No Sterilizer...

[pedrothemexican]

Can you use washing up liquid to sterilize brewing equipment as a one off if you scrub the heck out of the fermentor bins and rinse thoroughly? I work out of town mon-fri and am only able to get to the brew shop on a weekend, I went down this weekend to pick up supplies but forgot the sterilizer as I thought I still had some. Turns out I dont and will not have time to get down for more as I was brewing this batch as a gift for a friend that is coming up to see me. I need to start brewing ASAP so will it do any damage or cause any problems if I scrub the equipment out with washing up liquid and rinse throroughly? Please help...

[Morten]

I wouldn't.

It tends to kill the head/foam on the finished beer.

Do you have access to a kettle? Boiling water will do the job, but is not good for glass carboys!

[Dr. Dextrin]

You can use bleach if you have any.

[vacant]

Weak solution of thin bleach for 20 minutes

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter2-2-3.html

[pedrothemexican]

Cheers guys. I'm sure I have some bleach knocking about, i'll try a dash of that with boiling water and hope for the best.

[ferry george]

I might be too late to sugest this, but I use Milton baby bottle steriliser or such like, available at most chemists and supermarkets, and it's cheap as chips!

[EoinMag]

You can use boiling water, on a German forum I frequent they are horrified at the thoughts of using any sanitisers (not all of them, but the reinheitsgebot purists certainly.

[jmc]

Weak solution of thin bleach for 20 minutes

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter2-2-3.html

+1

Preferably unscented.