# Sterilizing glass jars with bleach - taste?



## Andrew Dewey (Aug 23, 2005)

Anyone who has cleaned up new and used glass jars for honey using bleach, how does the bleach affect the taste of the honey? I don't have so much honey that I want to experiment, but I do have a plethora of used Mason jars that I'd like to use if possible. No dishwasher here (other than me) (off grid).


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## lazy shooter (Jun 3, 2011)

I think bleach is over kill. Just use some dish wash detergent and rinse in hot water. Glass cleans easily and does not retain chemicals in it's skin.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

I have a thing about odors from scented dish detergent. Hate when I put a frying pan on and get a waft of perfume as it heats up. Plain chlorine bleach (some of it is stupidly scented too) is smelly of chlorine when using it but leaves no odor behind. It does a good job of taking off rust stains from old rings and lids that detergent wont touch.


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## mgolden (Oct 26, 2011)

Jars and lids are cleaned after use by putting them in the dish washer. Store jars closed, using old lids.

Prior to filling we invert them in a roaster partilly filled with water and boil for 5 mins, sterilizing them. Use new snap lids and sterlize them in a sauce pan.


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## beegeorge (Apr 19, 2012)

I would do it just as I do my bottles for home brew - that is,, soak in a chlorine bleach solution (not one of the flowery smelly ones) then rinse well, turn upside down ( I have a rack for my beer bottles - and I am sure you can make such a thing for mason jars) on towels and let dry - the chlorine smell should be totally gone when the jars are dry.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Rinse well and let dry. Sodium hypochlorite (bleach) oxidizes quickly. Do a second rinse if you're paranoid about any residue which is mainly salt.


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## Nabber86 (Apr 15, 2009)

Also keep in mind that you only need 1 tablespoon per gallon of water to sanitize jars. A lot of people put in way to much bleach.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

One tip is to make sure you use the proper concentration. Our state requires some method of sanitation, and recommends bleach. They also make sure you have chlorine test strips to get the concentration correct. Further, they do not recommend rinsing after the sanitation dip. If your state doesn't require such practices, then a good washing is probably fine for new glass, but used stuff should be sanitized for sure.


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## bees4lifeapiary (Jun 29, 2012)

I havent had much to bottle yet,but I have boiled the ones I have used so far, no chemicals at all just good old sanitation by heat.


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## Ben Brewcat (Oct 27, 2004)

As noted above: don't over-mix! Stronger actually does not increase effectiveness. I would use a hot-water rinse with bleach; bleach can interact with food compounds to make chlorophenols which taste like burnt band-aid. Yeah.


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## Gord (Feb 8, 2011)

There's no point in sterilyzing jars.
There aren't a lot of pathogens that'll live in honey.
Sanitize yes, sterilize, no.


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## Andrew Dewey (Aug 23, 2005)

Gord said:


> Sanitize yes, sterilize, no.


Thank you for the distinction. I hope to have the state in to inspect my kitchen before long and want to have my procedures down before they come. Sounds like some test strips for bleach concentration are in order.


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