Sanitation bucket question

I tried doing some searching about this, but didn't see exactly what I wanted. Is it okay to us a cheap, non-food grade bucket from home depot to sanitize my equipment in on brew day, or should I just use my bottling bucket? Also is it okay to clean the equipment first in that same bucket that I'm using for sanitizing, or should I get 2 buckets, one for sanitizing, and one for cleaning?

I'm sure this was discussed before, but wanted a more direct answer.

Thanks for your help

clean sepertatly, dont over think this, sanitizing is simple. Keep it stupid simple. You are fine using the home depot bucket.

Don't use your bottling bucket, or a fermenter bucket as a sanitizer/cleaning bucket..there is too much risk of you accidently scratching the plastic, which could possibly leave yourself open for infections down the road...I have a couple soysace buckets that I use for cleaning and sanitizeing stuff in....some people use homer buckets...so yeah, you can use anything as a sanitizer bucket...and it being food grade doesn't really matter, buecause it is not actually touching your beer or wort.

I use an old bottling bucket that I replaced prior to having an infection problem. Works great,and has a spigot.

bikefoolery said:

I use an old bottling bucket that I replaced prior to having an infection problem. Works great,and has a spigot.

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My solution also.

GT

I use a 5 gallon mix n' measure paint bucket from Lowe's that cost me $7. It works fine for sanitizing the equipment, and is nice because it is marked in 1/2 gallon increments which makes mixing the sanitizer really easy.
Cheers,
Brian

Revvy said:

Don't use your bottling bucket, or a fermenter bucket as a sanitizer/cleaning bucket..there is too much risk of you accidently scratching the plastic, which could possibly leave yourself open for infections down the road.

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good point

hopsalot said:

good point

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Yeah most people don't think of it...and many even sanitize bottles in them...but didja ever notice the diamond pattern cut into the bottom of many beer bottles? Run your fingers along the edge, and rub it over a piece of soft plastic, and look at what it does to the plastic.

just to play devil's advocate here- I've been reading up a lot on sensitization recently and I get the impression that the whole scratches harboring bacteria that will ruin your beer thing is a bit over-hyped. I've read (and tend to believe) that if you are diligent about cleaning your equipment after each use, the fact that the plastic gets scratched up over time is not going to ruin a batch unless you don't clean up afterwards and expect that your sanitization process is going to rid your bucket of everything bad.

While being fairly new to the whole brewing scene, I can't speak from experience but I will tell you that the guy at my LHBS swears by just using B-Brite and nothing else to clean his equipment (no sanitizer afterwards) and claims he's never had a batch ruined by infection in 20 years of brewing. Granted, I'll still continue to sanitize with idophor-it's just another POV that leads me to believe that sometimes we get a little too carried away with sanitizing everything...

ak47clown said:

just to play devil's advocate here- I've been reading up a lot on sensitization recently and I get the impression that the whole scratches harboring bacteria that will ruin your beer thing is a bit over-hyped. I've read (and tend to believe) that if you are diligent about cleaning your equipment after each use, the fact that the plastic gets scratched up over time is not going to ruin a batch unless you don't clean up afterwards and expect that your sanitization process is going to rid your bucket of everything bad.

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Well that's YOUR choice as to what to believe....for me the fact that a scratch can harbor a deep enough pocket of bacteria that can be resistant to CLEANING and therefore may not be killed by the sanitizer is a GOOD Enough reason for me NOT to bang up the things that are going to be touching the wort or the beer for any length of time...Especially since an extra bucket dedicated purely towards dumping stuff into it to clean or sanitize without worrying is a cheap enough solution, for those of us who care enough to take the extra steps....

Even reading the material about star san from Natl. Chemicals says that Starsan will not necessarily kill all biomatter, and that deep scratches, porous surfaces, and not so good job of cleaning may defeat anything that the sanitizer may do...

I'm probably one of the biggest advocates on here about how hard it is to screw up your beer...if you've spent any time on here you may have seen one of two things I've written to that effect......

But despite that, there is no cause to be careless or sloppy in your brewing process....and you can never be TOO careful...an ounce of prevention is worth 5 gallons of good beer to me anyday....and only using my bottling bucket for bottling, and my fermenters as fermenters and not slop buckets, in one way I cut the odds of a bad batch down a little bit.

So you can believe or play devil's advocate all you want, and your "buddy" can use B-brite till his little heart's contentment...but you're always only one batch away from your first infection...

Me on the other hand am going to err on the side that believes that "Cleanliness (or SMART sanitization) is next to godliness!" And keep my fermenters and bottling bucket a scratch free as possible.

Now take into consideration what some people do here - If you plan to keep your batch of sanitizer for more than one use, I would say the bucket idea is okay. (Provided thats its PERMANENT purpose)

Fill it once, use it many times.
-Me

Revvy said:

So you can believe or play devil's advocate all you want, and your "buddy" can use B-brite till his little heart's contentment...but you're always only one batch away from your first infection...

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Hah! despite what you may think-this really is the guy at the LHBS that gives me a hard time every time i go in there to buy Idophor claiming I'll make a mess of everything i touch and it's not worth it.

Anyways-like i was saying and i'm sure you can agree-there really isn't any topic that you won't find conflicting info on and i just figured I'd throw in a few things.

Personally-I don't do anything with my bottling bucket other than bottling, clean my bottles in the sink, and don't put anything in my primary other than the airlock, stopper, and perhaps the hydrometer when it comes to cleaning and sanitizing. My stainless steel sink is large enough that I can fit most of my equipment in it.

I use a foaming spray bottle for all my sanitizing with starsan. No other way to go. Just wash the equipment, let it dry, spray it down, let it sit for sixty seconds and roll on. Saves an enormous amount of santizer. there is no need to soak anything. soaking in my book is reserved for loosening left over krausen in a carboy which I use non-scented cascade diswashing detergent

ak47clown said:

Hah! despite what you may think-this really is the guy at the LHBS that gives me a hard time every time i go in there to buy Idophor claiming I'll make a mess of everything i touch and it's not worth it.

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Well there are a lot of "old school" or just plain idiots who work in LHBS's..many even believe still in autolysis, hotside aeration and probably haven't touched a book since Papazian's from 30 years ago, if you go by some of the "my LHBS are idiots" threads on here....So I'm even less impressed with the info given....

hopsalot said:

clean sepertatly, dont over think this, sanitizing is simple. Keep it stupid simple. You are fine using the home depot bucket.

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Wow, thanks for all the replys! Okay, so I definitely won't use my bottling bucket, I will get one from home depot. Still a little foggy on one thing though, as the quote above says "clean separately". I know you should clean then sanitize, but can is it okay to clean my equipment in the HD bucket, dump it, and fill the same bucket with sanitizer for the rest of the brew session?

Sorry it's my first time brewing by myself

Homer said:

Wow, thanks for all the replys! Okay, so I definitely won't use my bottling bucket, I will get one from home depot. Still a little foggy on one thing though, as the quote above says "clean separately". I know you should clean then sanitize, but can is it okay to clean my equipment in the HD bucket, dump it, and fill the same bucket with sanitizer for the rest of the brew session?

Sorry it's my first time brewing by myself

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That's fine... or get two buckets...but you really don't need to mix up a whole 5 gallons of sanitizer...if you are using starsan or iodophor, you can just mix up a couple gallons and make sure everything gets wet and stays wet with it.

I put some good sanitizing tips and other info in this thread...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/sanitizer-question-54932/?highlight=sanitizer+question

A spray bottle with starsan or iodophor dilluted with distilled water is a handy thing to use...it lasts a long time and you use a lot less to get the job done.

Good info. I am just now using a spray bottle for my Starsan. I save my Starsan for the entire batch and reuse it. I so have a spare bucket laying around - I'll start using that, instead of my bottling bucket (didn't think of accidently scratching it). Thanks for the tips.

Still a newbie here and I have just a minimal amount of equipment. For cleaning and sanitizing I use a rectangular plastic storage container

(Like This)

They are cheap at Wal-mart, etc. It's large enough to soak a case of bottles at one time or I can put my Ale Pail into it on its side and roll it around to sanitize.

AirRageous said:

Still a newbie here and I have just a minimal amount of equipment. For cleaning and sanitizing I use a rectangular plastic storage container

(Like This)

They are cheap at Wal-mart, etc. It's large enough to soak a case of bottles at one time or I can put my Ale Pail into it on its side and roll it around to sanitize.

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I use one of those for soaking labels off bottles...I actually keep one in my kitchen now...plus I have a larger one for my Swamp cooler.