Sanitizing Aerator

[Niall K]

How do you sanitize your aerator. It occurred to me last night that when I was sanitizing mine I was leaving the tube and stone in the solution and then after 10 min removing it with my fingers to rinse it. Surely this is not a good idea because handling it with your fingers defeats the purpose of sanitizing. Is there another way or am I being just to over cautious

[Vossy1]

Sanitise your finger before handling

Couldn't resist, I'll get me coat

I wouldn't worry too much as long as you've not just been potting plants before touching the parts.

When re-asembling cornies you have no option but to touch internal parts, even those that come into contact with the beer.

I tend to rinse my hands with some of the iodophor soln that I sanitise my gear with before touching it. I just work it into my hands very briefly

[steve_flack]

you could boil the metal stones (and it's probably the only thorough way to sanitise it) but that wouldn't do the tubing much good.

You're not supposed to touch the pores on the metal stones anyway as the grease on your hands can block the pores - apparently.

[maxashton]

Are the battery powered aquarium pumps really OK for aeration, Steve? Presuming i use an in-line HEPA filter?

[steve_flack]

When re-asembling cornies you have no option but to touch internal parts, even those that come into contact with the beer.

Why don't you have any option?

I fill my cornies to the brim with peracetic solution with the keg posts off - this fills all nooks and crannies like the dip tube. The keg posts and lid are briefly boiled and the posts are screwed down whilst the dip tubes still have peracetic in them - this should take care of anything left on the inside of keg post. The lid I keep in a small plastic bowl of peracetic I have around whilst kegging and only pull it out just before sealing up the keg.

Using this much peracetic is wasteful as you probably could use a few litres and slosh it around. It does make sure all parts are soaked in it though and I use about 30p's worth so it's a small price to pay to make sure everything is covered. Obviously it's cheaper to do a couple of kegs at the same session as you can reuse the solution.

[maxashton]

Most punters can't get hold of Peracetic tho. I can get small quantities from the local micro, but itd be cheeky to nick a corny's worth.

[UserDeleted]

I flush my stone with water after use, then dry it with gentle heat. Before use I assemble the aeration assembly (22mm Compression T) whith the stone silver soldered into a 22mm blanking plate, and then it get 15 minutes in the pressure cooker at 121C Not just sanitised but sterilised.

For the moment I use O2 for aeration, but when this bottle runs out I will have to look at other alternatives. An aquarium air pump does work provided its man enough. and I have used a HEPA filter with one in the past, only issue is the cost of a disposable item. The autoclaveable ones are good, but eventually clog with all the crap in the air

[maxashton]

I was thinking of using my pressure cooker for this purpose, UD. Poor man's autoclave, eh? What do you use to raise the items off the bottom of the PC?

[steve_flack]

Most punters can't get hold of Peracetic tho. I can get small quantities from the local micro, but itd be cheeky to nick a corny's worth.

To fill a corny you need 200ml of peracetic acid. It's used at 1% v/v.

Besides, you could do the same thing with iodophor solution.

I was listening to an old Basic Brewing Radio podcast last night about bleach and starsan. The starsan guy was saying that you could use an ounce of bleach in five gallons which would be no rinse and have a contact time of less than two minutes. The catch was you have add acid (white vinegar) to the bleach solution (NOT THE NEAT BLEACH!!!!) to get the most effect. NOTE- THIS IS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS WITHOUT LISTENING TO THE PODCAST. THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE VERY SPECIFIC.

[mysterio]

I'm of the opinion you can worry too much about sanitisation, I finger all of the parts of the corny when I reassemble and handle my aeration stone&tube before it comes into contact and i've never had an infected batch.

[maxashton]

Using the acid to release the chlorine ions as gas, presumably.
Sounds dangerous. Very cheap, though.

[Andy]

Just listened to the podcast.

In US units:-

Add 1oz of thin (5%) bleach to 5 US gallons of water.
Then add 1oz of white vinegar TO THE WATER.

DO NOT ADD VINEGAR DIRECTLY TO BLEACH OR VICE VERSA. THIS WILL PRODUCE VERY NASTY CHLORINE GAS.

No rinse with a contact time of 30 seconds.

[maxashton]

yeah im going to listen to it in a sec. Presumably the acid releases the chlorine into the solution, which you conveniently tip away.

[steve_flack]

It's to prepare hypochlorous acid. Most bleach has a fair bit of sodium hydroxide it it for various reasons. This makes the pH high. Bleach is most effective as a sterilising agent at lower pH than that. The vinegar is used to lower the pH to that range.

[maxashton]

ohh right. out of interest, can you drop the formula for me?
i'm getting my geek on.