Sanitizing ahead of time

I've been getting into brewing and know how important cleaning and sanitizing is. I was wondering if it's possible to sanitize maybe a day ahead or something or is it best to do it right before you're about to brew

probably best to do it immediately before. There are wild yeasts even in the air that *could* cause bacteria to grow, which could lead to infection.

Get a no rinse sanitizer like StarSan and sanitizing becomes a quick task.

Depends on whether or not you're sanitizing an open or closed container. I pre-sanitize my empty kegs all the time.

I pre sanitize my fermenters and throw some plastic wrap over the opening. On brew day i rinse with a lil hot water and pour about a cup of star san or so in there and give her a shake. Takes less than 5 minutes and I have never had an unintentional infection *knocks on wood*

It depends... If you have bottles on a tree and they are upside down, then you would be ok. If you leave your items sitting out for anything to land on or in, then you might pick something up. But, sanitizing the day before is better than nothing. Just make sure you don't rinse them if you are using star-san.

I'd use starsan and just sanitize right before using. It's no rinse, so dunk your stuff in there, or spray on with a spray bottle, and wait 30 seconds... Then use.

You *could* sanitize some stuff ahead of time as long as you are confident that no germs could contact whatever it is you sanitized.

I usually fill up the sink & soak all my smaller items as I'm getting my ingredients together in the order they will be used. As for the buckets, I siphon the water from the sink into the bucket/carboy/kettle. That way, my siphon is getting sanitized continuously throughout the process. I usually do the siphon & bucket twice so dirt from the smaller soaking items or anything initially caught in the tip of the siphon won't get left behind in the bucket.

From reading up a ton on homebrewing before I ever began, the one thing everyone seems to agree on is the importance of sanitization. Why risk a whole day's worth of "work", the money for the ingredients, & tying up your primary/secondary for weeks/months at a time?

CTownBrewer said:

Why risk a whole day's worth of "work", the money for the ingredients, & tying up your primary/secondary for weeks/months at a time?

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This is a pretty good point. Although, it's possible to get an infected batch sanitizing the day of, too. However, if you're diligent enough, the risks are minimized.

Thanks for all the info everyone. Sounds it's all for doing it right before so I'll definitely have to keep that in mind. thanks!