Carboy/Bottle Bucket Sanitization

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pfranco81

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The way I sanitized my carboy, and how I plan on sanitizing my bottling bucket is to fell them very close to the top with water (~6 gallons) and add the appropriate amount of One-Step. I was also planning on throwing my bottles and the like into the bucket for sanitization as well. But this seems, for my carboy especially, to be a lot of water and sanitizer to use. Is there a more effecient way to sanitize my large vessels?
 
I fill halfway up then splash it to the top and let it stay wet for 5-10 minutes. Then pour into bottling bucket and do the same thing. Then put clean bottles a few at a time into bucket and use my dishwasher as a bottle holder as they come out of the solution. Keep in mind, you can reuse the solution from bucket to bucket for a bunch of applications before you need to make a new solution.

O, one more thing...add the san first, then put the water in. This way it will mix itself.
 
Your sanitizing solution only needs to be in contact with the walls of whatever you are sanitizing for about 1 minute. So by swirling the solution around every minute or so for about 5 minutes should be more than enough time. Or you can agitate the solution for about a minute continuously or use a rag saoked in solution and wipe the walls down for a minute or so.

I agree with Kavos no need to use 6 gallons in a 6 gallon bucket / carboy or whatever.

A gallon in a 6 gallon carboy should be more than enough.

Here a web page on Iodophor.

http://www.bayareamashers.org/content/maindocs/iodophor.htm
 
I just fill a spray bottle up with my Idophor and spray everything down. Then I slap an airlock on there and let it do it's thing. By the time I'm ready to pitch everything is nice and bug-free. I haven't had any infections thusfar, so it must be working.
 
Idophor has a 20sec required contact time, this includes the time it is wet and dripping. A small amount of solution in the carboy, shaken up to cover all the interior surface for a few seconds, then drained should be sufficient.
Same goes for bottles. They sell a device that squirts a small amount of sanitizer into the bottle. You can do this instead of filling them all the way up, soaking, and draining.
I usually make up 1gal of idophor when I brew. The key is making sure everything is clean first. This allows the sanitizer to be most effective.
Craig
 
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