sterilising

Hi everyone, Im new to the forum and home brewing, Could someone please tell me if i need to use a steriliser or is there a way to do it with just water.

Anything that will come in contact with your beer must be sanitized.

We have this coffee pot cleaner at work, called Squeak 'N Clean. I was wondering how effective this would be as a good cleanser for brewing equipment. It is amazing what it does to coffee stains.

http://www.squeaknclean.com/index.cfm

Never heard of it? I always use Iodaphore that I get from the brew supply shop, or you can use bleach/water solution. But, if you use the bleach/water solution, be careful w/ stainless steel (like kegs, brew kettle, etc.) because it will eat it up. Just don't let that stuff sit over night.

I would be careful with a cleaner. Cleaner is not neccesarily the same as sanitizer. You must use a sanitizer, or sterilizer, to kill microorganisms, not just clean.

I use either sodium metabisulfite to clean all my equipment sometimes, sometimes I use just bleach and water, I use idophor to clean my caps and bottles though.

hoser said:

I use either sodium metabisulfite to clean all my equipment sometimes, sometimes I use just bleach and water, I use idophor to clean my caps and bottles though.

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I always use bleach and water.......Dont get the scented stuff. I wash everything with including my bottles about 3 tablespoons per gal of water, then a good warm water rinse. Dont leve the bleach solution in plastic just wash it and rinse it, I clean my beer caps with vodka, then right before i cap, I have a spray bottle with vodka in it, I give them a good vodka spray, then I start caping....... A waist of Vodka......ya I guess, but its fairly cheap, I have not had any contamination problems, I have not had any (Bleach Beer either)

I use "brewers detergent" and hot water to clean all my gear just before use. It says "alkaline salts" on the box, but I think it is just a weak form of caustic soda (NaOH).

Then I use sodium metabisulphite as a steriliser, and let the gas do its job for about half an hour.

I've only had one infection in 20 brews and that was one of my earlier brews that I was probably stuffing around with during fermentation.

I use the chlorine/water approach because it is cheap and I havn't had any problems. I use alcohol/vodka for things like bottle caps etc. I haven't had to sanitize any stainless steel yet, but I would chlorine for that as well, as long as the dilutions are weak and the contact time is limited, say less than one hour. I would NOT use chlorine on aluminium as it will cause pitting/corrosion, especially if warm.

Regards

Christian