Hi all,
I've a small bottle of 5% Peracetic Acid sitting unused in my cupboard, as I normally use starsan. Does anyone know how Peracetic Acid compares to Starsan in effectiveness, and/or if there are circumstances/applications in which it would be better/worse etc?
Many thanks
Kev
Peracetic Acid
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Kev888
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Peracetic Acid
Kev
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Aleman
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Re: Peracetic Acid
Starsan is a sanitiser, peracetic acid is as near as damn it a steriliser.
Both require clean vessels to be effective . . . peracetic acid reacts badly with copper/brass. Peracetic evolves oxygen so requires vented bottles. Peracetic neat is nasty stuff, and has a finite shelf life (Even Stabilised) . . . as a made up solution it is effective for a couple of hours (although I've had commercial brewers tell me differently) . . .but fill a hose with it and seal it and it stays sanitised until you drain it.
Both require clean vessels to be effective . . . peracetic acid reacts badly with copper/brass. Peracetic evolves oxygen so requires vented bottles. Peracetic neat is nasty stuff, and has a finite shelf life (Even Stabilised) . . . as a made up solution it is effective for a couple of hours (although I've had commercial brewers tell me differently) . . .but fill a hose with it and seal it and it stays sanitised until you drain it.
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Kev888
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Re: Peracetic Acid
Excellent - thanks very much for the detailed reply!
I suspect then that it will replace starsan in any of my yeast cultivating activities where I can't use heat, and maybe aspects of the post-boil/fermenting parts of the process too.
In fact, I noticed after the first brew in my plastic conical that there were a couple of scratched/defective areas on the inside surface that remain stained even after a long soak in hot PBW. Maybe peracetic would be the thing there too.
Cheers,
Kev
I suspect then that it will replace starsan in any of my yeast cultivating activities where I can't use heat, and maybe aspects of the post-boil/fermenting parts of the process too.
In fact, I noticed after the first brew in my plastic conical that there were a couple of scratched/defective areas on the inside surface that remain stained even after a long soak in hot PBW. Maybe peracetic would be the thing there too.
Cheers,
Kev
Kev
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Wolfy
Re: Peracetic Acid
Most people ditch their plastic when it gets scratched and has those little impossible-to-clean areas, unless the peracetic acid also acts as a cleaner (does it eat away organic/inorganic stuff too?) it's not going to be any more effective if the surface is not cleaned well first.Kev888 wrote:In fact, I noticed after the first brew in my plastic conical that there were a couple of scratched/defective areas on the inside surface that remain stained even after a long soak in hot PBW. Maybe peracetic would be the thing there too.
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Kev888
- So far gone I'm on the way back again!
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- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:22 pm
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Re: Peracetic Acid
Yes indeed, but unfortunately it cost too much time and money to ditch after two or three brews, so I need to persevere with it if I can. I can't be absolutely sure it wasn't something I did during the conversion, so not sure I have the will to argue with the retailers, or in fact to convert another one from scratch. Besides which knowing me I'd only manage to scratch it again before long..
Thankfully the dodgy areas are very small and I'm hoping the staining is not comprised of sufficient material to stop the sanitiser penetrating. I'm not sure how realistic that hope is though.. maybe I need to run boiling water over them or something? The tank can't take boiling water as a load but the plastic should stand up to boiling temperatures in itself..
Fingers crossed anyway, its done three brews now with no sign of infection so I hope it continues. To be frank, I think (in retrospect) that going with plastic may have been a mistake; all the time, effort and cost of fittings and getting it set up were a lot more than I bargained for and I'm a little unimpressed with the quality of the tank to begin with; after all that it would probably have been worth trying to find a stainless tank to invest all that on. Oh well.
Cheers
kev
Thankfully the dodgy areas are very small and I'm hoping the staining is not comprised of sufficient material to stop the sanitiser penetrating. I'm not sure how realistic that hope is though.. maybe I need to run boiling water over them or something? The tank can't take boiling water as a load but the plastic should stand up to boiling temperatures in itself..
Fingers crossed anyway, its done three brews now with no sign of infection so I hope it continues. To be frank, I think (in retrospect) that going with plastic may have been a mistake; all the time, effort and cost of fittings and getting it set up were a lot more than I bargained for and I'm a little unimpressed with the quality of the tank to begin with; after all that it would probably have been worth trying to find a stainless tank to invest all that on. Oh well.
Cheers
kev
Kev