For most of my sanitization (except for when I'm bottling, for which I use star-san to save time) I've been doing bleach water soaking. Basically soaking the items in bleach water (bucket fermenters, tubing, thermometers when cooling wort to pitch temp, etc) and then rising them in plain tap water. I also soak my bottles in bleach water/rinse with regular before using them to sanitize them and make it easier to pry the labels off.
I worry that using regular tap water to rinse poses a threat to contaminating the items, leading to no good infections. Could I just let these items air dry instead of the extra rinse step? If I do just air dry, has anyone had any issues with off flavors or stuff not fermenting properly?
I'm curious if it matters how strong the bleach to water ratio is. I haven't been precise in this area, usually just put enough bleach to cover most of the bottom of the bucket and then topping off with around 3-4 gallons of tap water.
I worry that using regular tap water to rinse poses a threat to contaminating the items, leading to no good infections. Could I just let these items air dry instead of the extra rinse step? If I do just air dry, has anyone had any issues with off flavors or stuff not fermenting properly?
I'm curious if it matters how strong the bleach to water ratio is. I haven't been precise in this area, usually just put enough bleach to cover most of the bottom of the bucket and then topping off with around 3-4 gallons of tap water.