Secondary Sanitize

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DeadYetiBrew

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Ok so we have 2 carboy and a plastic container... We will more the contents of Carboy1 to the plastic container... Then we wash carboy 1 and put the contents of carboy 2 into it, then wash carboy 2 and put the contents from the plastic into carboy 2....

Now my question is, Do we need to sanitize after washing each container? I mean if it was only touching beer should it matter how sanitized it is???
 
I'm going to guess that both carboys are currently being used as primary fermenters, and they want to move the beers to secondary.
 
First off, I'd just drop another $10-20 on another vessel to avoid that shuffle.

In any case, you can never be too safe, so I would say to wash and sanitize them. Could probably get away with not sanitizing, but why take the risk? Beer might have been all that was in them prior, but all that was in my buckets prior was nothing (well, air, but you get the point). Anyway, during the shuffle process air is getting in there also (can you say airborn wild yeasts?) and its highly doubtful, but maybe some bacteria in the cleaning water that survives soap? Also, what if the beer removed from that container was somehow infected (it would probably be visually evident, but maybe not)?

Like I said, why take the risk to save 3 minutes?
 
We're shuffling because we decided to start by doing two recipes. I don't like all the shuffling either. We'll be going to 1 a week so that we don't have to shuffle... Just one of those things we decided to do since it was the first time.

SilkkyBrew said:
First off, I'd just drop another $10-20 on another vessel to avoid that shuffle.

In any case, you can never be too safe, so I would say to wash and sanitize them. Could probably get away with not sanitizing, but why take the risk? Beer might have been all that was in them prior, but all that was in my buckets prior was nothing (well, air, but you get the point). Anyway, during the shuffle process air is getting in there also (can you say airborn wild yeasts?) and its highly doubtful, but maybe some bacteria in the cleaning water that survives soap? Also, what if the beer removed from that container was somehow infected (it would probably be visually evident, but maybe not)?

Like I said, why take the risk to save 3 minutes?
Click to expand...

I think I'll go ahead and sanitize anyway, just in case. Thanks for all your advice guys... Inevitably we'll probably drop more on more containers. :mug:
 
The problem is you're going to have scum stuck to the sides which needs to be thoroughly washed out. You'll end up using hot tap water and maybe a carboy brush, etc. At that point, you're already pretty susceptible to contamination. You don't have to fill them with sanitzer. After your final rinse with tap water, put a gallon of sanitizer solution in one, shake, let sit, shake, then dump it into your next carboy and repeat. This works fine if you use a short-contact time sanitizer because shaking the carboy coats the walls.
 

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