Rinse vs. No Rinse, in regard to risks of exposure to contamination.

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wildbill

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I use Iodophor sanitizer and generally rinse instead of air drying because I wanted to limit the exposure to air born contaminates and I don’t want to sit and wait for it to dry. But then I thought about what is running out of the tap and realized I was rinsing my sanitized equipment with un-sanitized water. Bacteria exists tap water, but there is also chlorine added by the local water department. I’ve thought about boiling my rinse water, but haven’t come up with a “safe” way to do so. What do you guys think?


I’ve have wanted to play with yeast more, that’s what got me started thinking.
 
The best way to use iodophor is according manufacturer's instructions: mix at 12.5 ppm and air-dry.

The equipment does not need to be 100% dry before using. Any small amounts of iodophor solution left on the equipment will not effect the beer in any way.

IMHO, you need to RDWHAHB.
 
ok cool,

I was told that if I follow the instructions I should have no problmes, hehe.

I wanted to ask anyway.
 
This is a great article on Iodophor...

http://www.bayareamashers.org/content/maindocs/iodophor.htm

In summary, not only is air-drying OK, you don't even really have to sweat it if it doesn't completely dry. At the proper concentration, even the most discerning palate cannot taste the presense of a small amount of Iodophor in the finished product, nor is it harmful at those levels.

Practically speaking, the risk of rinsing is probably negligible as well, but this article really opened my eyes. I'm all about the Iodophor now. It's cheap, as long as you are using the right concentration. No stresses about rinsing or drying or anything, just do the best you can to let it drain and dry. I was using bleach for my buckets and carboys and One-step for everything else, but at this point I'm just using bleach to clean the buckets themselves and Idophor for the rest.

To be fair, I haven't used Star-San yet, I know it has many, many proponents as well. I don't know how much you need to be concerned about making sure that IT air-dries.
 
I don't have any real concerns about bacteria. I do have concerns about wild yeasts.

I don't use straight tap-water. If I have to rinse I use boiled tap water. I don't use any tap-water for beer-making or yeast starters.

I have gone to Star-San and I've been happy. But I'm concerned with it's ability to kill wild yeasts. Since I have no experience on the matter and haven't read up to terribly much on the issue I am taking the stance of RDWHAHB.

My other concern is using Star-San to rinse my bottles prior to bottling. I don't rinse the Star-San out and I'm not worried about it, but my real concern is a speck of old disgusting mutating yeast in a bottle that the Star-San doesn't get.

After drinking a beer, I rinse the bottle then shake the crap out of the bottle then rinse again. Great excersize and forces me to get off my ass and do something besides get another beer :) Still I wonder if any specks of yeast are left over...
 
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