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Brewno

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Before brewing my first batch I was sure I studied everything. All went well and I made sure to sanitize anything that would come in contact with the brew. I even sanitized my hands. After all the reading I did I never noticed (until now, and quite by accident) that you are supposed to sanitize the yeast packet and scissors.

At this point I'm not even sure if I used scissors or tore the packet open, I think I used scissors. Either way I didn't sanitize the packet or scissors.

Is this that big of a deal or just an extra precaution?

Tommy
 
Nah...Shouldn't be. I have never sanitized the packet and have forgotten to sanitize the scissors every time but once. Haven't had a problem yet.
 
Honestly, you can take the sanitation thing as far as you want to, but I'm not sure there is an actual need to sanitize the yeast package and the scissors. I've never done it and never had a bad batch (that was bad by contamination and not poor planning).

We may need to look at the term sanitation as it applys to brewing. Palmer on sanitation:

"Sanitize - To kill/reduce spoiling microorganisms to negligible levels."


There you have it, we are not sterilizing or making things completely free from microorganisms, but rather reducing them to a manageable level.


Relax a bit, you'll be having a home brew soon enough!:)
 
No need to worry at all. In 10-plus years I've never sanatized yeast packet or scissors and never had a problem. The sanitizing thing can be done to different degrees - it's all up to how much work you want to put in...or how annal you are.

If you look around the posts, almost everybody has a story about how they had to put their arm in the fermenter to get the rubber gromet out, or how something else fell in the beer, and nine times out of ten, everything turned out OK.
 
What about the bottle caps...They were brand new and i forgot to sanatize them....AHHH please dont be bad...
 
Spyk'd said:
Honestly, you can take the sanitation thing as far as you want to, but I'm not sure there is an actual need to sanitize the yeast package and the scissors. I've never done it and never had a bad batch (that was bad by contamination and not poor planning).

We may need to look at the term sanitation as it applys to brewing. Palmer on sanitation:

"Sanitize - To kill/reduce spoiling microorganisms to negligible levels."


There you have it, we are not sterilizing or making things completely free from microorganisms, but rather reducing them to a manageable level.


Relax a bit, you'll be having a home brew soon enough!:)
Click to expand...


Out of all the things I've read about homebrewing, thinking I had it covered, I completely missed the sanitizing scissors and packet thing. I happened to come across it in a recipe from my LHBS and then started to look around. I then found it in Palmer's online book also and that's when I said uh oh. Personally I thought it was overkill, but you never know.


Tommy
 
Didn't somebody not too recently drop a hammer in their wort and the beer still turned out fine?

Personally, after about 5 batches I stopped obsessively worrying so much about sanitation. I've never heard of the sanitizing scissors and yeast packet before, to me that really sounds like overkill.
 
eviltwinofjoni said:
I've never heard of the sanitizing scissors and yeast packet before, to me that really sounds like overkill.
Click to expand...


From John Palmer's book "How to Brew":
Sanitize the outside of the yeast packet before opening it by swabbing it with isopropyl alcohol. Using sanitized scissors, cut open a corner of the packet and pour the yeast into the jar.

That's the second place I read that in the same day. I agree it seems over cautious, but it did make me curious. I guess after awhile it sort of gets like "keeping a cut clean" and the possibility of infection. Meanwhile some people work filthy greasy jobs and get cut all the time, never wash and have no problem.

Just be careful and lessen the chances.

Tommy
 
Brewno said:
Before brewing my first batch I was sure I studied everything. All went well and I made sure to sanitize anything that would come in contact with the brew. I even sanitized my hands. After all the reading I did I never noticed (until now, and quite by accident) that you are supposed to sanitize the yeast packet and scissors.

At this point I'm not even sure if I used scissors or tore the packet open, I think I used scissors. Either way I didn't sanitize the packet or scissors.

Is this that big of a deal or just an extra precaution?

Tommy
Click to expand...
Its definitley not a BAD idea. I always wash the yeast packet, then when using dry yeast ill take a sanitized knife and make a little cut near the top, sort of like a perforation. Then later right before hydrating the yeast i carefully tear the packet open beginning where the little cut is. (i dont know why they dont have perforations like ketchup pakets have).
Of course this is done wearing sterilized surgical gloves, i also have some iodophor/water solution at hand that i keep my gloves soaking in when not in use. (its alot easier to sanitized gloves then bare skin) I also wear a 'duck bill' mask, so as to not breath any nasties into my beer/yeast starter.
 
I just follow Walker's advice (from another thread):

Kill a chicken and wave it around over your head. A goat would be better, but a chicken might be easier to acquire.
Click to expand...

So far, that's kept all the beasties at bay! I do use a sanitized blade when killing the chicken, fwiw.
 
Bjorn Borg said:
Its definitley not a BAD idea. I always wash the yeast packet, then when using dry yeast ill take a sanitized knife and make a little cut near the top, sort of like a perforation. Then later right before hydrating the yeast i carefully tear the packet open beginning where the little cut is. (i dont know why they dont have perforations like ketchup pakets have).
Of course this is done wearing sterilized surgical gloves, i also have some iodophor/water solution at hand that i keep my gloves soaking in when not in use. (its alot easier to sanitized gloves then bare skin) I also wear a 'duck bill' mask, so as to not breath any nasties into my beer/yeast starter.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's freaky-obsessive.

I think just about everything alluded to in this thread is overkill. From my experience, it's just not that easy to infect your beer.

And Flucky, I only once sanitised my bottle caps. All that achieved was making parts of the caps rust. Just don't worry about it.
 

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