PROTOCOL FOR CLEANING BOTTLES

            The APP (Aromatic Plant Project) recommends that all growers/distillers who are producing hydrosols clean all their containers with a 10% Clorox solution and then rinse these containers repeatedly with steam or boiling water to remove the Clorox odor — before using these containers for hydrosols.  To kill bacteria, mold, mildew, fungus you need Clorox.  Boiling water alone is  not enough nor is vinegar washes, soap and water washes or alcohol rinses or even steam alone.

            Before distillation, run a 10% solution of Clorox in all your containers, large and small, swish the Clorox around and around for at least three minute, pour that Clorox out into the next container and continue until all your 55 gallon food-grade drums, 5-gallon containers and 1-qt bottles are clean and then rinse these with steam or boiling water until the Clorox smell is gone.  The Clorox sterilizes the containers, the boiling water rinses away all trace of the Clorox.

Source: The Aromatic News, the newsletter of the
AromaticPlantProject.com at 877/966-4227

^©All Rights Reserved 2003, 2004. No part of this article may be used
without prior permission from The Aromatic Plant Project.
^©Author's Copyright and Jeanne Rose, info@aromaticplantproject.com