Steam Disinfection

I own a conical fermenter and the manufacturer recommends spraying the inside of each ball valve with a bleach solution prior to opening. While this might be fine to do, I also have sitting aroung the house, one of those "Shark" steamers. So I was thinking that I would prefer to give each valve a good blast of steam instead. I would like to know if anyone else has used a steamer for quick disinfection. Please give me your thoughts.

Interesting idea but I wonder if the duration would be sufficient. Steam is a great method of sterilization, think of the autoclave used by all kinds of medical/biotechnology. Sterilization isn't your goal I guess, just simple sanitization; right? My only concern is that lactobacillus are bacteria that can under certain circumstances form spores that are very, very heat resistant. I'd take a thermometer and use the Shark steamer to see how long it takes to raise the termperature to whatever temp. you deem sufficient simply by pointing the stream of steam at the bulb of the thermometer.

The autoclave I use at work hits 121 °C which is about 250 °F under 1 atmosphere of pressure but I need sterilization. Someone posted previously dry temperatures and duration for sterilization but maybe they have insight into your query about sanitation.

How you like the plastic conical?

I'll try recording the steam temp as you suggest. To be realistic, I would anticipate it to be 100 C, probably no more. I don't think my steamer is going to super heat.

As far as the plastic conical goes, I haven't put a batch up in it yet; but that will be very soon - can't wait. As far as construction goes, I'm quite impressed. It's made with heavy duty PTFE, comes with a decent 1/2" nickel plated racking valve, 3/4" nickel plated dump/fill valve. The stand consists of aluminum legs and ABS rings. It's not something I would be cavalier with; but when assembled with the proper tools, it is certaily sturdy enough to do exactly what it was designed to do without incident. The bulkhead openings are welded; so there's no worry about leaks. Naturally, threading anything into plastic, you have to worry about stripping threads; but if you follow proper protocol when assembling (don't overtighten), you shouldn't have a problem here either. Overall, I like it.

I've thought about setting some money aside to buy a plastic conical that I saw advertised; the manufacturer slips my mind. The plastic conicals are so much more economical.

I know nothing of the plastic conicals; does the manufacturer of the one you bought recommend total disassembly of the bulkheads or just a good cleaning solution followed by a sanitizer?

The manufacturer is Hobby Beverage and the brand is MiniBrew.

I currently misplaced the documentation for my conical; but from what I recall, complete disassembly was not necessary. In my case, I'm just going to clean it immediately after bottling, fill it up, add OneStep and flush.

You could always contact Hobby Beverage through their website and ask them for specifics. When I had a question, they were great at getting back to me within a day or so. I got the impression when they responded, there was genuine concern for their customers and quality of their products. That's always a plus in my book.

Thanks for the manufacturer, that's the one I saw. I'll contact them following the holiday.

runhard said:

Interesting idea but I wonder if the duration would be sufficient. Steam is a great method of sterilization, think of the autoclave used by all kinds of medical/biotechnology. Sterilization isn't your goal I guess, just simple sanitization; right? My only concern is that lactobacillus are bacteria that can under certain circumstances form spores that are very, very heat resistant. I'd take a thermometer and use the Shark steamer to see how long it takes to raise the termperature to whatever temp. you deem sufficient simply by pointing the stream of steam at the bulb of the thermometer.

The autoclave I use at work hits 121 °C which is about 250 °F under 1 atmosphere of pressure but I need sterilization. Someone posted previously dry temperatures and duration for sterilization but maybe they have insight into your query about sanitation.

How you like the plastic conical?

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FWIW, autoclaves using steam, in medical facilities, only reach the temps they do because they work at GREATER than 1 Bar (1 atmosphere). Even then, they need to hold those temps for several minutes to reach proper sterilization - and even then, spores do occassionally survive, which is why they do tests with every autoclave run using spores inside a container. Further, there is convective movement of the steam within the autoclave.