Sanatation Techniques

So after reading the forums and some guides everyone makes a huge deal about sanitizing everything that comes in contact with your cooled wort. But...no where did it really have any advice to do it.

The kit I bought came with a no rinse sanitizer but I was just wondering some tips and techniques that people had for sanitizing.

What's the santitizer it came with?

I generally mix 2 - 3 gallons in the bucket (primary fermenter or bottleing) and then sanitize the lid of the primary. I put everything that needs sanitized in the bucket, and then put it on the sanitized lid to dry. I keep the sanitizer handy so it can be used often. After boiling, and when I am ready to transfer the wort to the primary, I get another bucket/baking bowl/whatnot and fill that up with the sanitizer that is in the primary and toss the rest. I do this because you always need to sanitize something at some point, fill the airlock, rinse hands, etc... keep it handy.

edit: I have only used one-step, and am noob, so take it for what is worth.

Don't know if this is helpful but:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter2-2-3.html

I mix up enough sanitizer solution to fill my primary fermenter (glass carboy) about 60% full. Then I plug the kitchen sink and stick my carboy drying stand in there. Once I'm confident the lower portion of the carboy is sanitized, I carefully place it in the drying stand. Some of the sanitizer mix will gurgle out and then it will stop with most of it still in the carboy.

After a minute or two, I know the whole inside of the carboy is sanitized, so I lift it up a bit so the rest of the solution fills the sink. I leave the carboy upside down as I put all the other items (funnel, thermometer, scissors, stopper & airlock, etc.) in the solution. Once the stopper and airlock are sanitized, I can move the carboy to the floor and plug it up until I'm ready to add the wort, knowing that there are no nasties in there.

I use bleach & lots of people disagree with that. I got the mix from "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing" the bible. Rinse to keep the off flavor away. I'm a noob but it works for me.
Back in the day they did not have any sanitizer, other than boiling the water.

I use starsan; I mix up 5 quarts of it in my primary bucket. Some of that goes into a spray bottle, then anything that needs to be sanitized gets dipped in the sanitizer, and if it's too big to dip it gets sprayed down.
When it's time to sanitize the primary I put on the lid, plug the airlock hole and shake it until the entire inside has been in contact with the starsan.

Afterwards I pour the sanitizer into another bucket for later use, it lasts for a pretty long time.

After sanitizing everything, I keep a small plate with a folded paper towel soaked in the cheepest vodka I can find. Once I'm done with the boil, everthing that is going to touch anything gets wiped down including my hands. The vodka was like $11.50 for a half gallon and will last a looooong time since nobody wants to drink that nasty cheap stuff. I do the same thing when taking samples for testing and tasting.

I have a 6 gallon wine fermenting bucket, it's about 6 inches shorter then the 6.5 gallon fermenting buckets most of us use and is about 4 inches wider. I keep 3 - 4 gallons of starsan mixed up in that bucket. With the bucket being so much wider I can put the lid of the fementers in there to soak. I also use a wallpaper tray for soaking the long stuff in on brew day. Other then that I will just put it in the bucket and using my hands, scoop and dump starsan on the parts that are sticking out.

I hear you can just pee on everything

sublimebrew said:

Back in the day they did not have any sanitizer, other than boiling the water.

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back in the day they thought the holy spirit turned wort into beer......

I make a big batch of star san, about 5 gallons, in my fermenter or bottling bucket. Then I transfer about a gallon of it into a bucket via my autosiphon. In this bucket, I keep a clean rag, and I use the sanitizer rag to wipe down everything, counters, stove top, just about everything. I also use this to periodically wipe my hands off. Then with the remaining sanitizer in the fermenter, I soak everything else: lid, airlock, stirrer, any grain bags, hydrometer etc etc.

Drunkensatyr said:

I hear you can just pee on everything

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you can, but then you have to sanitize it

Actually normal urine is quite sterile and a good antiseptic (don't ask how I know this), so peeing would work... If you have enough to wash out a 6.5gal carboy... Of course, if your worried about off flavors with bleach, this may be a tad worse...

deathweed said:

Actually normal urine is quite sterile and a good antiseptic (don't ask how I know this), so peeing would work... If you have enough to wash out a 6.5gal carboy... Of course, if your worried about off flavors with bleach, this may be a tad worse...

Click to expand...

Yeah, you'll end up with BMC.

Ive been using iodophor, I mix a gallon or two at a time and soak everything for about a minute or two. I think i read it requires at least a minute of contact time. Then I slosh it around in the carboys when i need to. It works pretty well for me.

First just clean the whole kitchen, do the dishes and put them away and pick up in general. Not only does this make a clean work area that its easier to sterilize in, it does wonderful things for SWMBO's attitude about beermaking. Then I get some comet and scrub the sink out, and srub the faucets, drains, etc around the sink. I also scrub the sink stoppers with comet.

Then fill the sink up with hot water and add a couple spoons of sanitizer, toss in all the stuff you want to santize along with a can of extract to soften if you're using it.

I wash the insides of the brew buckets out with sanitizer, and go ahead and wash my beer glasses while I've got a sink and bucket of sanitizer working.

I have a question ...

I was listening to a Podcast (Basic Brewing Network) and they had the owner of Iodophor on. He was talking about people using a spray bottle (full of diluted Iodophor) and just coating everything you were planning on using with spray. He said that that was all that was needed.

He personally just sprays the inside of his carboys/buckets with a spray bottle until the glass/bucket is coated.

Now, I personally use the 3/4th full carboy, then flip on a carboy drier method and used to fill bottling buckets full of diluted iodopher and would sink my bottles in there to sanitize them ... but I'm now considering the spray bottle method. It seems more effecient, easier, and less of a headache. Anyone use the spray bottle method?

I still have a bucket of sanitizer and soak the smaller stuff, but I also use a spray bottle of starsan.
If works great, especially for bigger things (thief, auto-siphon, strainer, etc).

I use OneStep. I fill the carboy up with 2 or 3 gals. of water with 2 or 3 Tbl Spoons of OneStep and then lay it on it's side. Every minute or so, I'll rotate the carboy till it's all good. Then, I'll poor some into the sink to sanitize my kettle lid, strainer, and anything I need to keep clean till I'm ready for it. The rest, I pour into the giant Rubbermaid container I store my brew equip. in to sanitize the long stuff (siphon and thief).

My wife mentioned cleaning the sink with Comet before pouring stuff in there but I'm afraid of the bleachy residue that it leaves behind.