optimatored

Recipes 

For all who are interested:

In my microbiology class we were asked to bring in samples of "cleaners" from home (Lysol, bleach...). We will be placing them on plates with "lawns" of bacteria to see the effectiveness of random cleaning agents.

My plan is to bring in Star San and Iodophor... if they let me I will take pictures for everyone to see and post the results. This will be in about a week or so.

So to the vote... what will be more effective?

Star San or Iodophor?

Just a few notes on the experiment:

We will be doing a filter paper method to determine effectiveness. We soak a paper disk in the sanitizer and then add the disk to the bacterial plate. The greater the area of "clearing" the more effective the cleaning agent is against the type of bacteria. In this case is either B. subtilis or S. aureus.

Just a simple way to determine effectiveness and more interesting that scientific. As some agents may just travel father on the plate that others.


UPDATE 4/20/2010

The bacteria I was given is S. aureus... We inoculated each plate with our bacteria, then soaked a paper disc in the following.

4 plates total: 1 Star San, 1 Iodophor, 1 Phenol, and 1 is straight bleach. Results will be next week.


RESULTS 4/27/2010

There really is no winner in the end... I am going with inconclusive results because Iodophor really did nothing at all. This could be because the Iodophor evaporated off the disc, did not diffuse across the plate, or my concentration was low. Who knows, but it was fun any way. Just in case I am sticking with Star San!

Note the cleared area around each white disk showing no bacterial growth. Pictures were taken with my cell phone so are not the best.

goose1873

Recipes 

they both work 100% if used correctly...i vote both (I was a microbiology major and recommend changing majors unless you plan on being a doctor or teacher)

cheers

__________________
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.
----Frank Zappa

optimatored

Recipes 

Just need it for nursing.

conpewter

Recipes 

I'm saying star-san. It claims to "go after" bacteria even when sugar or other carbohydrates are present, unlike something like bleach that is in-discriminatory.

__________________
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." - V

Primary: Nothin
Secondary: Shady Lord RIS, Water to Barleywine, Pumpkin wine, burnt mead
Kegged: Crappy infected mild
Bottles: Apfelwein, 999 Barleywine, Oatmeal Stout, Robust Porter, Robust smoked porter, Simcoe Smash

pjj2ba

Recipes 

I vote for Iodophor working better. I think the pH of the starsan may be adversely affected by the ingredients in the media, which might raise the pH above that recommended for Starsan. Both will be diluted, but I don't recall iodophor having pH issues

__________________
On Tap: Pale Ale, CAP, Saison, Kolsch
Kegged and Aging/Lagering: Imperial Alt, CAP, GDR pils
Secondary:
Primary: Kolsch, OKZ (std Amer. lager), CZ pils
Brewing soon: Saison, IPA
Recently kicked : ( Bock, Baltic Porter, Ger. Pils, Lite IPA,
Pilsner Urquell Master Homebrewer (1st NYC 2011, 2nd NYC 2012)
P U crowns winners in its inaugural master HB competition

TXCrash

Recipes 

Iodophor all the way.

__________________
Damn, Crash is one hard-headed mofo. - Shecky
The one that road tests motorcycle safety gear. - Ace_Club
no, Oregon boys are genetically predisposed to annoy people for extended periods of time - thataintchicken

Ohio-Ed

Recipes 

No idea but anxious to see the results.

Would be really interesting to see this over time...
1 second, 30 second, 1 minute contact, etc...

AZ_IPA

Recipes 

Special Hops

Recipes 

Don't really care. Both are obviously affective enough for home brewers.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible

Recipes 

I voted "Elephant" because I am uneducated and I know a gerbil with a lisp.

Looking forward to the results. Thread duly prosted.


Edit. This thread could be even more interesting than it first appears if we get to see the data that compares these sanitizers to common household cleaners. I, for one, when disposing of my old starsan do so creatively. I put some in the dishwasher, some down the waste disposal, some in the whirlpool bath (Real bacteria traps) It would be nice to see if i'm wasting my time or not.

__________________
Does this dress make my willy look big? ~ Ben Franklin