Too Much Sanitizing?

I don't know if anyone here is a germaphobe, like myself. I'm trying to break the habit, and was wondering if just a good "once over" with sanitation solution would make sure bacteria doesn't spoil the beer. When I start brewing I have an impulse to santize the whole cooking area, is that over board?

I sanitize the INSIDE of my carboys, my racking canes, my tubes, my carboy caps, and my airlocks. That is all.

You just need to sanitize the wort's contact surfaces, and keep your hands clean with sanitizer to avoid cross-contamination. No need to overcomplicate it.

cowawookie said:

I don't know if anyone here is a germaphobe, like myself. I'm trying to break the habit, and was wondering if just a good "once over" with sanitation solution would make sure bacteria doesn't spoil the beer. When I start brewing I have an impulse to santize the whole cooking area, is that over board?

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Cleaning is the most important step in sanitizing. Using a sanitizer on dirty equipment does no good. So the first step is to clean well.

Lucky for us its as easy as washing dishes. I wash my equipment at the kitchen sink with some OxyClean solution and rinse well. Then I dunk it in some StarSan for a minute or two and I'm ready to go. That is really all there is to it.

Sanitizing your whole cooking area is a little overboard in my opinion. I just wash down the surfaces where I am going to put anything and put down a clean towel so I have someplace to put clean/sanitized items.

The Homebrewing Wiki on cleaning and sanitation is a good read (here)

I often sanitize a drying rack for other santized stuff. Other time, I just rely on the sanitizer contact to take care of business on that rack. I might wipe down the counter with sanitizer, but that's just because I have it around, so I figure "what the heck."

I do wipe down the outside of my fermenters and the inside of my fermentation deep-freeze with sanitizer to keep down any mold problems. I'm not so worried about that stuff contaminating my beer, but it's nasty.


TL

I crush, mash, boil, cool, ferment, secondary, and serve all from my garage. I just make sure everything that touches post-boil wort has either been boiled, or is cleaned and sanitized.

When everything is working (pumps and such), the only thing i sanitize on brew day is the inside of the carboy, and the airlock.

It's worked out pretty good for me so far

cowawookie said:

When I start brewing I have an impulse to santize the whole cooking area, is that over board?

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The only real benefit to that is that it pleases your wife if you're lucky enough to have one.

TexLaw said:

I do wipe down the outside of my fermenters and the inside of my fermentation deep-freeze with sanitizer to keep down any mold problems. I'm not so worried about that stuff contaminating my beer, but it's nasty.

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I do that occasionally too. Its a good practice.

The only real benefit to that is that it pleases your wife , unless your lucky enough to be single


FTFY

edit- ok guess theres no strike through

Yes, I do have a wife, and she loves it when I get in a "Clean Mode"...I guess it can be one way to kill two birds with one stone, and keep her from complaining about my brewing.