Steam sanitizing/sterilizing (no chemicals)

[SankePankey]

If one has a steam generator that can be hooked up to your fermenter and other vessels (cornies, etc.) would that suffice to both clean and sanitize (meaning I can do away with both oxyclean and star san)? How long would it need to be run (20 min?) for a proper sanitizing. And, if almost everything is stainless, are there any other parts that shouldn't be heated that high, like say the plastic on the poppit valves or the rubber gaskets on a Tri-clamp?

Thanks.

 

[nebben]

I don't think you'll be able to sterilize anything unless you can put these containers under pressure...and even then, you can sanitize the insides of things, but the outsides (especially the tri-clamp, which is meant to be taken apart to clean) will remain.

Sterilizing in an auto-clave is done at higher pressures and higher temperatures than steam under atmospheric pressure gets to.

 

[SankePankey]

OK, maybe I mis-spoke. Because as I know it, you don't need to sterilize when you are brewing... you need to clean and then sanitize, right?


I guess what I'm asking is, for my fermenter and cornies, would steam cleaning the inside suffice in place of the PBW/Oxyclean followed by StarSan/Iodophor routine, or would you use steam in conjunction with one or the other.


My thought is to steam clean the inside of my fermenter with all of my bits and pieces placed inside. I guess I would have to spray StarSan on the outside of my tri-clamps (and the gaskets, etc.) but the inside would be good? Maybe?

 

[gtpro]

I dont see why not, if you wanna skip the oxiclean and just clean with steam thats up to you, but I would still sanitize afterwards.