Sanitising plan

[Talheedin]

I’ve just got a boiler to add to my brewing equipment and I want to check that the way that I’m intending to do the sanitising and water treatment is correct. This is my plan:

1. Use vanish oxyaction (without the blue bits) on any reclaimed equipment. I’ve had quite a bit of equipment from friends and family that have been stored in the garage or loft for years and it’s all come up brilliantly using the oxyaction stuff.
2. Soak everything in soda crystals for 20 mins.
3. Soak everything in 3ml/l cheap bleach for 20 mins.
4. Soak everything in sodium metabisulphate for 20 mins.
5. Empty boiler and fermenter but keep enough sodium metabisulphate solution to fill a big bucket to hold all the smaller pieces of equipment in.
6. Boil 6 gallons of water in the boiler and transfer to the fermenter.
7. Add a crushed campden tablet to the boiled water to use for brewing.
8. Brew.
9. Rinse clean with tap water and store in water and sodium metabisulphate filled sealed container until next brewing session.


Is this over the top or am I missing anything out and should I store things in water at the end?

At the minute I’m just using tap water for the brewing liquor and I’m rinsing some of the equipment with tap water after the bleach soak (although I’m using sodium metabisulphate solution for the smaller stuff).

Thanks

Talheedin

[steve_flack]

Just in case you were planning to...there's no need to sterilise a boiler. You're going to boil stuff in it for an hour at least. It'll be sterile after that.

[Orfy]

I don't do any of that.

Tap water and just rinse the boiler. Brew with tap water.
I do sanitise my fermenter.
Clean with oxyplus, rinse and swill with Betadine.

I think my beer is good.

[mysterio]

I do the same as Orfy. Just give everything a good clean, and anything that comes in contact with the wort/beer post-boil gets sprayed with Iodophor.

[Talheedin]

Thanks everyone.

Looks like I'm doing far too much then. I've been soaking everything in bleach and sm including the pans that I boil the wort and hops in. I was wondering whether it should take longer to clean everything than it does to get the beer to the fermenting stage.

Thanks

Talheedin

[Andy]

It's always a satisfying moment when it dawns on someone that they only need sanitise kit which comes into contact with the wort after the boil.

As you mention, it makes brewday a lot easier also

[bitter_dave]

I was carefully sanitizing and then rinsing my mash tun for ages before I realised it wasn't neccessary

[Orfy]

My mash tun had a little grain left in and some dried hops from my hop stopper. They were very tasty. I've Picked them out and dumped my grain in.

[Talheedin]

Thanks for that advice.

So revising my plan I should:

1. Rinse everything with hot tap water (unless it’s first use and then soda crystals or cheap oxyclean for very dirty reclaimed equipment).
2. Wipe down everything that’s going to be used after the boil (fermentor, thermometer, hydrometer, big stirring spoon, etc) with soda crystals and then soak in week cheap bleach for 20 mins then empty.
3. Make a pint or two of sm in spray bottle and spray everything that’s just been bleached before it touches the wort.
4. Fill fermentor with water for brewing and add ½ campden tablet.
5. Brew.
6. Rinse.
7. Buy new ingredients and repeat.

So instead of taking over an hour to clean everything it should only take around 30 minutes. It should also be cheaper as I’ve used a bottle of bleach (OK that was only 15p) and half a tub of sm on my first two brews!

How long should the campden tablet be left to do it’s job before brewing?

Thanks

Talheedin

[Orfy]

If you use bleach you need to soak things and do a really good job of rinsing.
Bleach is not nice stuff to work with or store. It can have a a problem if you soak too long or strong.

Why not go with betadine so the rinsing is not an issue and it also cheap.

http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=163

[sparky Paul]

Whilst Betadine (Iodophor) is a usefull sanitiser, it's no better than bleach.

From experience in the food industry, I have to agree - in fact, in many ways chlorine is more effective. The biggest issue with chlorine based solutions is that they rely upon immersion - they don't work so well as a spray-on solution for example, as the free chlorine quickly evaporates into the air.

The problem with many surface sanitisers is that prolonged use can cause a build up of resistant bacteria. Where these types of sanitisers are used in the food industry, it is normal practice to alternate periodically between two completely different types of sanitiser to prevent a build up of resistant bacteria. Chlorine does not suffer from this problem in the correct dilution.

It is possible that the continued use of say, Betadine, without any bleaching or boiling at all, may eventually lead to a build up of a Betadine-resistant bacteria.

Personally, I use Sodium Hypochlorite tablets, and have had no problems... yet...

[sparky Paul]

They are called Titan Chlor-Tabs 500, and I believe you can get them at most catering-type suppliers. One tablet in a gallon of water gives a 100ppm free chlorine solution. To be honest, it's many years since I bought them - I got a box of six tubs from Makro, each with 200 tablets in and they seem to be lasting for ever...

When I do eventually run out, I will definitely look for some more though...

[Vossy1]

Ditto your views SP.

In aseptic manufacturing of medicinal products we use IPA most of the time but when the micro results start to increase we'd zap the buggers with sod hyp

Then it's straight back to IPA.

Resistance is futile, but periodic alternating of sanitiser is a good idea

[Talheedin]

Instead of spraying with sodium metabisulphate could I (after the bleach soaking and a good tap water rinse) just put all the post boil equipment in the fermenting bin with the campden tableted liquor? Or have a seperate bucket with campden tablet and water for this purpose? This would make sanitising even easier.

Talheedin