Thoughts on the Better Bottle after a year or so

[DBear]

So how are all of getting the BB fully clean especially the crude ring?

I soak mine in PBW for 12-24hrs before i can get the crude ring off. When soaking does not fully work, I put a sock over my carboy brush to get the remaining crude ring off. (I know. Brushing may cause scratching.)

-Cheers

[TheDarkSide]

I haven't had any of these issues with a better bottle. The 6 gallon thing is slightly annoying but a little fermcap-S and I can fill it right up to 5.5 gallons. I use the orange carboy caps and they seem to fit fine. I even put 1/2" vinyl tubing on the larger port and use it as a blowoff tube.

El Tizzo - milk crates are great for moving the BB around without suckback. They also help protect the bottom from cracking and scratches.

Maybe the BB does have a shorter lifespan than glass, but it only take one exploding glass carboy to kill ya.

[dunleav1]

So how are all of getting the BB fully clean especially the crude ring?

I soak mine in PBW for 12-24hrs before i can get the crude ring off. When soaking does not fully work, I put a sock over my carboy brush to get the remaining crude ring off. (I know. Brushing may cause scratching.)

-Cheers

All I do is soak them overnight, they always come clean. If it's heavy crud I may put a little extra oxyclean in.

My pet peeves with them:
The size is too small - I want 6.5 gallons.
Even new some of the bottles have scratches in them - maybe a problem with the mold?

[TastyMcD]

I've bought four, two cracked and leaked but still prefer them over glass.

Tasty

[Fugglupagus]

I soak mine in PBW for 12-24hrs before i can get the crude ring off.

Me too, but I'm a cheap bastard, so I only use a couple gallons worth of PBW laden water. I lay the bottle on its side stuffed with a rubber stopper plugged with a fat sharpie marker. I spin the bottle about a quarter turn every few hours or so to get the entire neck clean. I also periodically shake the living piss out of it. Afterward I clean the inside of the neck by hand and soak the stopper separately in PBW. Seems to work ok for me.

My biggest beef is that the neck won't readily hold a rubber stopper with blow off tube. The stopper pops out of the neck. That is unless I jam the stopper 100% into the bottle neck, which then makes it a bitch to get back out. I have a bottle that is scratched from prying the stopper out.

. . . .but it only take one exploding glass carboy to kill ya.

+1. I do enuf stupid things around/with/in beer. F'ing myself up with a carboy doesn't have to be one of them.

[linuxelf]

So how are all of getting the BB fully clean especially the crude ring?

Sometimes the PBW won't get the ring clean on mine either. I just put a washcloth inside the BB with a little bit of water and swish it around. The crud ring comes off really easily. Then just pull the cloth out, rinse, and it's ready for starsan.

[San_Diego_Matt]

I see I'm not the only one who doesn't want to spend the $30? on the BB specific stopper/racking device?

[Tygo]

An overnight hot oxyclean soak followed by a hot rinse has never failed to remove the crud for me.