Mould in glass bottles

[chriswilliams]

Hi,

I am due to bottle my brew soon and have been de-labelling and cleaning about 50 glass bottles over the weekend. During this process, I noticed that quite a few have mouldy gunk in the bottom. Tried cleaning out with a brush but didn't really work so have been reading the forums and seen that washing soda has been used by people for a similar purpose. Could somebody confirm that this would work ok to get rid of stubborn mould in the bottom of the bottles?

Thanks!
Chris

[edit1now]

Washing soda seems to shift almost anything

[Gurgeh]

blaech with white vinegar work pretty well too!

[Graham]

You really want to use bleach to make sure it is really dead. I have used a bit of lamp-chain swirled around in bottles in the past to clean them, but I have read elsewhere that a few grains of rice swirled around does a good job too, but I've not tried it.

[chriswilliams]

Thanks for the help.

Went and bought some washing soda and it seems to have done the job on most of the bottles. There is some rather persistant grime in the bottom of 4 or 5 for which I'll give the rice and the bleach and the vinegar a go!

Thanks again,
Chris

[timmydog]

You have my sympathy; soaking with cleaners and using a bottle brush worked for me, but it's a pain - so much so, that now I make sure that I give all of my bottles a rinse (shake the bottles with some water in and your hand over the top to ensure the sediment goes) on the night of opening - or the day after when I'm moving the bottles back to the brewery, er, I mean spare bedroom.

Tim

PS be careful with bleach mixed with other cleaners - it can give off poisonous gas

[chriswilliams]

Again, thanks for the replies.

Tried some rice mixed with water in the bottles with stubborn skank in and it worked a dream!

Now I have 45 lovely clean bottles all waiting to be sterilised and filled with (hopefully) lovely homebrew!!

Chris

[Graham]

Again, thanks for the replies.

Tried some rice mixed with water in the bottles with stubborn skank in and it worked a dream!

Now I have 45 lovely clean bottles all waiting to be sterilised and filled with (hopefully) lovely homebrew!!

Chris

Brilliant. Glad it worked. That's one to remember. Thanks for reporting back.

I can't remember where I read it now, but I am fairly sure that it was in an old book of household tips at my brother's place, but I cannot for the life of me imagine why anyone, apart from home brewers, would need to clean gunk out of bottles. So perhaps I read it elsewhere. Seems to be a good tip though.

[chriswilliams]

One word of advice though! Don't wash the rice down the sink. I was up at the crack of dawn this morning unblocking the u-bend!! Note to self: empty into bin next time...

Thanks!
Chris