Just arrived 1st question

tobrew · 11-27-2008, 01:54 AM

I'm a noobie.
My birhtday present came 6 days early. It is a True brew Gold kit. it came with C-Bright Cleanser. I want to make sure everything is sanatized. Can I just use this as a sanitizer or should I be using somthing else with it??
(it also came with Nut Brown Ale) Can't wait to start brewing...
Thanks
ToBrew

Amity · 11-27-2008, 02:43 AM

Sounds like it's just a cleaner. Go buy some Iodophor or StarSan. Your beer will thank you.

**shecky** · 11-27-2008, 02:58 AM

C-Brite is a cleaning agent, not a sanitizer. +1 on what Amity said. I got C-Brite with my beginner kit and haven't opened it yet.

rossrainey · 11-27-2008, 03:42 AM

I got a true brew kit too for my first kit. I haven't used the c-brite but I did buy some star san. I went ahead and spent the money on the 32 oz bottle. It costs a lot up front but I can usually get by making 2 gallon batches of star san and using that to sanitize everything I need. Bottom line - Star San will definitely save a lot of time and headache. I am also a noob (2 batches brewed non bottled) and it is amazing. Good luck and after the first one it starts to get a little bit easier, and for some reason more addictive.

PS - Get a small spray bottle to keep filled with star san at all times cause it never hurts to be over sanitized, at least with star san as long as it's diluted correctly

Pelikan · 11-27-2008, 04:13 AM

If you're looking to save a buck, and/or you don't have a local homebrew store, go to the supermarket and buy unscented bleach. It's the cheapest, bargain basement stuff going. Mix it 1:10 bleach to water in any desired quantity, and use that as your sanitizing solution. It will kill anything it touches with about a minute contact time, but make sure you rinse it off everything afterward, or you'll have a chlorine-tasting brew. Most of the cheaper, powdered homebrew sanitizers are bleach (sodium hypochlorate).

Star san is the preferred sterilizer, because it is no rinse and easy to use, (I use it for that very reason) but bleach is a better sanitizer, all things considered.

Pelikan · 11-27-2008, 04:35 AM

Oh hey, I didn't see the thing where you were using C-Brite. Contrary to the popular opinion floating around, C-Bright is a sanitizer. When it's reconstituted in water at the recommended rate, you have a nearly perfect 1:10 bleach solution. That's why there's all those nasty warnings on the front of it -- it zaps the crap out of everything, including the person that gets it in eyes, mouth, etc. The True Brew folks would not pack it with their fairly well-equipped kits if it didn't sanitize.

It just says "cleaner" on the packet because that word is more friendly to the average Joe when compared to "sanitizer." Trust me, C-Brite will zap the hell out of any nasties. Indeed, C-Brite is generally better and more effective at straight killing when compared to star san, but star san is preferred because of the user-friendliness, and because it is no rinse. A lot of folks, myself included, use Star San because it's pretty hard to screw up with it, and it won't impart flavors to the brew. C-Brite, by contrast, needs to be rinsed, and will corrode metal and stainless equipment.

**Nurmey** · 11-27-2008, 05:42 AM

Welcome to the wonderful world of brewing and HBT! Start collecting beer bottles as fast as you can. Remember to relax and have fun with your beer.

C-brite is not a sanitizer because they have not gone through the FDA approval process nor shown the FDA that will kill bacteria within the time frame designated for sanitizer. Star San is a fabulous sanitizer and will kill the little buggers with 30 seconds wet contact. Remember to NOT FEAR THE FOAM. This will make sense to you if you buy Star San and mix it up.