Bleach with vinegar success

[carloscede2]

Short story that I thought I should share. Bleach and vinegar are widely available and cheap and Ive heard that combined at the right volume, creat a sanitizing solution that is also no rinse.

As someone who likes to experiment, I decided to try it. I know a bottle of star san can be cheaper and bla bla bla but where I live is 42$. Most people are afraid of this because it could cause an off flavour, but I was willing to try.

So, I made a solution that consisted of 5 gallons of water, and 1oz of bleach and 1 oz of vinegar. Sanitized all my equipment with it and used it as a no rinse. End result? Took a couple of gravity readings and its probably the best beer that Ive made, so no off flavours detected.

If you gave success stories with this solution I would like to hear your stories :sly::beer:

 

[BrunDog]

An n of 1 does not a success make... but its good to know there may be a potential/inexpensive option.

 

[Aristotelian]

No rinse? So I would be injesting bleach? I will stick with starsan.

 

[Homercidal]

I don't have a problem with the bleach aspect. At the concentration recommended by the owner of Five Star, the residual bleach film introduced into the beer would be extremely miniscule. Vinegar, I don't know about. Vinegar has a very detectable aroma for me. I'd have to try it to see if it would be worth it. OTOH I think that ANY acid could do this job, so since I have a bottle of 88% Phosphoric acid, I'd probably use that instead.

Thankfully, this is all academic for me since I can buy StarSan pretty cheaply and a small bottle lasts a LONG time!

If anyone were bored enough to do the math on the amount of bleach remaining in the film of the proper mixture of a bleach sanitizer vs the usual dosage for water treatment, I'd be curious to see how they compare.

 

[JediJoel]

Bleach + Vinegar = toxic chlorine gas

Seriously. The gas that comes off from mixing these chemicals is toxic and could burn yours eyes or lungs. Adding any acid to bleach with create chlorine gas. DON'T DO THIS!

 

[carloscede2]

Bleach + Vinegar = toxic chlorine gas

Seriously. The gas that comes off from mixing these chemicals is toxic and could burn yours eyes or lungs. Adding any acid to bleach with create chlorine gas. DON'T DO THIS!

only when you mix them directly, its not the same when they are diluted in water as the strength is around 80 ppm

An n of 1 does not a success make... but its good to know there may be a potential/inexpensive option.

Maybe, but its a start. Ive heard of people that have used this method for 20 batches and never perceiving an off flavour