BeerBorg

Continuing a thread from Over Yonder, these photos show how Oxiclean behaves in hard water. In each of them, 1 teaspoon of Oxiclean is dissolved in half a wine bottle of water. One is in hard water (45 grains hardness) and one is in soft water. The precipitate that causes the white film on bottles forms only in hard water. A similar thing happens to Star-San which quickly becomes cloudy and ineffective when mixed with hard water.

I've got hard water and have used OxiClean to clean out my LBKs after bottling, but haven't used it with any bottles which for now all mine are plastic. I haven't used the LBKs since because I ran out of HME. Is this going to cause problems next time I make a batch? Or will the one-step stuff take care of that?

When I have had bottles covered with white film after cleaning with Oxiclean in hard water, I had to remove it with CLR solution. Others have said that they removed it with vinegar or Star-San solution.

Very interesting.

DirtRacer wrote:I've got hard water and have used OxiClean to clean out my LBKs after bottling, but haven't used it with any bottles which for now all mine are plastic. I haven't used the LBKs since because I ran out of HME. Is this going to cause problems next time I make a batch? Or will the one-step stuff take care of that?

OxiClean cleans the bottle. One-Step sanitizes it. It doesn't matter how long you go between cleaning and sanitizing, as long as you don't introduce dirt into the bottle in the meantime (I store mine in a box). Before sanitizing, hold each bottle up to the light and look at it to make sure there aren't any mice, snakes, or elephants inside.

OxiClean tends to leave nothing unless you soak the object for long periods of time. I find that in normal bottle and LBK cleaning, usually I do not even need OxiClean. For the LBK, I use the faucet and warm water to wash out all the trub. I then fill it 1/2 way with water and put the lid on, then shake it over the sink. I drain that out too. Then, I fill it 1/2 way with water and a drop or 2 of unscented dish soap. I shake it, then turn it upside down so the trub is under water soaking and I leave it in the sink for a few minutes (it will leak, so don't put it on the counter). I open it, take a soft sponge, and rub every surface inside. Rinse, rinse, rinse, examine in the light and repeat if necessary, remove spigot, wipe spigot area and rinse several times.

If you do have a white film, One-Step will NOT remove it. It also won't harm anything...

I have the same problem with hard water and (beer stone ?) residue. Bottle brush doesn't get my bottles clean enough. I use a sand/fine gravel mixture, a reusable bottle stopper and my cleaning solution is 1 cup water, 1 cup alcohol and 1/4 cup clear ammonia.

Add about an inch of sand/gravel fill with cleaning solution to just above sand/gravel, seal bottle and shake like the devil. Grab the next bottle and pour the mix into and repeat. I have a tub of plain water and a fine strainer to rinse any remaining gravel out and then I double rinse them in water treated with half a campden tablet. I let them sit on the bottle tree for about 45 minutes and then hold them up to the light (don't use florescent light) if there is any water vapor still in the bottle it didn't get cleaned good enough, if there is something for water vapor to cling to then so will bacteria etc.

I'm pretty anal about my bottles being absolutely spotless and have done lots of experimenting with different cleaners etc. and this has given me the best results so far.

Another thing to consider is when de-labeling bottles is to soak them standing upright so dissolved glue doesn't get on the inside, that is also hard to get out if it "sets".