Sterilization Techniques

I'm sure there's a post like this here (if you can think of it... direct me there please), but what sort of sterilization is best for brewing equipment. I have access to all sorts of autoclavable equipment and autoclaves and was wondering if autoclave is preferable to chlorine bleach or pH based antiseptics.

well... we don't actually STERILIZE brewing gear. SANITARY is our target.

If you've got an autoclave, I'd go ahead and use it for any gear that can handle it.

If you want to just sanitize things, the two most popular products around here are iodophor and star-san.

-walker

Fair enough. Thanks for the info. How about residues left behind by sterilizing agents?

Another follow-up question: how important is is that I remove sediment from the bottoms of my containers A. if I'm going to be brewing the same sort of beer, or B. if I'm setting up for something completely different?

its important enough that you should be cleaning & sanitizing all your equipment every brew. Its not worht saving a few minutes and some bleach to risk some undrinkable infected funk. I use oxyclean and bleach - both are really cheap - the cleaning takes a few minutes.

graemhoek said:

Fair enough. Thanks for the info. How about residues left behind by sterilizing agents?

Another follow-up question: how important is is that I remove sediment from the bottoms of my containers A. if I'm going to be brewing the same sort of beer, or B. if I'm setting up for something completely different?

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As Walker said, sterilization of equipment is an impossibility to the vast majority of us. The best we can hope for is to have our equipment as sanitized as possible.

Star San is a no rinse sanitizer, which means you don't have to worry about residue left behind on equipment which is sanitized with Star San. The residue is completely harmless to you and your beer.

If you decide to use other sanitizers such as bleach, you'll need to thoroughly rinse all equipment in really hot water to get rid of all traces of the bleach.

My oven works as a pretty good autoclave.

Iodophor's no-rinse, as well. It's cheap enough where I think I'm completely done with using bleach. Great article on it here:

http://www.bayareamashers.org/content/maindocs/iodophor.htm

It turns out one of the faculty in my department used to use the autoclave to sterilize his equipment, so I think I'll stick with it since its free (better than cheap!) and not totally inconvenient.

I just read the topic of the question, and boy my mind was WAY off base. I thought we were debating vasectomy vs. other means.


Anyway, I've been using One-step for everything. Quick, convenient, fairly inexpensive in bulk, no smell/taste, and no staining. The no-rinse and quick contact time makes it especially convenient.

Lorena

glibbidy said:

My oven works as a pretty good autoclave.

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You must have a pretty fancy oven if it's pressurized.