How to sanitize a siphon hose

I'm a few days away from bottling my beer and I need to clean my siphon hose in order to transfer my brew from the fermenter to the bottles in a sanitary fashion. What is the best way to clean the siphon hose?

Your subject line says "sanitize", your post says "clean"... so which is it?

To clean a siphon hose that has anything nasty in it, I let it soak in oxy-clean solution.

To sanitize a siphon hose, I hook it up to my autosiphon, pump starsan through it so it's full, and let it sit for a few minutes.

If you're using a different sanitizer (one that needs longer contact time) you may want to just drop the hose into a bucket of sanitizer, taking care to get all the air bubbles out of it, and let it soak for a while.

I echo what evandude said. cleaning is one step...the first step...then you sanitize before it comes in contact with the beer/wort.

I use my auto-siphon to start a siphon from my sanitizing bucket back into itself, so the sanitizer can contact the hose walls and remove any bugs.

+1 for star-san as a sanitizer...its the bomb.

Wallpaper tray...I fill it with sanitizer and soak all my hoses, racking canes, spoons and such.

I don't have an autosiphon (haven't found that I really need one), but I do have a dedicated turkey baster that I will use to shoot sanitizer through my hoses, racking canes, etc. when it's time to sanitize.

malkore said:

I echo what evandude said. cleaning is one step...the first step...then you sanitize before it comes in contact with the beer/wort.

I use my auto-siphon to start a siphon from my sanitizing bucket back into itself, so the sanitizer can contact the hose walls and remove any bugs.

+1 for star-san as a sanitizer...its the bomb.

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I do the same. Place it all in the bucket, 1 pump to fill up the hose then let sit.

I also have a small brush on a nylon "rope" that I can use to pull through a length of hose if I need to.

I keep my hoses clean from the get go. I also use all silicone hoses cause they don't have a memory and stay coiled up. To sanitize, I stick it in the bucket of Starsan, and use a cup to pour it in one end. It will fill it up and come out the other end. I do this a few times, but once it is full I drop the end in the bucket and forget about it till I need to rack.

I just ran sanitizing solution through my new siphon and tubing. There are still tiny droplets in the tubing......Do I need to worry about those? Will it effect the taste? If so, How do I clean it out, I've heard not to use water (don't rinse)

What kind of sanitizer are you using? If it's starsan you have nothing to worry about. Don't fear the foam and don't try and wipe excess off your doing more harm then good by doing so. If they are going into storage I would try and let them drip dry before putting them away....or better yet hang them on hooks and store them that way.

Welcome to our great forum!

kizmet said:

I just ran sanitizing solution through my new siphon and tubing. There are still tiny droplets in the tubing......Do I need to worry about those? Will it effect the taste? If so, How do I clean it out, I've heard not to use water (don't rinse)

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Holy Thread Resurrection!

If it's Star San, then it is fine. Leave it. It won't hurt anything.

W0GWT said:

Holy Thread Resurrection!

If it's Star San, then it is fine. Leave it. It won't hurt anything.

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It shows he was searching for an answer and rather than starting a new thread he posted in here. Props to him.

Doctor_M said:

It shows he was searching for an answer and rather than starting a new thread he posted in here. Props to him.

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I don't recall criticizing him, just making a comment about the thread being dead since 2007.