Recently I was bored at work on my lunch hour and checked out a couple of the Home Brewer TV episodes on my phone. Gary Martin was promoting the use of bleach for sanitizing and says to never rinse it. I thought I'd share that for what it's worth, there are many opinions on the interwebs. Personally I only use Star San. It's fairly inexpensive and it lasts a long time.
Sanitation and cleaning are areas you really don't want to cheap out on when it comes to the brewing process.
I used to use Iodophor but now use StarSan. I don't have an issue with Iodophor, I just liked that it doesn't stain my fingers (and my kitchen counter) like the Iodophor did.
I really wouldn't recommend bleach unless it was a dire last resort absolutely had to sanitize something right that moment... and even then only after I had called every local brewer I knew to find out if they had some sanitizer I could borrow.
Maybe he enjoys the taste of band-aids... Or is trying to sabotage other brewers so that he gets more awards/medals in competitions.
I've used bleach for years and never had any issues because of it. I think the key to using bleach is not to mix it too strong. A ratio of 2oz chlorine bleach to 5 gallons of water makes an effective sanitizing solution and at that concentration rinsing is not an big issue. Just use plain unscented chlorine bleach of course.
Another big advantage of bleach is that it is available almost anywhere on the planet. Out here in the jungle I can't run down to my LHBS and get some more fancy sanitizer, but I can find bleach.
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Besides, I don't have anything that will measure just 2oz (to my knowledge). My measuring cups start at 4oz.
Some shot glasses are measured in increments up to 2oz...just don't get confused!
And a "standard" shot glass is 1.5 oz, so you could just do one + 1/3 shots. Most of the large ones are 2.0 oz, so those would be right on.
Or you could play the logic puzzle using two measuring cups that have 2 oz increments starting at 4 oz. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine how to measure out exactly 2 oz using only those two containers.
BTW, 1 oz = 19,6ml. A table spoon is 15ml. Hardly graduate level mathematics here :cross:
jfr111 said:Bleach in wrong concentrations can really screw up a beer, even if you do rinse.
Typo? 1 oz = 29.6 mL.
Also, a tablespoon is exactly 1/2 oz, so 2 tablespoons is spot on.
When I've used bleach, I've never bothered measuring. I just pour in an eyeballed amount. I've used this for cleaning bottles a few times and I've never had any ill effects at all after rinsing (and re-sanitizing with SaniClean). Certainly no off flavors.
If it has any effect on the beer after rinsing, you didn't rinse well enough (unless you mean by not sanitizing adequately if you rely on it solely for that).
Do you have marble countertops? Mine are formica ( I think, wood with a veneer) and spilled a couple drops of full strength StarSan on it.. now I am stuck with a couple white stains etched on a dark green counter. Have found nothing to remove it.
A US ounce is 29.6 ml, 28.4 Imperial.
I wonder about the bleach vinegar solution. I think the idea is that the bleach will raise the pH and the vinegar will lower it back. The thing that bumps me is that there is no way thats going to work in tap water. Charlie must have been using DI water. Otherwise the resultant pH would be over a very wide range, depending on the water.
I dont think its worth it to screw around with something that can wreck your beer in tiny amounts.
In the UK I can recommend Chemipro-Oxi. Quick, eay and no need to rinse (although I invariably do).
Jfr1111 I listened to the podcast too, but it’s been a while. I came up with the DI theory, because it’s the only way I could figure out that a smart guy like Charlie would say something dumb. I think he used DI because that’s what he had, and it never occurred to him that other people would use a whole range of different waters.
He did say when your StarSan solution gets cloudy, throw it out. It gets cloudy when the detergent reacts with the impurities in the water. I take that to mean it would be a real good idea to mix it up with soft water. It doesn’t need to be DI, it could be distilled or RO. I do that, lots of people do.
Just for fun, I ran an informal experiment. I put a teaspoon of vinegar in a half cup of tapwater, pH 3.75. With RO water, it was 3.05. Big difference.
Ooops. Typo. A tablespoon is 29,6ml. Listen to the podcast. Household bleach is engineered to whiten our laundry, not kill mold and wild yeast. When people "bleach bomb" their equipment by simply pouring in bleach and adding water afterward, they have the sentiment that they are killing everything because it smells nasty and everything turns white. Wrong. What you're doing is basically adding an unecessary step to your process and wasting a lot of water rinsing. It's not hurting anything, but it sure isn't accomplishing a whole lot either.
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