Since all 15 litres of the Erdinger Weißbier needed to be bottled, and having got frustrated by my previous bottle washing routine, I got the bottle rinser and drainer pictured on the right as one of my xmas presents – so thanks, Mum & Dad!
When I’ve emptied a bottle, I give it a good rinse out, if necessary a soak in VWP solution (if so, a thorough rinse, usually finishing with one or two dissolved campden tablets to neutralise any chlorines left from the VWP). It then gets stored in bottle boxes in the garage until I need to use it. After having found a spider in one of my bottles, I think I’d better start popping a small cap of tin-foil over the tops, as I’ve seen suggested on the brewing forums, to try and prevent any more unwelcome visitors!
The tree itself holds 45 bottles, which was perfect for the Erdinger, which required 38. You may be able to see that some of the bottles have labels on them. That’s because they’re Rebellion White bottles, and the label is a real pain to remove and I got bored of doing so! They are the biggest source of the 330ml brown bottles that I wanted to use, since Vicky is so fond of them, but there are a few from different brands as well, and 14 full size (~500ml, or pint) bottles at the bottom of the tree.
The tree is made from the base, which contains one tier of 9 prongs, and another 4 separate tiers of 9 prongs, making the 45 in total. If you’re only bottling a small number then you don’t have to put all the tiers on, making it therefore shorter in height. The tree rotates, which makes it easier to use since you don’t have to struggle to reach the far side of it.
The rinser is the thing at the top, on which a bottle is balancing upside down. You fill the clear plastic reservoir with cleaning solution – in my case StarSan, hence the foam – and just push the bottle down onto the rinser, which squirts the cleaning solution into the bottle.
I just dipped the neck of the bottle in the solution, give it two squirts, and popped it on the drainer (which I’d sprayed with StarSan before starting). Since StarSan is a no-rinse cleaner, that was it. Done.
Anyway, the rinser and drainer made the whole process very quick indeed – a lot more convenient than my previous faffing around with buckets. I can thoroughly recommend it.
The drainer and rinser are available separately, and I believe mine came from BrewUK. The drainer is here, and the rinser is here.
