Rinsing with tap water?

Do I desanitize things when I run tap water over them? Like if I want to clean the excess cleanser from my autosiphon can I rinse with unboiled water? Or does tap water leave things sanitary after it dries? What do you guys do?

Thanks in advance!

I use Quat which is a no rinse sanitizer. I actually prefer not to rinse not because of possible contaminants in the water but from the additional handling of the equipment required to rinse it.

Oahu said:

Do I desanitize things when I run tap water over them? Like if I want to clean the excess cleanser from my autosiphon can I rinse with unboiled water? Or does tap water leave things sanitary after it dries? What do you guys do?

Thanks in advance!

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Unless you're using a "one-step" cleaner/sanitizer, your equipment is NOT sanitized after cleansing. You need to rinse the cleanser of thourghley, then sanitize. If you use a no rinse sanitizer (like Iodophor or Quat)) then don't rinse after sanitizing.

I bought some Star San which is no-rinse, but it bubbled up like soap while I was adding water. When I dumped it all out, there was bubbles left on the bucket so I gave it a rinse. I was worried that the sanitizer residue would kill my yeast. Is that a silly worry, or a valid concern?

I haven't used Star San, but I guess if I could see the residue, then I'd probably rinse it just like you did. But, they couldn't get away with labeling it as "no rinse" if a small amount of residue was going to harm your yeast.

Understand that what we're shooting for is sanitized, but not sterile. As soon as your stuff hits the air, it's getting covered in micro organisms. The idea of rinsing with municipally supplied tap water is that the stuff is chlorinated enough to be sterile in the pipe. Which is to say, go ahead and rinse with it. What you've done with your sanitizing solution is wipe out whatever little colonies of greebies are beginning to live on your equipment. Then when you brew, you add yeast which quickly takes control of the environment and eradicates the chances of survival for any other type of organism.

Sasquatch said:

The idea of rinsing with municipally supplied tap water is that the stuff is chlorinated enough to be sterile in the pipe.

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I hate to disagree with someone much more experienced than myself...but I don't believe that anyone claims that chlorinated water is sterile. I'm not saying rinsing is necessarily a bad thing, but if the concentration of chlorine in tap water was high enough to sterilize, then you could just use tap water as a sanitizer...and we all know you can't do that.

Oahu...what I've done when I felt compelled to rinse what's already been sanitized is to boil a large pot of water then dip the stuff I want to rinse in that. That way at least you're rinsing with water that you know is sterile.

Go ahead and disagree with me, EP. What you say makes sense - if water was THAT chlorinated, then we could sanitize with it... so maybe it's treated some other way I don't know about. All my books say tap water is basically sterile. Fact is, I don't really know, but what I do know is if I don't rinse that pink $hit out really really good my beer tastes like swimming pool.

Boiling is probably the safest for your rinse water.

While we're yakking, does anyone know what ozonation does in terms of microbes? Can yeast access oxygen from ozonated water??

El Pistolero said:

I hate to disagree with someone much more experienced than myself...but I don't believe that anyone claims that chlorinated water is sterile. I'm not saying rinsing is necessarily a bad thing, but if the concentration of chlorine in tap water was high enough to sterilize, then you could just use tap water as a sanitizer...and we all know you can't do that.

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Not to mention that if the concentration of chlorine in tap water was high enough to cause it to be sterile, it would wreak havoc on you when you drank it!

Cheesefood said:

I bought some Star San which is no-rinse, but it bubbled up like soap while I was adding water. When I dumped it all out, there was bubbles left on the bucket so I gave it a rinse. I was worried that the sanitizer residue would kill my yeast. Is that a silly worry, or a valid concern?

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I use Star San religiously. The foaming is expected behaviour as it enables the sanitizer to get into small cracks or crevices in the surface of the equipment. And the bubbles/residue will not harm anything. I agree that it doesn't make any sense....the solution is strong enough to kill bacteria, but it won't kill your yeast...which is also bacteria....weird huh?

Anyway, I have poured cool wort into my carboy that had lots of residual foam from the sanitizer. There were no ill affects whatsoever. Here is the website for Five Star, the makers of Star San.

Also, one way to reduce the foaming is to add the Star San to the full carboy/bucket/etc rather than putting the Start San in first and filling with water.

i clean my equipment then use iodaphor as a sanitizer for at least 5 minutes. if i have time i let it air dry, if not, no biggie. i've never had off flavors from contamination or sanitizer residue.

Before any step in my brew process, whether it be boil day, racking day, or bottling day, I always start my morning boiling up about 3 gallons of filtered tap water and letting that cool. Then I put it into sterilized 1 gallon jugs and sit it to the side.

I use this water for rinsing things off later in the day.

-walker

Sasquatch said:

Understand that what we're shooting for is sanitized, but not sterile. As soon as your stuff hits the air, it's getting covered in micro organisms. The idea of rinsing with municipally supplied tap water is that the stuff is chlorinated enough to be sterile in the pipe. Which is to say, go ahead and rinse with it. What you've done with your sanitizing solution is wipe out whatever little colonies of greebies are beginning to live on your equipment. Then when you brew, you add yeast which quickly takes control of the environment and eradicates the chances of survival for any other type of organism.

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Rinsing after you sanitize completely negates whatever you used to sanitize in the first place. FYI--tap water is not sterile.
We've had numerous discussions about this on this forum, and unless the water is above 170 degrees its not suitable for sterilizing.

I also thought Five Star made RHUM.....

ORRELSE said:

Rinsing after you sanitize completely negates whatever you used to sanitize in the first place. FYI--tap water is not sterile.
We've had numerous discussions about this on this forum, and unless the water is above 170 degrees its not suitable for sterilizing.

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170 degree water won't really sterilize. If it did, then hospitals wouldn't spend tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars on high-pressure steam and autoclaves to use it in.

170 degree water may be OK to sanitize with though.

vtfan99 said:

I use Star San ...the solution is strong enough to kill bacteria, but it won't kill your yeast...which is also bacteria....weird huh?

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Yeast is not bacteria...it's a fungus.

bikebryan said:

170 degree water won't really sterilize. If it did, then hospitals wouldn't spend tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars on high-pressure steam and autoclaves to use it in.

170 degree water may be OK to sanitize with though.

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I stand corrected.

Don't get me wrong Orrelse - I'm not here to start a fight - BUT is your claim that my equipment is just as dirty after I sanitize it and rinse with hot tap water as it was before?

Our water is highly treated. Therefore, Cholera isn't the problem it was. Nor Typhus, nor any of the kajillion bacteria that can knock us on our arses without blinking, like E. Coli. Is the tap water dead sterile? Okay, probably not. Is it clean? Yes.

Sasquatch said:

Don't get me wrong Orrelse - I'm not here to start a fight - BUT is your claim that my equipment is just as dirty after I sanitize it and rinse with hot tap water as it was before?

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I think all anyone is saying is that your equipment is probably, ever so slightly, cleaner and more sanitized before the last rinse than after. Peace.

OK, but think about this:

After making your wort, how sterilized it the water you add to it? I hold my hose to the Pur water filter so that I can fill my bucket. Is this an unsterile method? Do you guys sterilize all your water before making beer?

Cheese, you'll find that lots of guys here boil every drop of water that becomes their beer.

Pisto - I hear ya. And all I'm saying is after that rinse, it's so clean.... I could even make beer in it!!

Cheesefood said:

OK, but think about this:

After making your wort, how sterilized it the water you add to it? I hold my hose to the Pur water filter so that I can fill my bucket. Is this an unsterile method? Do you guys sterilize all your water before making beer?

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I use bottled spring water, so if it isn't sterile I'm suing wally world.

Something to think about next time. H-S water is only $5.00 for 5 gallons.

Wally sells his spring water for 69 cents a gallon, as does Herman Edward Butts. I don't know who this H-S guy is...can you trust him?

El Pistolero said:

Wally sells his spring water for 69 cents a gallon, as does Herman Edward Butts. I don't know who this H-S guy is...can you trust him?

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You trust Wallys?

No, I just check the prices at wally's to make sure I can still trust Mr. Butts.

El Pistolero said:

No, I just check the prices at wally's to make sure I can still trust Mr. Butts.

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He doesn't own any stores in my area. We have Dominick's and Jewell though.

Cheesefood said:

Something to think about next time. H-S water is only $5.00 for 5 gallons.

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Seriously tho, the gallons are better while you're still doing partial boils. I keep a couple right a freezing, one at fridge temp, and one at room temp. Then when it comes time to cool the wort to pitching temp I can do it with just the water and a quick ice bath.

I just found out that the LHBS here sells their own reverse osmosis water for $0.25/gallon.... the only catch is that you have to bring your own jug.

and to think I was paying the grocery store $0.69/gallon for distilled water.

-walker

I use bottled drinking water too from Wally World. I pay $0.59 gallon. Your gettin' screwed El Pistolero! ;~)

all-grain brewers "should" have done their water calculations right and not have to add water after the boil :~)

Hey DeRoux, do you use any water salts? I thought one of the guys at Defalco's said to used them even with spring water.

i use the drinking water, not the spring water. but to answer you question, i do sometimes. depends on the brew. my St. Almost amber ale I did.

I use tap water & bleach to sanitize and rinse with tap water. So far, no problems at all, so I'm sticking with it.

Since going all-grain, I have used a combo of mostly bottled drinking water from Jewel and a little tap water run through my PUR filter. But that was only because my pH was so damn high! When I was an extract brewer, I didn't concern myself with pH and just used the purified tap water. And the beers were fine.

Now that I 've gotten some 5.2 Stabilizer, I am just using the tap water run through my PUR filter.

FWIW, I have a friend in the health department and he told me that tap water is fairly dirty if you don't take precautions. What is in the lines is fine but our taps get wet and dry and harbor lots of bacteria, especially in the aerator. He suggests letting the water run for at least 1-3 minutes to flush the stagnant water from the house lines and line from the main. Prior to running the water remove the aerator and flame the faucet outlet, a butane lighter is fine for this.

This thread makes for some interesting reading....

Just to add my two-pence worth, I believe that it is important not to get confused with the difference between sanitised and sterilised. Our aim is to thoroughly clean our equipment and sanitise (i.e. remove a large proportion of the nasties) We are not aiming for sterile conditions, which would be near impossible....if we had to be sterile (mmm, poor choice of phrase?) we would all be dressed like surgeons whilst brewing! As long as we remove a large proportion of the nasties, we will give the yeast a fighting chance to gain a dominant foothold in the fermenter...they will make short work of any remaining nasties.

I also have used bottled mineral water (which gave good results) and for my latest brew I used tap water...I tasted when racking from primary to secondary which did not indicate any contamination problems...

It's a war out there...let's brew!

Great Read! I just use my well water and all my brews have turned out fine.

I'd swear our water has enough chlorine to sterlize an 8 oz glass smells like an olympic size swimming pool.

When I first started, I used tap water and bleach to sanitize. To rinse I use the hottest tap water that would come out, figuring the water heater would kill anything in there. I wouldn't suggest using this method though. I really don't know what's in Los Angeles tap water, not sure if I want to find out, either. I now use Starsan no-rinse sanitizer and have had no problems.

When I started I soaked in bleach (1 tsp per gal).. supposedly this is a no rinse concentration but I rinsed anyway as many suggested that I do so. I always used boiled water and found that to be quite a pain and very wasteful. However, I never had an infection.

Now, I've only had one infection.. and that was my gf's wine. I'll tell you exactly what we didn't sanitize.. we didn't boil the water that was added to the must (the wine equivalent of the wort). Bingo.. infection. I told her not to do it but of course she didn't listen. If that'd been 5 gallons of beer I think I would've cried.

Lesson.. SANITIZE EVERYTHING EVEN THE WATER. You rinse with tap water you might as well not sanitize in the first place. You can get away with it for a good while but sooner or later it'll bite you in the ass.

I Starsan EVERYTHING! The stuff is phosophoric acid I believe and it sanitizes very quickly (30 secs or so - this is a big plus over idorophor). Further, spraying the surface down real good works just as well as submersion in the sanitizer. I make a batch with distilled water and it'll keep for weeks in a dark, cool place (under the sink). Add to spray bottle and sanitize my bottles after I pour and rinse. Then I wrap in plastic wrap and they're ready to be filled again. The suds or any residue will not affect taste (only ph to some very very small degree - less than you could measure).. the yeast will also be unaffected. It's good stuff.. for those of you who are just rinsing with tap water I'd say you're making a real mistake. There's no reason not to use a product that's so easy and inexpensive. In case you're wondering.. no I'm not affiliated with star san in any way

First of all, I just started using Starsan after using the one step powder sanatizer for quite a while. I also noticed the sudsy soap-like bubbles in my carboys afterward. Has anyone ever had this affect the flavor of their beer? I got starsan with the thought of being able to use the stuff several times (at wort making, transfering to the secondary, and bottling) before having to throw it out on the driveway. So in that way, it is far cheaper than the one-step. Has anyone ever had any problems using the stuff?

Secondly, I've always wondered how the dealt with the sanitary issue a few hundred years ago before they understood it like they do today. I've been reading several of Charles Dickens books (A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, etc.). Ale was a major drink back then at the local Public Houses, because drinking water was pretty nasty stuff. This was a dirty world back then in England, France, and all over. How did they deal with this stuff. I would be interested in a book about the history of beer and wine making. Has anyone else asked this question? Just a thought.