Sanitize well!

No disasters yet (cross my fingers), but I am pretty careful with sanitizing my equipment and bottles. Good thing too because the bottles I used this time were from a friend's uncle's bar. I hadn't looked at the bottles too carefully -- figured I would use them when I needed them. Next time I will pre-clean any bottles I get. Not only did the bottles smell moldy, but several had pea-sized furry lumps growing in the bottom. Ugly.

I cleaned every bottle with dish detergent and the bottle brush, blasted them with the bottle washer, sanitized with C-Brite, and then used the dishwasher (wash/dry, heat cycle). Maybe overkill, but I figured better play it safe.

The folks at the Homebrewers' Livejournal coincidentally have a discussion today about different sanitizing techniques. The oven method sounds intriguing.