Sanitizing Question

Colin86 said:

it was for a batch of beer, sorry

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Colin86 said:

Kind of a n00b question here...

So I got a Brewer's best kit, but it did not come with the one-step sanitizer I am oh-so-comfortable with. I don't have any reservations about using bleach and rinsing (heavily of course) but I'm not sure if it really is safe in the brewing process and if it is, what ratio I should use in terms of bleach to water.

Any other advice or techniques you folks use would be very helpful, as always

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Bleach

Bleach is the granddaddy of sanitizers. It’s been around the longest, and the government uses it as a baseline to measure the effectiveness of other sanitizers. The killing agent in a bleach solution is something called hypochlorous acid, and it won’t form unless the solution has a pH under 8. The more expensive bleach brands you see in stores today add sodium hydroxide, or lye, to increase the shelf life of their product. The downside of this practice is that the pH of your bleach solution will not get below 8, and you won’t get the killing power of hypochlorous acid. The cheaper, store brand bleaches use less lye, so they are better for use as a sanitizer. But since they will have a shorter shelf life, get the smallest bottle possible. To make an effective sanitizer with bleach:

1. Add 1 oz. of bleach to 5 gallons of water
2. Add 1 oz. of vinegar to the bleach/water solution (WARNING! - DO NOT ADD VINEGAR DIRECTLY TO BLEACH! You will form chlorine gas, which is toxic! If this makes you nervous, then don’t use bleach.)

This will get the pH under 8, and form enough hypochlorous acid to effectively sanitize your equipment. At this concentration level, rinsing is not required, and only 30 seconds of contact time is necessary to reach sanitization levels.

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