Supermarket Bleach

[Northern Brewer]

OK, I have now managed to obtain a bottle of Tesco's Everyday Value thin bleach.

This appears to have come from the same stable as Asda's Smart Price thin bleach. The bottles and caps are identical, and the dilution instructions mirror each other word for word. The cold bleaching dilution for both products is given as 50mls per 10 litres. The test results below seem to confirm them to be the same strength, which in my view is 2.25% (hence 1ml per 2.25 litres = 10ppm).



Users will have to make up their own mind about which sanitizing dilution to use. My results suggest that both products contain 2.25% active chlorine, in which case 9ml per litre is required to produce 200ppm sanitizer. However, Asda have told me that their bleach contains 1.5% active chlorine, in which case 13.5ml per litres is required. Your decision will depend upon whether you wish to produce 222 litres versus 148 litres of sanitizer for you 29p investment

[kebabman]

I have a bucket of thin bleach solution always available to soak bottles in after emptying. I would be interested to know for roughly how long a thin bleach solution keeps its useful sanitizing properties.
If the solution stayed looking fairly clean could I just add a certain amount of thin bleach to keep the solution OK say each week. At the moment I use the rather unscientific test of a bit of slimyness to the liquid and a faint bleach smell to my fingers after dunking/removing the bottles meaning that it was still good! I do use videne when bottling as well though.
Keep up the good work
Many thanks

[Northern Brewer]

Good question. I often leave my funnel and plastic tubing soaking for a few days, an the basis that I plan to use them again shortly. I also use your sliminess/smell test, but then usually chicken out and add a splash more bleach 'to be sure'.

Advice given to the food industry usually suggests that 200ppm sanitizing solution should be replenished once it falls to 50ppm. Much will depend upon contact times of course.

I will nevertheless make up a bucket of 200ppm, briefly stir it on a daily basis, and see how long it takes for this to fall to 50ppm. It won't be very scientific, because ambient temperature, agitation, and the use of a lid or otherwise (amongst other things), will all impact upon the result. It would be good to have an idea though...

[far9410]

Good stuff, keep up the good work!

[timbo41]

excellent and helpful research cheers.Thought it might be worth mentioning that some bleaches also contain perfumes which i have found need loads of extra rinsing to get rid of smell. hot water for rinsing seems to help. however if suppliers brought down price of propiertary hb cleaners we prob wouldnt resort to bleach in first place its just cheaper for considerably more usage

[Northern Brewer]

OK I have run my time test...

I made up a 200ppm solution with cold tap water then stirred and tested it once a day. The vessel was uncovered and located in an unheated utility room at around 15C.

For the first couple of days nothing seemed to change. However, by day 4 the strength had fallen to 100ppm and by day 5 it has dropped to 50ppm.

The solution still smells of chlorine, but it has lost the sliminess when rubbed between the fingers.

Good point above about perfumed bleach. Always stick to what the supermarkets describe as "Thin Bleach", keep the sanitizing solution fairly cool, and rinse three times with cold mains water.

Thick bleaches and toilet cleaners contain all manner of things that don't belong near our beer, and using hot water to rinse risks introducing new nasties to you freshly sanitized vessel.

[kebabman]

Interesting to hear about the dramatic drop in strength between 4 and 5 days, I wonder why that is?

[Northern Brewer]

Interesting to hear about the dramatic drop in strength between 4 and 5 days, I wonder why that is?

Dunno. It could be a pure curve, of say 30ppm loss per day. That wouldn't be easy to pick using these test strips I'm afraid. For example, in real life, the difference between 200ppm and 100ppm isn't as distinct as my photographs suggest. What we can garner however, is that we cannot rely on mixed sanitizer to last forever.

[worldsbestbrewer]

Funny you should mention chlorine. I used to have unlimited supples of 15% hypochlorite which is basically strong bleach. Didn't generally use it for brew gear sanitisation as I use temperature. As the supply had dried up, i looked for bog standard bleaches with no perfume or detergents etc and like you say, they are getting difficult to find.
Have you ever thought of investigating the swimming pool world of bleach tablets or something like this http://www.hygiene4less.co.uk/chlorine- ... /index.htm ?
Hypo isn't expensive i you can find a local supplier. Murphy's sell it as well as their Antiform which is hypo with detergents, but the transport costs are high and it has a limited shelf life and their homebrew sales price for antiform is a little high to say the least. Find a local micro you can go scrounge/buy a little off every now and then (and that applies to everything from yeast to malt to hops to finings:-) .

[worldsbestbrewer]

Forgot to to mention. A big mistake that brewers make (commercial and home) is to leave equipment soaking in steriliser/cleaner. The active agents break down and you end up with a lovely bug soup. Sanitise and remove, store dry. Applies to peracetic as well as chlorine products.

[worldsbestbrewer]

The slimminess in yr bleach is basically the caustic soda solution that the chlorine is disolved in. If that's gone, it's neutralised.

[timbo41]

Forgot to to mention. A big mistake that brewers make (commercial and home) is to leave equipment soaking in steriliser/cleaner. The active agents break down and you end up with a lovely bug soup. Sanitise and remove, store dry. Applies to peracetic as well as chlorine products.

Very good and valid point. Probably best to sterilise just before use of equipment