Wines and SpiritsHome Brew Hints - Sanitizing Your Bottles and Equipment
Before you bottle your beer, you have to sanitize the bottles, otherwise bacteria can form in the bottle and ruin the entire batch.
The first step of the process is to prepare a place for the bottles to sit while they are being sanitized. This should be a place that can hold 50 beet bottles. In home brewing, the best place for this is the bathtub. To prepare the bathtub, first scrub the tub will with bleach, then fill it up with water and a full bottle of bleach. Let this solution sit for a day and rinse.
The second step is to make another mixture of bleach and water. This mixture should be approximately one teaspoon of bleach per gallon. If doing this in a bathtub, it is about 2 cups of water. The proportion of this mixture does not need to be perfect, so don"t get too tied up making it exact.
Next, put the bottles into the tub (or whatever you are using to hold the mixture) making sure that the inside of the bottles are filled with the solution. Any other equipment used in the bottling process should be in the tub with the bottles. Everything should sit in the solution for about 20-30 minutes.
Rinse the bottles very well. Bacteria can ruin the batch of beer and so will extra bleach left in the bottle. When rinsing, do not touch the rim of the bottles with your hands. Move the bottles touching them on the outside. Continue to keep the bottles sanitary until the beer is capped.