What Sanitisers and Cleaners are used.

BlindLemonLars said:

Years ago you could buy sodium carbonate even cheaper from the laundry aisle of a supermarket, as "washing soda." No longer it seems.

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Is 'washing soda' pure sodium carbonate? ...and is sodium carbonate what they call 'soda ash'?

If you contact Arm & Hammer (online), they will tell you where to get washing soda locally.

ms8miranda said:

Is 'washing soda' pure sodium carbonate? ...and is sodium carbonate what they call 'soda ash'?

If you contact Arm & Hammer (online), they will tell you where to get washing soda locally.

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Yes, washing soda is sodium carbonate aka soda ash. It's a general household cleaner, and a pretty powerful one at that. But it is caustic, with a PH of around 11, so be sure to wear gloves and eye protection.

Is there an ideal ratio of water to Sodium Percarbonate/PH up?

Duffey said:

When you sanitize with bleach it's best to mix an equal amount of bleach and vinegar into the water you're sanitizing with. Bleach on its own won't kill certain bacteria unless the water has some acidity to it (hence the vinegar.)

It's important not to mix the vinegar and bleach directly, or you will end up with a nasty toxic cloud. Pour the bleach into the water, mix, then add the vinegar. There's an audio file here Basic Brewing™ : Home Brewing Beer Podcast and DVD - Basic Brewing Radio™ (March 27th) that breaks it all down.

I've done all my sanitizing with bleach/vinegar and never had a sanitation-induced infection.

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I love this solution. I heard about it on that episode of BBR. I've been using it religiously for months now. He says specifically 1 ounce of bleach, 1 ounce of white wine vinegar, 5 gallons water. This is extremely cheap and works very well. I'd put it against one step or whatever really. I use dish soap to clean, and the dishwasher for anything that will fit in it. The dishwasher is especially useful for sanitizing bottles and caps.

I'm a recent oxyclean convert ... it really does the job on dirty carboys. I use cool water (so as not to loosen the glue on my "fermometer"), let sit overnight, dump, rinse, and CLEAN! Very handy .. wish I'd found it earlier. I don't bottle much but I'll give it a try next time I'm de-labeling.

Like others, I swish with a 1/4 tsp of iodophor and a gallon of water, and set the carboy upside down in the stand and have it ready for cooled wort.

Dan

Betadine is now discontinued.

The replacement is Videne

Duffey said:

When you sanitize with bleach it's best to mix an equal amount of bleach and vinegar into the water you're sanitizing with. Bleach on its own won't kill certain bacteria unless the water has some acidity to it (hence the vinegar.)

I've done all my sanitizing with bleach/vinegar and never had a sanitation-induced infection.

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It should be noted that this solution should not be used on stainless steel!

Sodium Hypochlorite will degrade and pit stainless steel. This happens to a lesser extent when mixed with Sodium Hydroxide (which bleach is.) However, when the pH is dropped down (vinegar) it exacerbates this problem and pits stainless faster.

Do not clean your corny kegs with this.

I clean with something called Straight-A, which I get from my LHBS. I sanitize with an Iodophor-based solution...although to be honest, I'm not very exacting when it comes to creating it (I simply add about 1 capful for 2-3 gallons of water).

Here are my questions:

1) Do I need to use pre-boiled water when creating my sanitizing solution of water and Iodophor? I have been, but if I don't need to I would like to eliminate the time- and energy-consuming process of pre-boiling.

2) Do I need to rinse after soaking in the Iodophor solution? I have been (with tap water), but now I'm thinking I'm defeating the whole purpose?

What big stores sell oxyclean? Is it worth buying straight sodium percarbonate online instead of getting powdered oxyclean? What is the best concentration that people have found? Planning to use oxyclean/sodium percarbonate + Star San.

Hegh said:

What big stores sell oxyclean? Is it worth buying straight sodium percarbonate online instead of getting powdered oxyclean? What is the best concentration that people have found? Planning to use oxyclean/sodium percarbonate + Star San.

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Wal-mart sells it, just make suer it's unscented.

Is Start San safe for septic tanks?

I use OneStep or Iodophor. I fear the foam.

ZooBrew said:

Is Start San safe for septic tanks?

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According to the manufacturer it is good for septic tanks.

ohiobrewtus said:

I use OneStep or Iodophor. I fear the foam.

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Are you afraid of the dark too? Come on brother, the foam is your friend!!

i needed to clean my keg and couldnt find the oxyclean so i used comet. then i read it has bleach in it. i let my keg soak for an hour or so. do i scrap it, or will can it take the one time abuse?

I love using bleach and ammonia! It smells great and the fumes give me a gnarly buzz! (not really, its very toxic I was joking!) I used a mild anti-Microbial hand soap, my kit us brand new so I just wanted to be safe. I have definitely gotten some good tips reading this thread. I usually go out of my way to sanitize the surfaces I will be working around with lysol, before cooking. We will see how the first batch comes out, hopefully my OCD will work out for the good this time!

For some reason I can't find the quote, but someone mentioned in this thread leaving a bleach solution in their primary overnight to give it a good solid cleaning. Is this alright with a plastic fermenting bucket? Wont be overly corrosive?

I just heard that OneStep was forced by the FDA to change their labels because it is in fact NOT a cleaner and sanitiser but merely only a cleaner.

So I went ahead and bought some OneStep and StarSan just to be safe....

Panzermann said:

So I went ahead and bought some OneStep and StarSan just to be safe....

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That is the method I use, One Step for cleaning and Star San for Sanitizing.

One question for the group here: Are there situations where we would use One Step vs PBW to clean? I was wondering what exactly the differences were.

I currently use one step for cleaning, but I understand PBW is better for certain applications (i.e. keggle, carboy, and keg cleaning) Is this true?

how can I know if I mixed the right amount of PBW with my water? I loaded up my bathtub and it made the water cloudy for a short bit and now there are a few areas where it looks like some nearly disolved patches on top of the water...does that mean I need to add more water?

how about going to the CO-OP (feed and seed store) and buying 10% Idophor? its the same as the Betadine. that you can but at walmart for twice the price.

Is it ever possible that Star-san could make the beer taste bitter. Only reason I ask is because the last 3 beers I have kegged all have a horrible beer taste to them and there were the first times I have ever used star san?

celtic_dude said:

Is it ever possible that Star-san could make the beer taste bitter. Only reason I ask is because the last 3 beers I have kegged all have a horrible beer taste to them and there were the first times I have ever used star san?

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I am sure it is just coincidence. There is nothing in Star San that could make an entire batch overly bitter.

A question and a comment.
1) I have an old keg that I'm converting to a keggle. It had Foster's in it. It still had
pressure on it and some soured beer. It's got some kind of funk on the walls and
bottom. I used BKF and oxyclean. I scrubbed the he$$ out of it and it will come off
but I'll be an old(er) man with Hulk Hogan arms at this rate. Should I let the oxyclean
set over night? Any other ideas?
2)As far as allergic reaction, If you are only allergic to shellfish, you can use the iodine
based sanitizers. It's an iodine allergy you have to watch out for. If you are allergic
to iodine, you shouldn't use the cleaners or iodized salt (just about all restaraunts
use it, so ask). An example of shellfish allergy gotchas is taking vitamins where the
calcium is from oyster shells. I am allergic to shellfish (after 46 years and out of the
blue) and found out the hard way about it and the vitamins. But, ya'll know if you
have the allergy, check with your Doctor versus the HomeBrewTalk Doctors! - Dwain

I cannot get iodophor or star san here.. What should I use to clean my corny kegs and what to use to sanitize. I can get oxyclean. Is this safe for stainless

flyerdx said:

I cannot get iodophor or star san here.. What should I use to clean my corny kegs and what to use to sanitize. I can get oxyclean. Is this safe for stainless

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Seriously, just bite the bullet and order a big jug of Star San concentrate from Morebeer.com. They will ship US Postal Service, so you won't pay a fortune for duty or brokerage fees (avoid the express couriers or they will rob you blind).

If you mix up Star San with reverse osmosis water (probably cheap in the bottled water section of your grocer), it lasts for months, and can be reused over and over if your equipment is clean going into the soak.

There are likely some Canadian online retailers that carry one or the other, too. Have you tried Noble Grape?

EDIT: Just checked Noble Grape's website. They carry iodophor. They have a big store in Fredricton.

thanks for the info..

new here and just getting started brewing (setting up equipment stage right now). anyone ever use a product called benefect for sanitizing their equipment? just discovered it today in a search for something not too toxic to be putting on surfaces that will contact the liquid that i'll be drinking. more information about the product at benefect.com. its advertised that you can spray it on and not require a rinse, but i'm thinking a rinse with treated or boiled water couldnt hurt. any experience out there with this stuff? sounds interesting, made from thyme oil.

I didn't see DBC(Drainboard cleaner) mentioned in here, but I didn't read every page either. Anyhow, I used this stuff to clean to clean up some surface rust on a SS IC that I just got. Worked like a charm, wiped it away in seconds. It's a Mineral & Lime Solvent, I suppose it's similar to CLR. It's made by National Chemicals in Minnesota. I wanted to use BKF but the LHBS didn't have any.

celtic_dude said:

Is it ever possible that Star-san could make the beer taste bitter. Only reason I ask is because the last 3 beers I have kegged all have a horrible beer taste to them and there were the first times I have ever used star san?

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Sometimes I wonder about this too. I've had a bunch of failures since moving to Oxi/StarSan from Diversol. https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Jolly McStanson said:

How about using a denture cleaner to for hard to reach places. I was thinking of using Polident to clean my keg system. You can get a good size box of Polident at BJ's Whole Sale Club.

Polident cleans and sanitizes as well as being food grade.

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I have used denture tablets to clean my water bottles for years with great success on smell and cleanliness. I am also curious as to how well this works on brewing equipment...anyone?

Okay, I have tried several cleaners and my carboys still smell like nasty yeast. Is there any way to get rid of this smell, and will it hurt the next batch?

As a side note- I was using One Step with my Mr. Beer and having all sorts of problems even soaking for 20-30 minutes. The stuff is useless if you ask me. The iodophor is an easy rinse, count to 10, and go. I do rinse right before I fill something though. And I seem to have a metallic taste in my mouth after drinking my first beer of a new keg- which I probably incorrectly attribute to the iodophor.

Do you know if bleach has any side effects on glass like....stains?
I filled my bottles with MUCH bleach and water and let sit for like 10 hours and i have opaque-spotted bottles...and before this long soak they were perfectly cristal-clean.


And i find almost impossible to remove this stains also!

rmchair said:

And I seem to have a metallic taste in my mouth after drinking my first beer of a new keg- which I attribute to the iodophor.

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The metallic taste is much more likely to have come from chloramine in your tap water than from iodophor. When they say "no-rinse," they really do mean "no-rinse."

llazy_llama said:

The metallic taste is much more likely to have come from chloramine in your tap water than from iodophor. When they say "no-rinse," they really do mean "no-rinse."

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That's what I would think too, but I have well water. It seems like whatever it is, its in the sediment, because after the first glass or two its gone, maybe its some lubricant from the corny fittings. Oh well, not gonna worry about it. Point taken on the no rinse though.

Has anybody tryed Chemipro Oxi Vinoferm?
If someone has... How do you use it?
It says No-rinse but i don´t know if its a good sanitizer.

I would love to buy StarSan but i didn´t find where to buy it here.

Bleach, according to one canned kit manufacturer is OK, so from then on I have used this with no problems. No soap touches my stuff or bottles.

I take the fermenting vessel outside, using hose fill half full with water first - add 2-4 ounces of bleach then top off and let sit for an hour or overnite. Then using your hand, rub the inside of vessel clean. Rinse with clear water and start a new batch.

Bottles get a 2-4 ounce shot of bleach (no soap) in the dishwasher then run as normal. They say try to use un-scented bleach if possible but I can't find it?

The dishwasher's not actually going to do very well at cleaning inside your bottles. Also, I used to use bleach to clean the growlers I had before homebrewing and that much rinsing to get rid of the residue was a complete pain in the ass.

Life has been so much better by ordering PBW and StarSan. A PBW soak gets everything clean, and StarSan is a quick, easy and NO RINSE sanitizer. Also, to whomever on this board first suggested StarSan in a spray bottle: Pure Genius.

You should try your bottles in the dishwasher again .... with a little less bleach they sparkle.

I use some stuff I get from work (work in a hospital kitchen) called oasis 146 multi quat sanitizer. It is a red liquid that you dilute heavily with water. It is what we use there to sanitize these giant mixing bowls that are too big to be put through the machine that sanitize stuff with very hot water. It is no rinse and does not have an overpowering smell when compared to bleach. It has four active ingredients and seems to work very well. I can list those if anyone cares, but as of now I don't feel like typing out these chemical names.