actually looking for a recipe as I'm moving into kegging so boiling the bloody bejasus out of it ain't an option on most plastic parts.

[DEMPSEY]

30 or 31mls how do I measure that?!!

so who does not cook in the kitchen if you do not then ask the cook for a loan of their liquid measure jug,the little one,and remember to wash it after

[cruiscinlan]

Dempsey btw is Milton/baby sterilizer the same as plain thin bleach? It's the only thing I could find that's not perfumed etc.

[Leann ull]

Yep that will do, be careful to use the thin unperfumed bleaches folks if you are stuck