Bildo

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I make water purifiers at work and am allowed to take scrap home from time to time. One of the things we use is a UV sterilization bulb that is supposed to be very effective, not only in killing bacteria and stuff but making sure they can no longer reproduce if they live(not sure exactly how this works). Any way, sometimes they don't use the bulbs because the have cosmetic issues, they're really picky and throw things out for the stupidest things, but any way, if i were to use some of these to sterilize my equipment, since it wouldn't cost me anything any way to take one home, would it work, or help?

Kraghed

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I would avoid trying that, or at least test on a small amount so you don't "skunkify" a large batch.



"Beer becomes ’skunked’ when it is unintentionally exposed to light; more specifically, UV radiation"

http://thankheavenforbeer.com/2009/01/26/skunked-beer-beer-mythbusters/

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Revvy

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You don't want to expose you beer to it, but I know there's been a couple of discussions about using it on gear on here...here's two I found.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/uv-sanitation-139887/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/ultra-violet-3186/

I know that there has been a gizmo on the market in the last couple of years to use UV to sanitize/steralize the inside of wooden barrels in the winemaking industry. I don't know how many people on here have experience with it, so you may be the groundbreaker for us.

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Bildo

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Yeah I wouldn't use it on the beer itself, but maybe on the gear and carboys as an extra precaution. But only if I can get a couple bulbs for free, sometimes they're picky on what I can take home, and sometimes they don't car. I took two $600 dollar carbon filters home the other day, just because of cosmetic issues. Too bad the unit they were made for didn't come with it!

sea2summit3

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UV could probably work on your equipment. It might depend on how much light the bulb sends out though. (a steri-pen bulb designed to work in a 1L water bottle, might not cut it in a keggle. Since you work for the company, you could probably find out. In Chem lab, we have a big cabinet that sterilizes our safety goggles.

The UV light probably wouldn't work in beer anyways as I believe the light would deflect off particles floating in the beer.

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malkore

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just remember that everything has to be clean first. you cannot sanitize something with leftover organic residue.

i also wonder, when all's said and done, if star-san still wouldn't be cheaper and faster. 30 seconds contact time..how long does the UV light take? cost per kilowatt-hour?

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Beerrific

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Also, be careful as UV exposure can really destroy (make brittle, turn yellow, etc.) some plastics.

hopvine

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I say go for it! The only precaution I would take is eye protection.

What is the UV exposure time necessary to kill bacteria? I would imagine it is very short (<1 min).

Bildo

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The time to kill every thing in a one liter bottle would be 15 sec with out bulbs. But it wouldn't work in the carboy because of the size.

dunecat

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The UV rays damage the DNA in microbes. Without the DNA the microbe can't repair other damage from the radiation, and even if it doesn't die, it can't reproduce because it doesn't have the instructions to make another microbe.