Anyone here use bleach?

Got a strong medicinal flavor in my beer and its been suggested that its due to using bleach. I use what How To Brew calls a no rinse mix ratio, and then rinse until there is no odor, followed up with a one step sanitizer. Any of you use bleach with out problems?

I only use bleach when the buckets get stained. Even then, I do multiple rinses and then sanitize.

I soak my bottles in bleach for a few hours before i use them. I do rinse them and then run them through the dishwasher before i bottle. I also use bleach in my plastic primary to cut down on the strong hop smell. Never had any problems.

I use one step to clean the primary and my tools before i use them.

Bleach kicks ass. If you are "infecting" your beer with bleach, then you get bleach flavour in your beer. I know. I wouldn't call it band-aidy though...

I'm all for using bleach at higher concentrations than recommended. I have used it straight from the bottle, and rinsed 3 times. No troubles.

i think bleach is an old school sanitizer. too many good things on the market today that do a better job. iodaphor for instance. stuff kicks rump. but, to each his own.

I've used bleech for a long time, until idophor. With my first batch that I used bleech I didn't even rinse the damn thing, no problems i can still see. But no affects on taste. But now only idophor for me please.

I udes to use bleach, making sure to rinse every bit out. Now I use starsan and dont think I'll ever go back. No-rinse is the way to go.

I have never had a problem with bleach.

Any problems you encounter due to bleach has to do with rinsing.

Be sure you rinse it thoroughly with the hottest (RUNNING) water you can stand to hold it in/under.

Howdy,
I have used bleach every since I started brewing, '1992'.
In fact I almost bottled 10 gallons tonight using bleach.
But only because I ran out of 'Idophor.'
Finally I decided the ale in the two secondarys will keep another few days till I can get some Idophor.
I just hate the bleach smell.
I have never had a problem with bleach,
but only because of a tremendous amout of rinsing,
[ie] One full minute of rinsing for each bottle.
Thats an hour to rinse the bleach from 50 - '12 ouncers.'

Idophor is a miracle,
as bleach was to the homebrewer when it was invented.
Yes, I can brew using bleach, no problem.
But I can bottle 10 gallons with Idophor, as easy ...
whereas with bleach, 5 gallons in an evening is good.
And the damn smell !

Yes, Idophor is a miracle.



J. Knife

I am into my second batch, and I have been using bleach and also a powdered sanitizer (not sure the name, came with kit, but positively states it is a sanitizer). Everything gets soaked in a warm bleach solution to kill anything off, then things like airlocks, stoppers, spoons, thermometers, etc get rinsed with, and then stored in warm boiled water w/ a sealed top. When I bottle, I wash, soak everything in a mild bleach solution, dunk in warm boiled water, and then quickly in a mild no rinse sanitizer made with boiled water- no real chemical to speak of, and my first batch tasted great. Sounds like a lot, but actually, I do a lot of the bottle prework prior to bottling night, and when brewing, I just put a couple pots of water on to boil 1-2 hours before I start, and leave them capped. It really doesn't slow me down at all, and I know that everything that was bleached was then hit again.

Waldo said:

Got a strong medicinal flavor in my beer ....

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This kind of flavor strongly suggests contamination. Make sure that whatever sanitizer you use it is mixed in the correct ratio to be effective and that anything that touches the wort has been completely submerged for the recommended period of time. Make sure you fill your primary fermenter all the way to the top, there should be no unsanitized surfaces anywhere in contact with the wort.

I think bleach makes a great cleaner, but as a sanitizer, I don't care for the chlorine smell. I run my brewing water through a household charcoal filter specifically because I don't like the chlorine smell, even in just the tap water. Bleach will tend to put this chlorine taste/smell into your beer, but many have piped up and said they have no problem, so it's up to you. Iodophor is completely no-rinse (at 12.5 PPM), odor and flavor neutral, and very easy to use.

Prosit!

In my case I'm not tasting any of the other off flavors associated with bacterial infection, all I taste is the Band-Aid flavor. Also if it was bacteria I would think I'd of gotten at least one batch out of 3 to turn out good.

Waldo said:

Also if it was bacteria I would think I'd of gotten at least one batch out of 3 to turn out good.

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Maybe... but what if it's coming from something common to all of your batches. Like, for example, your WATER.

What kind of water do you use, and how (if at all) do you treat the water?

-walker

I used Wal-Mart bottled Spring Water in all three batches, unboiled as its 'spose to be filtered, ozonated, ultra violet treated and all kinds of other treatments I can't remember. All containers get scrubbed, bleached, rinsed half a dozen times and then finished off with One Step to get anything the rinse water may have left behind. I've been doing a fair amount of research on the different off flavors and I don't really see the medicinal flavor being associated with bacteria as much as yeast, chlorine and chloramine.

hmmm.. technically 'spring water' is not supposed to be treated at all. It's supposed to be bottled directly from the underground source. Treating it turns it into 'drinking water', but who knows how rigid the requirements on the use of the term 'spring water' really is.

Would chloramine have to be listed as an ingredient on the package if it was used to treat the water?

-walker

Well I think they use the term spring water loosely, the bottles list all the treatments used to purify the water, its fairly long list.

Sasquatch said:

Bleach kicks ass. If you are "infecting" your beer with bleach, then you get bleach flavour in your beer. I know. I wouldn't call it band-aidy though...

I'm all for using bleach at higher concentrations than recommended. I have used it straight from the bottle, and rinsed 3 times. No troubles.

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Totally Agree!

Yes I use one-step and Starsan, for the final equipment sanitation, but I love my bleach. In fact my hands still smell like bleach.

Bleach is the best cleanup workhorse I know. Pour several clug..clugs into your carboy or whatever and in a day or two all your hard to clean after beer mess goes to heaven. My bubblers, blowoff hoses, buckets, carboys, etc. all look brand new.

Just for cleanup though, not sanitizing. Don't feel like rinsing.

Waldo said:

Got a strong medicinal flavor in my beer and its been suggested that its due to using bleach. I use what How To Brew calls a no rinse mix ratio, and then rinse until there is no odor, followed up with a one step sanitizer. Any of you use bleach with out problems?

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Hey, I know what you mean, I am getting something similar. All of my batches have had this "funky" kinda medicinal taste, and I am sure I am being clean and not introducing bacteria. I have come to the conclusion that maybe I am not rinsing my bleach based sanitiser well enough...

Is StarSan available in the UK?

I'll only do one more post on this subject, then I'm done. People believe what they want to believe.....

When I say "spoiled" or "infected", it only means that something is in your beer that isn't supposed to be there relative to fermentation. It's not necessarily bacteria specifically. In fact, wild yeast is much more prevalent than bacteria and the major thing we as brewers are trying to avoid. Flavors like "band-aid" and "medicinal" are classic examples of wild yeast. If there is enough chlorine bleach in your beer for you to actually taste it, you would be able to smell it as well, and it would smell like chlorine smells, very distinct, like a swimming pool. I'm just saying, it sounds like a sanitation problem. But, regardless of whether this is a sanitation problem or not, I think you should switch sanitizers.

Lastly, if you are looking for infection suspects, I would first look at your fermenter. If you are using a plastic fermenter, get a new one, or better yet, get a glass one. If you use plastic hoses, replace them. Plastic equipment doesn't last forever. Other than that, there is something in your procedures that needs to be changed. Three bad batches in row means something fundamentally wrong. My bet is sanitation.

Just my 2 cents.

On using bleach...I like it because of the price and availability. I find it rather easy. It sounds like some people use a lot of it, which is not necessary. One to 2 tablespoons ONLY per 5 gallons of water is enough to kill all the bacteria in 15 to 30 minutes. The same concentration for longer periods (e.g. overnight) removes stains from fermenters, etc.

As for rinsing, I put on heavy rubber gloves and use the hottest tap water, fill my bottles and shake vigourously to empty. Takes about 10 seconds a bottle, and works very well.

When I hear things like "glug glug," it sounds like folks might be using more bleach than necessary. In my home, we only hear "glug glug" when we're drinking!

Thor said:

When I hear things like "glug glug," it sounds like folks might be using more bleach than necessary. In my home, we only hear "glug glug" when we're drinking!

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Wise words indeed sir. So how's brother Loki?

Every few months are so I soak everything in bleach as part of a massive cleaning method. I have alot of brew hardware and items and every now and then I like to do a real good cleaning, not to say inbetween I dont clean well. Just I have so many items they all do not get used frequently.

I do rinse and rinse everything afterwards just to insure all the bleach is rinsed off.

Thank you