Kate Connally wrote:
> Does anyone have any good methods for cleaning
> bottles. Here's the deal. I have this great old-fashioned
> glass milk bottle that i got at a local dairy when they
> had a festival. I came with chocolate milk in it but I
> have saved it and use it frequently for storing things
> like lemonade or freshly squeezed oj. It has developed
> a cloudy deposit on the bottom. It's not a problem as
> far as usage goes but it bugs the heck out of me and I
> want to make it all crystal-clear and shiny bright.
>
> Now if it were large enough for me to get my hand in there
> I would just take a Brillo pad or SOS pad and scour it.
> However I can't do that so how do I clean it. In the past
> I have had occasion to use bottle brushes of various sorts
> and they are okay for some things but they would not work
> for this. You can't apply enough force.
>
> I thought of using coffee pot cleaner and checked into that
> on the internet. There are many commercial cleaners but
> many sites recommended things like vinegar, Alkaseltzer,
> Polident, baking soda, and bleach. Do those things really
> work?
>
> Also, I have another bottle which is a tall think bottle
> with a bale top. A friend gave it to me as a gift with
> homemade flavored olive oil (some sort of herbs in it
> as I recall). She painted stuff on the outside of the bottle
> and I would really like to be able to keep it and possible
> re-use it for something. The trouble is that I didn't use
> up the olive oil fast enough and it got moldy (due no doubt
> to the herbs not having been "sterilized" somehow). So I
> have the same problem as with the milk bottle only worse
> because the opening is even tinier.
>
> So what do y'all think?
>
> Thanks,
> Kate
>

If you want it not only to look clean but end up sterile as well

My method when cleaning up old bottles for collection Some 200 years
old and buried for years is

You will need
Babies bottle brush
Detergent
Vinegar
Bi Carbonate of Soda


And to Sterilise
1 use denture cleaner anti oxident tabs

2 follow up with
Potassium metabisulfite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_metabisulfite

Method
Soak jars bottles etc in washing up liquid overnight in hot water

Rinse under warm running water a number of times after a good scrub with
the bottle brush to break up the residue you say is in the bottom


Scrub while rinsing

then add a few teaspoons of Bicarb NO water
let stand for awhile say ten minutes

Then shake out what you can
Then a few teaspoons of vinegar

shake /swirl etc watch the reaction and dont get it in your eyes

rinse repeat until stain gone

Rinse thoroughly -let dry

pop in 2 or more denture tabs and 300MLS of warm water NOT hot

let stand overnight
Rinse thoroughly next morning let dry

Then finish off with the metabisulfite

Rinse with warm to hot water let dry

Then you should have a CLEAN and sterile bottle

That no self respecting microbe or nasty such as wild yeasts etc would
choose to enter

Caution do not use the above methods with any metal incl stainless steel

HTH
Phil