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Discussing ways to reduce waste and build community!

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Beer bottles can get quite nasty before people return them -- how good are industrial beer bottle dishwashers? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It doesn’t take long for mold to grow on empty beer bottles. Considering beer bottles get returned for a refund, you have to assume that the brewery will make an effort to reuse as many as possible.

I toured a brewery once and they showed us the big industrial bottle washing machine. They said the bottles get scanned for cracks using a laser, and rejects obviously get tossed. The question is: what about mold, which adheres quite well to the corners of the glass? I wonder if the laser also detects bottles that didn’t get clean. Or if they just figure the temps would kill everything and just be considered safe enough from there.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

I imagine it's not just heat but disinfectant too.

Given glass is pretty inert they could even be using something like bleach or strong acid.