Bottle sanitizing idea

Sorry if this idea has been suggested already... A cursory search didn't turn up anything, so...

I remember years ago, my father would water and fertilize his garden with a hose siphon like this:



It connects in line with the hose, and the small black line was placed in a bucket of diluted fertilizer. When water was run through the hose, the fertilizer was sucked up the black line, and mixed with the water. This got me thinking.

The siphon above mixes at 16 parts water to 1 part fertilizer. I would replace the black hose with something food safe. The remaining problem is figuring the proper ratio to arrive at the 10z. in 5 gallons that Starsan requires.

Some math:

1 ounce Starsan per 5 gallons water

= 1 ounce Starsan per 640 ounces water (128oz per gallon x 5 gallons)

Since the siphon dilutes at a ratio of 16:1,

640/16 = 40 ounces Starsan (undiluted) per 5 gallons water.

1 gallon / 40oz
= 128oz / 40oz
= 3.2oz per gallon

1/40 times 1/16 equals 1/640.

A concentrated Starsan solution of 1 part Starsan to 40 parts water (3.2oz per gallon) in a bucket, diluted 16 times through the siphon, should give the proper ratio.


Screw one of these on the bottom of the siphon:



And you've got a quick bottle sanitizer.

Thoughts? Comments? Am I crazy?

You mean leave the black hose in straight star san and just keep running the water?
I think you would go through a hell of a lot of starsan

I like the ingenuity. Spray bottle might be just as easy though.

You could thoroughly clean and sanitize at the same time with this, but you'd unnecessarily go through a lot of starsan.

Give it a try and see what happens. You are trying to create a venturi effect here, so the tube needs some kind of constriction. You want to feed the starsan into the tube just after the constriction, where there will be created a low-pressure area when the water expands again. That will draw the starsan in. Might be hard to do with the brass sink attachment thing you show above.

Those sulfiters are pretty cheap. I bought one a long time ago and have never used it. It's so easy to just give each bottle a quick rinse and use the heated dishwasher as a bottling tree. But if SWMBO makes you keep your sticky floors in your man cave, I can see the necessity for creative bottle sanitizing.


http://www.midwestsupplies.com/bottle-rinser-sulfiter.html

The siphon has a venturi in it. As water passes, it creates the low pressure required to draw the Starsan up into the stream.

And it wouldn't be straight Starsan. You'd mix 3.2 ounces of Starsan with 1 gallon of water in a bucket. Drop the black tube in, and go.

I'd do it over a bucket in the sink to catch the Starsan solution as it comes out of the bottles. That way, it can be used for sanitizing everything else used in the process on bottling day. Any remaining concentrated solution will be saved as well, for subsequent use. No waste.