Brewed my first sour

Oldsock said:

Oxyclean isn't a sanitizer (it is great for getting crud off your gear though). I'd get some Star-San.

With good sanitation you can share equipment (especially if you are just using Lacto), but if you brew a lot of sours it is worth having a second set of post-boil gear. I just hand down my old "clean" geear to my sours once a year or so.

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xjncoguyx said:

Dude, this isn't my first rodeo. I have star-san. Im not looking for sanitizing, im looking for sterilizing. Or basically killing off the bugs. I only suggested oxyclean because i wasn't sure if they could live in it. Im basically looking for a way to kill them off so i don't have to worry about them coming into contact with any of my other equipment. I will probably eventually use separate equipment for my sours, but i was just wondering of what those little guys can survive mostly.

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tophers76 said:

Since your looking to sterilize (which is stronger than sanitizing) and not sanitize, and Oxiclean is not a sanitizer, Oldsock answered your question. Only way I know of to completely kill all organisms is to use an autoclave which won't work on most of our homebrew equipment.

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ReverseApacheMaster said:

Sanitation is sufficient.

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xjncoguyx said:

Good to know Im sure i'll soak in oxy first just to clean and then soak in starsan for a few minutes. I guess the PH is too much for the lacto to live in?

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ReverseApacheMaster said:

Well if you think about it, lacto, pedio and brett exist naturally in the environment on stuff, in the air, etc. When your equipment sits in storage it gets all that stuff on it. That's why we sanitize before post-boil wort or beer touches anything.

The difference with sour beers is that you're creating big pools of those critters and they soak in the equipment which increases the likelihood that they can get into a scratch, small cracks, etc. and not come out with a spray from a spray bottle. Anything I have that touches a sour (or infected) beer gets a long soak in starsan for a few days. I fill up the fermenter and bottling bucket with starsan and then dump in all the tubing and let it sit for a few days. Then I dump it out and put it in storage. I haven't had cross contamination yet.

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xjncoguyx said:

Yeah, that was my biggest concern was not so much that the critters will be on it, but the concentration of the critters. Also was wondering once bottled will the lacto go dormant once CO2 is introduced? Also, anyone ever keg a sour and force carb?

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ReverseApacheMaster said:

I can't speak to kegging myself but as far as bottles go some lacto strains can ferment anaerobically so they can survive in CO2 but they will go dormant once they run out of sugars to consume. I've never had a bottle bomb issue with lacto infected beers. I just prime as normal and let it run its course.

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