Water for cleaning/sanitizing

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RDubb

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Jul 18, 2010
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Location
Boston
Howdy,

I recently purchased a beginner brown ale kit and am ready to begin the process. Before I start sanitizing everything, I wanted to check with you folks on something.

My tap water originates from a well beneath my house. I only use it for bathing/washing dishes/watering plants/etc, not for drinking. This is due to the high mineral content (I think there's a very high iron content or something along those lines) and risk of biological runoff from a nearby lake. My question is: can I safely use this water in a C-Brite solution and rinse for sanitizing my equipment? I have plenty of spring water as well. I plan on using that in the actual beer.

Thanks for any advice!
 
if you wash your dishes with it, you can santize your gear with it too, it's obviously not poisonous in small quantities :)
 
Is c-brite a rinse sanitizer? I think i used that on a few batches. I dont have the best tap water, and after using the sanitizer, i used the tap to rinse. Beer turned out terrible. I started using a no rinse sanitizer and have had no problems since.
 
Yes, the C-Brite instructions say to rinse surface after use. My fear is that I'll sanitize everything with the solution and then just go and recontaminate with the raw rinse. Guess I'll just stick with the spring water for everything.
 
Just pick up a no rinse, and don't look back. I use "1 Step", but am going to try star-san when it runs out.
 
+1 on the StarSan or Iodophor. Note that with very hard water, the mixed StarSan will not have a very long shelf life. You can purchase some cheap pH strips to confirm that it is low enough to be effective. If you mix StarSan with distilled water and keep it in a sealed container, it can last many months. Having some around in a spray bottle comes in quite handy.
 
i'm confused. c-brite came with my kit, but mine says to let air dry. maybe thats why your beer tasted nasty since you rinsed it off when using c-brite since it is a no rinse sanitizer.
 
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