How do you sanitize your hands?

Will dunking them in star san work?

Wash them first. Then Star San.

GT

Yeah...if you feal the need to stick your hands in something than dipping them in iodophor or starsan works fine..

I have a spray bottle (actually one of each sanitizer) of it mixed with distilled water...and I hit my hands with a blast if I'm gonna open an airlock or something....I usually spray the area as well.

um, hand sanitizer? it's like $3 a bottle......

Got it...thanks

This stuff: Alpet E3 Plus Hand Sanitizer | MoreBeer

Soap and water?

Are you sticking your hands in beer?

Stingray urine.

Or soap and hot water. Whatever's handy.

TexasSpartan said:

Soap and water?

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Works for me.

Don't dip your hands in it. Perhaps I'm delicate, but after dipping my hands in some a couple months ago, on two successive brew-days, I ended up with some very painful burns on my hands, and a lot of lost skin. It could have been something else that caused the reaction, but I don't think so. Read and pay attention to the first aid instructions on the label.

-a.

Bernie Brewer said:

um, hand sanitizer? it's like $3 a bottle......

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Yeah... this is the simple answer. I mean, the answer was right in the question.

llazy_llama said:

Yeah... this is the simple answer. I mean, the answer was right in the question.

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Except that some hand sanitizers aren't all that effective. See, e.g.:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/health/21cons.html

You need the ones that are at least 60 percent alcohol (same reason that vodka's not a great sanitizer).

ajf said:

Don't dip your hands in it. Perhaps I'm delicate, but after dipping my hands in some a couple months ago, on two successive brew-days, I ended up with some very painful burns on my hands, and a lot of lost skin. It could have been something else that caused the reaction, but I don't think so. Read and pay attention to the first aid instructions on the label.

-a.

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Did you use PBW those days as that is a caustic and will peel your skin off with too much exposure.

GT

Just Starsan. I usually use Iodophor, but with 2 brews on successive days, I used 1 batch of Starsan for both brews. Took a week or so to recover, but no permanent damage.

-a.

ajf said:

Just Starsan. I usually use Iodophor, but with 2 brews on successive days, I used 1 batch of Starsan for both brews. Took a week or so to recover, but no permanent damage.

-a.

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Maybe you are just sensitive. It is slightly caustic, so it should be handled as such. I'm glad you weren't scarred.

Soap and hot water work for me, with a dip in the idophor when I'm pulling something out of the sink. I've never had any adverse reactions (in the beer or on my hands).

I usually pee on them. It's like my own Burton Salts....

ajf said:

Just Starsan. I usually use Iodophor, but with 2 brews on successive days, I used 1 batch of Starsan for both brews. Took a week or so to recover, but no permanent damage.

-a.

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Wow, you're either sensitive or it was more concentrated than I'm making it. I have a little system where I dunk and rinse all my bottles in star-san prior to using them and the end result is having my hand either dunked in star-san or still covered in foam from it for about 15 minutes. It's red after but usually only for a brief period and I'm not sure if that is because of the star-san or because my tap water this time of year is fraking cold.

Glad there was no long-term effects.

Um. Gloves, then sanitizer? You can't possibly clean your hands sufficiently, no matter how strong the chemicals. Ask a health care professional.

Put on a pair of new kitchen gloves, dip your hands in sanitizer, and be done.

Bob

Bernie Brewer said:

um, hand sanitizer? it's like $3 a bottle......

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I wouldn't expect that to be food safe?

A good wash with soap and water while singing row-row-your-boat three times before rinsing. Works for my three year old nephew...

Followed by a dip in star san...

Starsan is acidic (active ingredients are phosphoric acid and dodecylbenzensulfonic acid) so this can irritate the skin in some sensitive individuals. Not everyone is going to be affected the same way.


Generally "caustic" is used to refer to strong bases, while "corrosive" is the appropriate term for acids. Starsan is corrosive.

Zul'jin said:

Stingray urine.

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I use this, works wonders. It is expensive though..

eschatz said:

I usually pee on them. It's like my own Burton Salts....

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Drinking the same style beer that your brewing helps when you use your pee to sanitize. That way you dont risk any off flavors...

NQ3X said:

Um. Gloves, then sanitizer? You can't possibly clean your hands sufficiently, no matter how strong the chemicals. Ask a health care professional.

Put on a pair of new kitchen gloves, dip your hands in sanitizer, and be done.

Bob

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+1. I use powderless latex gloves from the lab, but good old yellow kitchen gloves would work too.

soap and hot water, and the friction from rubbing your hands should kill most bacteria....

And i never cared for anti-bacterial hand sanitizer. leaves my hands all dry and itchy...

Interesting hand/sanitizer story.

I had an infection on my finger. Had a hangnail that got infected...it was swollen and purple...I was about to go to the doctor for an antibiotic...then it was brewday.

Don't know if it was the result of Star-san (probably) or getting my hands in the steam from the brew-pot...but by the end of the evening my finger felt better. By the next morning the infection was clearly getting better. that was Sunday...today is Friday and there is no visible indication that there was an infection.

Now, I'm keeping a bottle of spray star-san in the medicine cabinet for emergencies!

what are you guys doing ? Sticking your hands in the wort? I wash my hands prior and during the session but anything that I touch is still wet with Starsan so anything that I may transfer to the item is killed. Also unless you are using sterile latex gloves they can have all kinds of bacteria on them. Examination gloves are not to protect the person or items being touched its to protect the person wearing them from your germs/blood.


I have found stuff in my beer that dropped in after the boil - a bottle cap gfrom the homebrew I was drinking the washer from the IC and some leaves never ruined the beer. I think someone on this site stuck his arm in up to his elbow fishing something out of the primary.

Dotneck said:

Interesting hand/sanitizer story.

I had an infection on my finger. Had a hangnail that got infected...it was swollen and purple...I was about to go to the doctor for an antibiotic...then it was brewday.

Don't know if it was the result of Star-san (probably) or getting my hands in the steam from the brew-pot...but by the end of the evening my finger felt better. By the next morning the infection was clearly getting better. that was Sunday...today is Friday and there is no visible indication that there was an infection.

Now, I'm keeping a bottle of spray star-san in the medicine cabinet for emergencies!

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StarSan. The new windex.

springer said:

I think someone on this site stuck his arm in up to his elbow fishing something out of the primary.

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I have dunked my arm to my elbow in a post chilled keggle to remove a clogged chore boy scrubby. Good Times.

The Starsan felt as if ants were biting my arm.

i hear boiling water does wonders

I figure my hands spend more than 30 seconds in the iodophor solution while I'm fishing other stuff out... I just keep rinsing my hands in that while I doing stuff rather than a sink...

GilaMinumBeer said:

I have dunked my arm to my elbow in a post chilled keggle to remove a clogged chore boy scrubby. Good Times.

The Starsan felt as if ants were biting my arm.

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Hehe...I've dunked my arm into the kettle after chilling because my sweaty sun glasses slid off my head and directly into the wort. I dunked my sweaty arm into the sanitizer and just went for it! Turned out just fine!

SOB said:

Hehe...I've dunked my arm into the kettle after chilling because my sweaty sun glasses slid off my head and directly into the wort. I dunked my sweaty arm into the sanitizer and just went for it! Turned out just fine!

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I am SOOO glad you did not offer me any of that brew!!

Boil up some water, submerge for 30 seconds. Repeat as necessary

Parker36 said:

Boil up some water, submerge for 30 seconds. Repeat as necessary

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Ummm.... OW!

I use latex gloves that I dip in starsan. I have a box of them picked up at Costco that I use for prepping BBQ and applying rubs to brisket, ribs & pork shoulders. Works well for me.

I just move everything around with force powers. No hands = no bacteria.