Cleaning and Sanitation

Latest revision as of 06:27, 14 March 2012

One of the first steps and most important steps in producing any fermented beverage, be it beer, wine, mead, or cider, is cleaning and sanitation. This article explains why sanitation is so important, the differences between cleaning, sanitation, and sterilization, and the techniques used by homebrewers to achieve them.

Sanitation for the Beginning Homebrewer

This article will go into some detail about the reasons for cleaning and sanitizing your equipment thoroughly and the products and methods used by homebrewers to clean and sanitize their equipment. Sanitation is an important part of homebrewing, and if you have trouble with your first few batches, this is one of the first areas you should review carefully. For your first batch, there are a few important points to bear in mind.

• Clean and sanitize everything that comes into contact with the wort after the boil. Don't worry about sanitizing your brew pot or stirring spoon; the heat of the boil will kill any unwanted microorganisms. But do clean and sanitize your fermenter, bottles, airlock and anything else that will touch the wort after the boil ends.
• Don't use abrasive cleaners to clean plastic. Scrubbing pads, abrasive cleansers, and other rough cleaning methods can create tiny scratches in plastic where microorganisms can live.
• Don't use scented detergent to clean plastic. It's a better idea to use bleach or an oxygen-based cleaner (such as OxiClean or PBW), since detergents can leave a film on your equipment that can be bad for your beer. But if you do use a detergent, use a non-scented version and rinse thoroughly.

As a beginning homebrewer, you should also be sure to read the sections below on Cleaning versus Sanitation to understand why you have to both clean and sanitize your equipment, and the section on Sanitizing Products to help you choose a sanitizer.

The Importance of Sanitation

All fermentation is essentially the controlled growing of microorganisms, usually yeast but sometimes also bacteria. A brewer or winemaker is first and foremost a yeast farmer. Since poor yeast growing conditions can lead to off flavors, most brewers or vintners try to create as healthy an environment as possible for the microorganisms that convert sugar to alcohol.

Unfortunately, the conditions that are good for the yeast you want to encourage are also hospitable to many unwelcome microorganisms, including bacteria, wild yeast, and other organisms that can spoil your beer or lead to off flavors.

This is why cleaning and sanitation are so important. By making sure that there are as few microorganisms as possible growing in your equipment, you can keep your yeast well fed and avoid feeding any unwelcome guests.

Cleaning versus Sanitation

There are a number of different approaches to eliminating microbial contaminants. The two most important are cleaning and sanitizing. It is important to understand what these words mean, and what they don't mean.

Cleaning

Cleaning is the process of removing visible residue--in other words, dirt--from your equipment. By itself, cleaning is not enough to guarantee a clean fermentation; cleaning agents will not usually kill a significant number of the microorganisms that spoil beer. However, cleaning is an important first step, because without careful cleaning, dirt can provide a place for these microorganisms to hide, making sanitizing almost impossible.

Sanitizing

Sanitizing, also known as sanitation or sanitization, is the process of killing most of the microorganisms on your equipment. Most sanitizing methods used in home brewing will kill most of the active organisms, but may not kill spores or destroy every individual bacterium or yeast cell. Homebrewers usually sanitize their equipment with sanitizing solutions, meaning that any microorganisms that are not on the surface of the equipment, such as those hidden in dirt or residue inside the equipment, will not be affected. This is why it is important to clean thoroughly before you sanitize.

Sanitized surfaces still contain some microorganisms, but few enough that they do not seriously compete with yeast for sugars.

Sterilizing

Sterilizing or sterilization is the process of killing every living cell in your equipment, including spores. Sterilizing is usually not necessary for homebrewing purposes, except in specialized circumstances such as culturing yeast or canning wort.

Cleaning and Sanitation Procedures

What to Clean and Sanitize

Given all the sugars, syrups, heat, yeast and other "gunk" involved, the brewing and fermentation process can result in some extremely dirty equipment, with hard-to-remove stains and residue that have a tendency to frustrate brewers if they don't know which techniques to use. Typically, products labeled as "sanitizers" are not cleaning agents. As such, when using "sanitizers", it is important to clean all equipment, bottles, carboys, etc. thoroughly prior to sanitizing:

There is one thing that the homebrewer must not forget: all around us (and especially on us!), there are invisible bacteria, germs, and stray yeast, and they would all like to get into your beer and infect it. A number of steps must be taken throughout the beer production process to prevent this. Since the heat from the boiling process sanitizes the wort, sanitation prior to boiling is not necessary. However, once the boil is finished, and the temperature of the wort has dropped below 160f, every caution must be taken to achieve sanitary conditions for your brew, all the way until you pour the final product into a glass and drink it.

• All equipment and vessels that come into contact with cooled wort and fermented beer must be sanitized, as should your hands and any other part of your body that comes into contact with said equipment. This list includes:
  • Carboys, buckets and other fermentation vessels
  • Chillers
  • Spoons and utensils used to stir
  • Racking equipment
  • Bungs, stoppers and airlocks
  • Bottles, caps and kegs
  • Any other miscellaneous equipment that touches the wort/beer

• Sanitizing kills off most of the bacteria, etc., that are present on the equipment, thus preventing infection of the wort/beer.

Sanitizing with a Sanitizing Solution

The standard sanitizing process involves submersing the equipment and vessels in a chemical solution specifically designed to kill bacteria. There are many different products available for this purpose.

There are a number of sanitisers available to the homebrewer, all of which have quite different properties. Generally we like to use a 'no-rinse' sanitiser. This simply means that the product (when used properly) will leave behind no taste, smell or harmful effects, and is approved for use in food preparation. Rinsing a 'no-rinse' sanitiser can actually introduce new contamination from the rinse water.

Which sanitiser you use is entirely up to you, your preferences, your budget and the availability of options. Some brewers remain loyal to a single option, others rotate between alternatives or use different sanitisers for different applications. All are effective, providing you adhere to the manufacturer's instructions. It is important to use sanitisers at their recommended dilution rate, no weaker, and no stronger. Home brewers often make the mistake of using too high a concentration of sanitiser - this creates a risk of toxicity or detectability in the final product, and some sanitisers (such as iodophor) are actually LESS effective at high concentrations. Never mix sanitisers together.

It is also important to allow all sanitisers to drain and dry completely if the item is not being used immediately, as most sanitisers actually become a food source once their potency has been lost. This is fine if the item is going to be used right away, but anything which is stored with 'activated' liquid sanitiser inside will become contaminated within days. Always store your equipment dry, and preferably upside down so that it can drain and won't fill with dust.

Betadine 

An iodine based medical sterilizer available from Chemists in the UK. At the appropriate concentration can be used as a no rinse sanitizer. Extended use or too high a concentration will stain plastic equipment.

Bleach 

Bleach is cheap, highly effective and readily available. Common household bleach is a solution of sodium hypochlorite in water. Its active ingredient is chlorine, as used in tap water and swimming pools, and is relatively safe at low concentrations. When used at the recommended dilution rate (10ml plain, cheap, unscented household bleach to 5L water) and allowed to fully dry, then rinsing is not required. The solution takes effect in as little as 30 seconds after contact, although 2 minutes is the EPA standard for 'instant' sanitisers. Adding an equal amount of white vinegar (acetic acid) to a diluted bleach solution (NEVER add vinegar directly to bleach)reduces the pH of the solution and 'activates' the bleach to become a real microbe killer. However, bleach will react with acids to release toxic chlorine gas, and some advise against mixing bleach with anything but water.

Bleach should be used with cold water as hot water neutralises it. For the same reason, rinsing should be done with hot water.

Bleach is unforgiving however, and some people have a very low threshold for detection of chlorine. If used at excessive concentrations (as is common), or not allowed to drain and fully dry it can easily be detected in the final beer. Couple this with the high level of chlorine already present in some water supplies, and its highly recognisable (and unpleasant) taste and smell, and it isn't surprising that many brewers are wary of using it around the brewery. However, used properly it is hard to go past the efficacy, price and availability of simple household bleach.

Note: Bleach should not be used on stainless steel. It causes pitting of the stainless steel surface which can give rise to the development of rust. Other sanitisers are better suited for use on stainless.

Iodophor 

An Iodophor is a mixture of Iodine with a solubilising agent, sometimes phosphoric acid. Used properly it does not require rinsing. It is cheap and readily available through most good homebrew shops. It is supplied concentrated, and the brewer dilutes it to make a working concentration of 12.5 parts per million 'titratable iodine'. Usually this represents a dilution ratio of 1:1000 (or 10ml iodophor per 10 litres water), but check the label on your product as some retailers supply it diluted to different rates. Iodophor is actually less effective at higher concentrations, and at very high levels can leave a noticable taste in your beer. Consumption of very high levels over a long period of time is known to cause health problems.

Once again, Iodophor should be given 2 minutes of 'wet time', although it does not require full immersion of the item for the whole time - it is enough simply to wet the item and then leave it for 2 minutes. Spraying it with a spray bottle can be perfectly adequate. The iodophor binds with any microorganisms immediately on contact, and destroys them within the following 2 minutes. The biggest downside for iodophor is that contact with some surfaces, especially fabrics and white or clear plastics, can stain them a yellow to orange-brown colour - this is harmless but unattractive.

Iodophor used to be used to sanitise glass milk bottles and is still widely used to sanitise dairy equipment. While consumption of large quantities is toxic, the presence of trace quantities in your beer is perfectly harmless and actually adds the essential element Iodine. Used at normal dilution rates and allowed to drain freely from equipment it is one of the safest and most effective sanitisers available. It is best mixed immediately before it is needed, and always with cold water, as the iodine (the active ingredient) will break down rapidly with heat and sunlight (hence the colour change from yellow/brown to clear). The trace materials which then remain can actually provide a favourable environment for bacterial growth.

Star-San 

Its main ingredient is phosphoric acid. Rinsing is not required, and it contains a foaming agent, allowing it to sanitize all the nooks and crannies of your equipment.

Potassium Metabisulfite 

Sometimes used in the brewing industry to inhibit the growth of wild yeasts, bacteria, and fungi. This is called 'stabilizing'. It is used both by homebrewers and commercial brewers alike. It is not used as much for brewing beer, because the wort is almost always boiled, which kills most microorganisms anyway.

Sodium Metabisulfite 

'Sodium Met' is probably the most familiar 'no-rinse' sanitiser to homebrewers. It is sold as a white powder in all homebrew shops and most supermarkets that carry a range of brewing ingredients, and it is found in most starter kits. Unfortunately, it is one of the worst sanitisers available now that so many better alternatives exist.

Sodium Met is slow to act and often used ineffectively. To use it properly, dissolve the sodium metabisulfite in the correct amount of water, as directed by the instructions, rinse all surfaces with the solution and allow to air dry. Drying is essential because this is when the sodium metabisulfite does its thing. It does not kill bacteria outright but it inhibits the growth of wild yeast. The fumes are highly irritating (particularly to asthmatics) and should not be inhaled.

It does have other uses around the brewery though. Sodium Met (as powder or in the form of Campden tablets) is sometimes added to wine or cider to halt the fermentation process before it is complete, to leave some residual sweetness in the must. It is also effective in purging chlorine AND the more stubborn chloramines from brewing water, and some brewers add a pinch or two to the mash, in the belief that it protects against certain undesirable reactions and helps to preserve the finished beer. It is also useful as a way of sanitising water to use for rinsing other cleaning or sanitising products.

Napisan 

Napi-San is not a true sanitiser, but does have some sanitising qualities. It is basically made up of Sodium Carbonate (washing soda) and Sodium Percarbonate. Sodium Percarbonate is the active ingredient, while Sodium Carbonate is the emulsifier/detergent agent. Sodium Percarbonate breaks down into Sodium Carbonate and Hydrogen Peroxide. It is this Hydrogen Peroxide that is the sanitising agent in Nappi-San.Nappi-San requires very hot water (above 65*c ) to work effectively. The hot water allows the Peroxide to form, and do its sanitizing

Nappi-San will not stain or attack plastics, metals or glass, however you will need to rinse it off after use, although it is non-toxic and you wont die if you dont rinse.

Napi-San makes for one of the best soak cleaners available. It will readily remove organic matter (trub, yeast etc) from brewing gear, and as it does not attack materials (like bleach sometimes can), items can be left to soak for long periods of time without problems.

Hydrogen Peroxide 

Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) is an excellent sanitiser. It is anti-bacterial and anti-microbiological, and is used in many medical and industrial applications as a sanitiser and steriliser. Hydrogen Peroxide breaks down into oxygen and water over a fairly short period of time. It uses the oxidising (burning) effect to kill biological contaminants. It is highly effective because bacteria and fungi cannot mutate and form resistance to it.

Hydrogen Peroxide is particularly good for brewing as (in diluted form) it does not attack plastics or metals, it leaves no residue, and it breaks down quickly into harmless water and oxygen, requiring no rinsing. It can be used as a soaker or spray sanitiser, and it can even be added directly to sanitise brewing water (at a rate of 0.0015% to 0.005%). As a sanitiser it is generally used at concentrations of 0.015% to 0.5%. At 2.0% to 3.0% it is classed as a disinfectant, and is often used to treat cuts (be warned, it stings like hell). 5% is the concentration found in hair bleach. At concentrations over 10% it becomes extremely hazardous to handle, it will bleach and burn skin and cause serious damage to eyes and soft tissue.

Hydrogen Peroxide is the ingredient found in the newer brewing sanitiser products such as BrewShield and Morgan's Sanitize. These products generally contain around 3% H2O2 and suggest dilution to a final working concentration of around 0.1%.

If you are diluting it for storage, it is important to use distilled (or deionised) water as the impurities in tap water will cause it to react, venting oxygen and diminishing the potency of the remaining solution. It is also suggested to add one drop of phosphoric acid for each litre of water, to keep the pH below 4.0 – this helps to prolong the life of the solution. Store it cool and dark, away from sunlight and kiddies, and in a container with a special vented cap (it will be supplied in one), as Hydrogen Peroxide constantly degrades over time, producing oxygen gas and therefore pressure. However, the reaction is normally very slow and the concentrated product (and distilled/deionised solutions) should remain effective for many years if properly stored. The reaction is accelerated greatly by heat, contamination and ultraviolet light.

Solutions for immediate use can be made up with tap water, and the resulting solution should be good for several days, but it depends a lot on the purity of your tap water. For peace of mind make up a new solution each day or two, or always use distilled water and unused portions should keep indefinitely. If it is placed in a spray bottle, keep the trigger head top slightly loose, as the pressure caused will force the liquid out thru the nozzle and empty the container.

If you get bored with brewing, H2O2 can also be used as rocket fuel.

UV Light 

UV ( Ultra Violet ) light is also another form of sanitiser/steriliser that is used to sterilise many forms of equipment. It is also used to sanitise water by passing the water over a UV light source.

UV does breakdown plastics so it is probably not the best method for use with plastics.

UV light can be sourced from special UV lights or from the sun. It can only work on clean surfaces.

It is not the most practical form of sanitising but does work.

Sanitizing with Heat

Heat can not only sanitize, but even sterilize, brewing equipment without requiring chemicals. However, most home brewing equipment is made up of materials that are heat sensitive, such as plastic or vinyl. Some home brewers do use heat to sanitize or sterilize metal or glass equipment, but due to the danger of burns and the relative ease and safety of chemical sanitizers, this is not recommended for most applications.

The primary use of heat sanitizing is during bottling. Given the tedious task of sanitizing as many as 50 bottles per 5-gallon batch, the idea of batch sanitizing and drying all at once is enticing.

Heat can be used to sanitize in several ways:

Boiling Water 

Equipment used in the boil does not have to be sanitized beforehand, because boiling water is hot enough to sanitize the water for brewing purposes. Some home brewers use the same principle to sanitize other equipment, by boiling it or filling it with boiling water. One common use of boiling water is to sanitize metal bottle caps. However, this is one of the most dangerous sanitation methods, and is not recommended for most equipment.

Dishwasher 

The dishwasher can be used, without dishwashing soap or chemical drying agents (such as Jet Dry), to heat-sanitize glass bottles, as well as dry them in the same cycle. The rack in most dishwashers makes it the perfect vessel for this method.

Oven 

While not as easy as using the dishwasher, the oven can still serve to heat-sanitize glass bottles at certain temperatures. However, care must be taken not to heat or cool the bottles too quickly, as they will break. It is a good idea to put the bottles in the oven while it is cold, and let them slowly warm up along with the oven's preheat stage, so as to avoid breakage due to thermal shock.

Cleaning Products

Mechanical cleaning

Various bottle brushes.

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Rinsing with Water 

Rinsing with water is typically acceptable if there is no caked-on residue of any kind. If you use bottles, it is best to thoroughly rinse the bottles out right after your pour the beer into a glass.

Brushes 

Brushes come in various sizes and shapes, and allow the user to scrub the inside of carboys, bottles, and other hard-to-reach places.

Bottle Jet 

This is an invaluable tool for cleaning bottles and carboys. The neck of the bottle/carboy is placed over the tip of the Jet, and when pushed down far enough, it triggers the lever and spray-cleans the inside of the vessel.

Chemical Cleaning

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OxiClean 

Relatively inexpensive oxygen-based multi-purpose cleaner. Often used to clean carpet stains and as a laundry additive, it also does an excellent job at cleaning various brewing equipment. Mix with warm water and soak the equipment in the solution. OxiClean is also a miracle-worker when it comes to removing labels from re-used bottles. An overnight soak in OxiClean, and most commercial bottle labels fall right off - even the most stubborn labels are no match for OxiClean. However, since it is oxygen-based, OxiClean will oxidise aluminium kettles, etc., leaving a dark grey tarnish on the surface.

Soda Crystals 

PBW (Pro Brewery Wash) 

Comes in granulated form, and is mixed with hot water. Equipment is then soaked for 30 minutes or more, and subsequently rinsed thoroughly with hot water. Works in a similar fashion to OxiClean, without the oxidizing effects on aluminium. Excellent for removing caked-on boil residue from kettles, as well as hardened krausen/yeast residue in carboys.

All in one cleaner/sanitiser

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• One step
• Bleach

What do I do next?

Once you have cleaned and sanitized your equipment,

• Beer brewers are ready to move on to the next step in the Beer Brewing Process: Making the Wort.
• Mead makers are ready to move on to the next step in the Mead Making Process: Making a Must from Honey. purevision and