Beer Making 'Superstitions' ....?

[Ditch]

You got any? I s'pose superstitions is the right word? Wouldn't know quite how else to present it.

See, someone mentioned, on another thread, that they use that " Viodene " (or how ever it's spelt) for sanitising. I read that and went to get a couple on. Followed my dead usual procedure. And suddenly found myself questioning my mind!

Bear with me, please. I don't want to set off a sneering competition here. I just want to illustrate something clearly.

I sanitise my FV's, BK's (When I use them), fish tank heaters (FTH's? ) and syphon in thin bleach solution. Simply always have. All my life. Got it off of CJ Berry and it's never let me down, so I've always stuck with it.

One of the others (VWP or Starsan?) I've never tried, because ye have to know the Ph of the water, or something. I don't. Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is that I Do have sound, explainable, grounded reasons for doing what I do.

Until it comes to the freezer top that I work from. The tin opener ~ a stab in and lever type ~ and those really rather disgusting old rubber gauntlets that I wear when handling the hot rinsed tins!

Because for all those, for absolutely no explicable reason, all my shit goes out the window and I perfectly happily spray the lot down with Viodene! I wouldn't dream of letting it near a well washed out FV. Of course it wouldn't f**king work, and I'd lose my beer! I know that as well as I know I have two hands!

And yet, I trust it on my tin opener and, worst of all; The f**king steel mixer I shove deep into my water and wort!!! I just take that f**ker off the side. Give it a cursory spray and shove it in the FV!

You see? Absolutely not an iota of sense or reasoning! One minute, sloshing about with bleach and hosing gallons of water at it. The next? 'Pish, pish, pish .....' Job's a good'n!

I must be out of my f**king mind! Or, maybe it's just some weird sort of 'superstition' I've developed, look?

How about you? Anything strange ....?

[6470zzy]

You got any?

How about you? Anything strange ....?

No, not me............ I think that you must be the only one

Cheers

[cellone]

I've gone from rinsing clean then using starsan to rinsing, soaking in oxi-clean, rinsing then starsaning my bottles.

[Geezah]

Skunking of beer.

Store beer in brown bottles, keep them out of the light etc..etc

I have only once known of a beer being skunked and that was when my dad used to make home brew many many years ago.

How did it happen? Lightening!!

The light has to be extremely intense to cause a beer to skunk.

.... and I swear by Viodene

[Jim]

I rinse everything 5 times after sterelising. That's got to be a bit OCD.

[cellone]

I rinse everything 5 times after sterelising. That's got to be a bit OCD.

Hehe I do find my self counting the actions that don't require it.

[Dr. Dextrin]

I have only once known of a beer being skunked and that was when my dad used to make home brew many many years ago.

How did it happen? Lightening!!

His beer got struck by lightning?? That has to count as one of the most unlucky things that can happen!

[TC2642]

I just always add Sod. Met to anything I have cleaned with bleach, follow a mixture of CJJ Berry and Wheeler when it comes to it, not had an infection for years, (touching the nearest piece of wood to me).

Do have a superstition when it comes to brew day though, if something doesn't f*ck up at least once then I get worried.

[sbond10]

Camden tabs for 30 minutes no idea why but I sit there smelling the water if I do it any less. I also moved away from bleach to vwp got two infections one after other so soaked everything in bleach then Christmas gods gave me starsan still I find my head in the bucket sniffing thinking this can't be it slosh slosh chuck away

[widdersbel]

I also moved away from bleach to vwp

VWP *is* bleach.

As mentioned in another thread, I'm skeptical about any superstitions and I like to look into the facts behind them. I'm no analytical chemist, but when it comes to santitation products, it's as simple as reading the label. If you had a problem using VWP rather than "bleach", you need to look at what else you did differently on those two occasions.

Me? I always make sure I wear my lucky red pants on brew day. The only brew I've had go wrong so far was the one where I was wearing blue pants when I made it.

[Mr. Dripping]

Am I the only one that is going to admit circling my mash tun 3 times after doughing in, whilst chanting 'make good beer, make good beer, make good beer that's what we need here'??
Mmmmm, though so

[Ditch]

Camden tabs for 30 minutes no idea why but I sit there smelling the water if I do it any less.

God, you're wasting your life away there! It's funny though but, I should be the last one to laugh. When I first came here I was so f**king hung up myself ....!

I'd ask " Daab " something. " Just bung in a handful ", he'd say. No F**king Way would that do for me! How big of a handful? Some in my palm? Or as much as I could hold? Might my hands be bigger or smaller than his? Did he always use exactly the same grip?

I'd do my own f**king head in with it! I needed Grams!

And, I think, That is why I've become the maverick of beer making I am today. I've consciously broken down these obsessive compulsions and have moved right in the opposite direction.

I now make, store and serve my beer like I don't give a shit. And, frankly? I don't. Because considerable experience has now shown me that everything will be alright.

And yet, still; Put a f**king gun to my head and No Way am I trusting my FV's to that spray bottle! Absolutely no rhyme or reason to it. What is it, in our psyche or genetic make up that we Need these idiosyncrasies ....?

[Jim]

My beer's never been the same since I wore out my lucky red brewing slippers.

[EoinMag]

Skunking of beer.

Store beer in brown bottles, keep them out of the light etc..etc

I have only once known of a beer being skunked and that was when my dad used to make home brew many many years ago.

How did it happen? Lightening!!

The light has to be extremely intense to cause a beer to skunk.

.... and I swear by Viodene

Skunking is not a myth.

Take a can of Stella.

Take a green bottle of Stella.

Taste the difference....that's skunking.

Same can be done with any side by side with cans or bottles. Also, the actual amount of light needed can't be a lot as I've had it in Stella straight out of the cardboard case, so presumably that's only seeing the electric lighting in the bottling plant.....

[lee1]

nice 1 ditch ive got to have a beer while brewing [dont we all ] its just 1 of those things