Sanitizer use question

I was wondering if any one here does not use sanitizer in there process? I haven't for quite a number of batches now and seem to be doing fine no contamination problems.
I clean with PBW and just rinse with cold water. Besides the carboy, anything touching the wort post-boil has been sanitized by the boil, protecting the wort at its most vulnerable moment.
Also dost anyone know what bacteria etc... are common in tap water?
Thanks
Pat

Not sure on the exact bacterias, but I infected a batch by rinsing out starsan with cold tap water in one of my kegs and then racking to that keg.

I sanitize everthing post boil. I have yet to have an infection but I put too much love into my beer to throw it out due to lack of a few cents in sanitizer.

beerthirty said:

I sanitize everthing post boil. I have yet to have an infection but I put too much love into my beer to throw it out due to lack of a few cents in sanitizer.

Click to expand...

Sanitizing a few items during a brew day is rather simple does not take me much time and is honestly the ONLY practice that I will ever do. Also, you might not have gross infections of your beer but there might be higher bacteria/wild yeast numbers compared to if you had sanitized. Even though they might not be ruining your beer it could be causing off flavors. Just something to think about.

Perhaps a good honest side by side test is in order. I brew in ten gallon batches, I will split the next batch into sanitized and non-sanitized post boil and see how they compare both short and long term.
For the record, I'm not against sanitizer or too cheap, my reason for not using it is really unfounded.

A sanitizer only ensures that a surface is sanitary. It is possible that your cleaning processes are such that the surfaces are sanitary already. It is possible to use water flushing of clean surfaces and achieve sanitary results, it's just not possible to prove that is sanitary.

That being said, sanitizer is so cheap that it hardly seems worth the risk.

Why would you not sanitize? Its easy, and cheap insurance you won't get an infection. I honestly cant think of any good reason not to sanitize.

You can skip antibiotics when you have surgery, and you might not get a deadly infection then either.

But wouldn't you rather have some insurance? I know I do, and that's why I sanitize after cleansing.

Anything less is a roll of the dice on every batch. You WILL lose a roll at some point.

stillwater said:

Also dost anyone know what bacteria etc... are common in tap water?
Thanks
Pat

Click to expand...

I sometimes get notices from the city about bacteria from duck **** in our water. Sure, it's not there ALL the time, but why take chances?

I always assume that my water is full of duck ****.

Your surgical straw man isn't relevant.

But we're not doing major surgery here.

The fact is 'taking every precaution' is unnecessary. One takes reasonable amounts of risk with every brew. Even doctors take only reasonable precautions and don't pull out all the stops to insure against any possible infection every time.

I sanitize AND I just got an infection...

After going through the ordeal of pouring it down the drain I wouldn't ever risk it again. Sanitation++ from now on.

Of course you don't NEED sanitizer. Our sorry civilization, and many before it, has been brewing for a good long time.....and it worked.

We also drove cars before they had seatbelts, did surgery before there were sterile practices, ate meat that hadn't been refrigerated, and drank water that hadn't been treated.

Point is, we have a better way now, and we follow it to cut down on the chances of bad consequences.

And I'm not advocating not using sanitizer. I'm talking about the insistence that every drop of water needs to be boiled or there is a significant risk of infection in every case and this simply isn't true.

Sanitizing is about reducing significant sources of infection. Many people have water sources that do not present a significant risk in the volumes being presented by the OP.

Scut_Monkey said:

Sanitizing a few items during a brew day is rather simple does not take me much time and is honestly the ONLY practice that I will ever do. Also, you might not have gross infections of your beer but there might be higher bacteria/wild yeast numbers compared to if you had sanitized. Even though they might not be ruining your beer it could be causing off flavors. Just something to think about.

Click to expand...

Someone missed the point here and I don't think it was me. I advocate sanitizing everything postboil and you seem to think that at some point I have had off flavor due to poor sanitizing simply because I claim to have never had an infection. Although I have had other problems such as attenuation due to stuck fermentation of very big beers, my claim still holds. At this point in my brewing career I have never had an infection that caused either off flavors or the need to dispose of a batch. I always sanitize to prevent this chance. If by chance I have misinterpreted the reason why you quoted me then I apologize and you owe me a beer.

it's just too easy and cheap to sanitize as oppose to infecting a batch of beer and in the process losing time and money. definitely not worth it to not sanitize, you're just asking for trouble