The idea for this project came from our very own Mr. Wizard. Whether wizard or mortal, we must all sanitize our bottles if we’re going to put beer in them. How we accomplish this task is the genesis of this project.

In my homebrew club, the number of different bottle-sanitizing procedures equals the number of homebrewers. Some bake their bottles in a 500° F oven for half an hour. Others use their dishwasher in a variety of ways. Some of the dishwasher advocates use sanitizer in place of soap. Others use the dry cycle for moist heat. A few do both. And, of course, some of my fellow brewers submerge their bottles in buckets of sanitizing solution — at a no-rinse concentration — and then drain and bottle. Soaking in sanitizer is a great method, but it’s time consuming and requires five to 10 gallons of sanitizing solution.

What if you could simply spray the interior of your bottles with your favorite no-rinse sanitizer, drain and bottle? Spraying the inside of a bottle shouldn’t be too hard; just grab a spray bottle full of Star San, hold each beer bottle horizontal and spritz. Still, there must be a better way. How about a spray wand, much like the commercial bottle rinsers that hook up to your sink nozzle? Add a source of pressure to spray the sanitizing solution and we’ve got ourselves a bottle sanitizer. It’s the details that make this project a wee bit more difficult.

The first question is, where will the pressurized sanitizing solution come from? Those who keg might answer, “from a couple of gallons of sanitizing solution in a keg at two to four psi of pressure.” The rest of us can take inspiration from the now-ubiquitous home and office-sized mood fountains. These fountains use inexpensive submersible pumps to recirculate water over rocks and pebbles.

Conceptually, we’re almost complete. We have a bucket or keg of sanitizing solution, pressure (from a keg or a small pump) and a homemade spray wand. If you choose the recirculating pump option, note the critical shutoff height. The shutoff height is the height above which the pump can’t push liquid any higher. For us that means that the distance between the tip of your wand and the bottom of your bucket can’t be greater than the shutoff height. Pumps rated with a greater shutoff height are better. And oops . . . where’s the on-off switch?

To create a fluid shut-off valve, or hydraulic “on-off” switch, my pal Mike suggested something like a teeter-
totter. With equal weight at each end, the plank of a teeter-totter is perfectly balanced. With more weight on one end — perhaps from a big kid — that end slams to the ground and stays there. Now imagine that there’s a hose running under the teeter-totter. When the big kid sits down, the teeter-totter plank hits the ground and shuts off the flow of water through the hose. We can use that same concept to control the flow of sanitizing solution through our bottle-sanitizing device.

We’ll use latex, not ordinary clear Tygon® tubing, because latex can be easily pinched shut. And, instead of renting the neighbor’s kid to provide clamping force, we’ll use springs. Pushing down on the other end of our teeter-totter will “raise the big kid” and release our sanitizing solution. If we build our teeter-totter on a wooden platform over a bucket, we can reuse or recirculate our sanitizing solution.

Construction
This is an easy project and it requires only hand tools: a saw, a hacksaw, a drill motor and drills, and a regular screwdriver (and maybe a Phillips screwdriver, too).

Begin by cutting two solid pine or poplar boards. (Plywood or other man-made wood will come unglued when wet.) One board should be sized to reach across a spare brew pot or plastic bucket with plenty of run-off space on either side; the other makes the teeter-totter. Because buckets and scrap wood will vary, your sizes may not match mine. I cut a 7 x 13 x 3/4” base and a 7-1/4 x 11 x 3/4” teeter-totter. (If you’re not a woodworker, “one-inch” boards are actually 3/4 of an inch thick because of the planing or smoothing performed on the surface. Length and width are accurate, but a “two by four” is actually 1-3/4 x 3-3/4”.)

To create our teeter-totter, we’ll need two support brackets and two pivot pins. The pins are 5/16” hardwood pegs available at most home-improvement stores and lumberyards. Cut two support brackets to approximately 2 x 4”. Clamp the brackets together, then mark a centerline and drill a 21/64” hole through both, approximately 1” from the top. Drill these holes as close to perpendicular as possible, as they form a bearing.

Measure and mark the teeter-totter at approximately 2/3 of its length. Carry the marks down and make a mark at the midpoint. Drill a 21/64” hole that will leave the pivot pins exposed 3/4–1”. Each hole should be approximately 1” deep.   

Fit the pins into the teeter-totter, then through the support brackets.  Center the teeter-totter right to left with the longer end meeting one end of the support board. Then measure the position of the support brackets. Mark their position (footprint) and drill two holes through the support board. Clamp the support brackets back in place and drill up through the holes into the brackets.

Two notes: A pair of cleats screwed to the bottom of the support board will prevent it sliding about. Also, you must pre-drill holes in the brackets or the end grain will split. Assuming you’re using #6 brass wood screws, 1/16” or 5/64” drills are the proper size for softwood. Be sure to use brass or other rust-proof screws. (I used galvanized deck screws.)    

Two common “Handyman” springs available from home-improvement stores provide clamping or shut-off force. (I originally thought of using the thick rubber bands found on produce.) Drill two 3/32” holes into the cross-pot support board, each about 1” from the end centerline. Screw #8 x 1-1/2” brass round-head wood screws into the end and slip one end of the springs over them. Slip the rubber tubing between the support board and the teeter-totter. Put enough tension on the springs to firmly collapse the rubber tube. Extend each spring and mark a screw position on the teeter-totter that keeps tension on the spring. Drill holes into the end of the teeter-totter. The correct predrill size for a #8 wood screw is approximately 3/32” or 5/64”.

Disassemble the teeter-totter — the wooden pegs should slip out. Cut a piece of 3/8” copper tube (soft copper preferred) 18–24” long. Using a spring bender or other tubing bender, make a tight 90° bend in the tube approximately 10” from one end.

On the remainder end, solder a support flange 1–2” from the end. Make the flange of scrap copper tube that’s beaten flat. Thick is better; you’ll need room to slip the rubber tube over this end. Drill two 1/8” holes into the support flange.

Drill a 1/2” or larger hole through the short end of the teeter-totter and slip the copper tube through, allowing 7–10” to protrude. This length will depend on your bottles. Use a longer length if you use only 22 oz. “bomber” bottles; make the tube shorter if you use recycled Guinness or Anchor bottles. Ideally, you’ll want the wand to extend to within an inch of the bottom of the bottle. Mark the length correct for you, then remove the tube and cut off all but an extra 1/4”. That will become the spray tip.

To make a spray tip, make an “L” shaped cut about 1/2” from the end. Bend the remaining copper over and hammer the end closed. Don’t be too concerned about leaks — we need them.  Once the end is closed, drill four to eight holes radially around the tube and at least one through the end. Use the smallest drill bit you can, 1/8” or smaller. Remember that small bits require less pressure. When you are done drilling, lightly sand the surface to remove the wire edges.

Reassemble the spray wand and attach the rubber tube to the spray wand. A low-pressure clamp to hold this together might be a good idea. Secure the flange to the teeter-totter with stainless steel or brass wood screws. You’ll likely have to bend the copper tube a bit to allow the latex tube to fit on. Replace the teeter-totter and pivot pins and you’re almost done.

Buy enough latex rubber tubing — between two and eight feet — to reach to one of three pressure sources: a small recirculating pump in a bucket, a RIMS pump, or a keg. Keggers will have to experiment with CO2 pressures, but 2–5 psi should work. 

The final consideration is sanitizing solution. Iodine solutions and Five Star Star San come to mind. Both are readily available and have clear instructions for making no-rinse concentrations. With well-cleaned bottles, a five- to 10-second blast from our homemade sanitizing machine followed by a 20–60 second drain time should provide the required contact time for properly sanitized bottles.

Thom Cannell also writes and takes photographs for auto magazines.

Parts List

• Wood and pins
• 1 foot 4” x 1” clear pine
• 2 feet 8” x 1” clear pine
• Less than $2/foot
• 2-3/8” hardwood pegs
• $2 (bag of 10)
• Wood screws
• (4) #8 x 1-1/2” brass round-head
• (4) #6 x 1-1/2” pan-head 
• $1.00 (bag of 4)
• 24” of 3/8” outer-diameter soft copper tube
• $13.00/20’
• 2-8’ of latex rubber tube 
• $1.45/foot
• Pump
• Submersible     $20-$30               
  
• RIMS pump     $120
• Keg system    $135

For pump examples try:
http://pumpworld.net/minipumps.htm