Sanitizing

I will be brewing my first batch this Friday.....talk about exciting!

I have been "preparing" all week by researching on the internet expecially this excellent forum!

Anyway, here is my simple beginner question:

With all the emphasis place on cleaning and sanitizin the brewing and fermenting equipment....naturally we want our hands to be clean and sanitized when handling this sanitized equipment. So we wash our hands with soap of course...but for sanitizing....is it adequate to just dip our hands in the bucket of sanitizer we are using for the equipment....keep our hands wet with star-san mixture for example when we are touching anything that might come into contact with the cold wort, etc.??

Thanks!

I'd not fret too much about it. Just keep your hands clean. I end up getting my hands in the sanitizer anyway when pulling stuff out that has been soaking in there. Your hands will get and stay sanitized in the processes there is no need to do anything special.

if its pre boil i dont bother. Post boil, i dip my hands in sanitizer. if i touch something i dont want in the beer, i dip again. I might be a bit anal about sanitation, but i dont want to have an infected beer either. i dont think you can be too over the top with it

I wear (non-powdered) latex gloves. The gloves themselves are easier to sanitize than your hands (and come out of the box more or less sterile) and they protect your hands.

Barring that, washing your hands very well will do a lot more than dipping them in sanitizer.

Sanitize everything first, every surface you can think that will be in with the wort, then just think before you put anything else in contact with the wort. Soak everything in StarSan, keep a spray bottle with StarSan to spray things that aren't soaking.
I don't put my hands in the wort, so I don't worry about doing anything other than washing my hands. Anything I touch, I try to make sure I don't touch the part that will come into contact with the wort.
There are so many bacteria on your hands, you'll never rid yourself of them. Sanitizing your equipment and minimizing your skin's contact with your equipment is the best you can do.

I'm constantly dipping my hands in sanitizer or spraying my hands with it. Anytime I am handling anything that comes in contact with post boil wort or beer. It just will become a habit as you gain experience.

Just keep your hands clean. I would ensure of this after the boil as indicated in one of the responses. BTW, Welcome to the site and good luck on your first batch! It's a great hobby.

axr

+1 on not worrying about it. Your hands are going to come into contact with the sanitizer, so they'll be sanitized either way. Do be sure to wash your hands if you get something on them or have to change a diaper mid-brew.

Another thing that I didn't think about for my first two batches, was when I was chilling the wort, post-boil obviously, I kept taking my stirring spoon and thermometer out and placeing it on the counter. Luckily, my counter was clean, and my beer didn't get infected. Every beer since then, I just left them in the cooling wort until it was time to siphon the cool wort out.

Enjoy your first brew day.