Storage of Carboys

[Oskaar]

Does anyone keep their unused carboys full of a mixture of bleach and water?

I've read about this practice in a number of places, and stumbled across a 1993 issue of Zymurgy that I have in my archives that advocates doing so.

I just washed out my little 1 gallon apple cider bottles (still have to remove the labels) and I will probably store them in this manner until I start with Joe's Ancient Mead recipe in one and the three week mead in another.

Oskaar

 

[WikdWaze]

Sounds like a good idea to me. You'd have to sanitize it later if you left it empty, so might as well fill it with sanitizer then just empty it when you're ready to use it.

Hey, it's 4 in the morning and I already learned something new, I can turn my brain off the rest of the day ;D

 

[Derf]

I give my carboys a good cleaning before I put them away, but I store them empty. The only jug I keep full of bleach solution is the one I store it in when I figure I can get away with re-using it--re-using the bleach, that is. It isn't done for the jug's sake.

I would feel bad about pouring so much chlorine down the drain if I kept all my 6 gallon carboys full. If I ever have an infected batch, I might change my mind, but so far I haven't had any trouble.

 

[Jmattioli]

I've found no need to keep bleach in the carboys. Like Derf I clean them up immedialtely after use. I use a bottle brush and dishwater detergent and then rinse them out real well upside down with a pressure washer. Then I store them empty but covered after drying. When I am ready to use them I rinse them out once more and that is when I use the bleach to disinfect them and it doesn't take long since they were already clean an only needed a final disinfecting prior to use.
Joe

 

[ScottS]

Yep, I do something similar. Clean and disinfect before storage, store empty, clean and disinfect before use. Never had a problem.

 

[Oskaar]

For my carboys I'll continue to wash, sanitize and rinse then cap them with some stretch seal after they've drip dried.

For the one gallon bottles I'll keep them full with the bleach solution. Then when it's time to fill one up, I'll dump the solution into a plastic bucket and use that as my primary wash for hoses, funnels, airlocks etc. Then I can sanitize and go.

Oskaar

 

[svaros]

I keep mine filled with a bleach solution. That way when I need to rack, I empty some of the solution from the larger carboys to the smaller ones, thus sanitizing the smaller carboys/jugs, and my racking equipment at the same time. Once I've transfered the solution, I just rinse, and am ready to rack.

 

[Pewter_of_Deodar]

I clean my carboys, rinse them with One Step Sanitizer, rinse them several times with hot water, and put them in the little upsidedown holders until they dry. Then I turn them over and just put a big plastic cup turned upside down over the opening and store them like that.

Then before I use them, I will rinse, One Step, then rinse several times again. I can't see losing a 6 gallon batch to trying to shortcut a simple, one minute process.