I think this is overlooked

Sanitizer to wipe the mouth of my starter, or flask, or clean my thermometer before I put it in the beer and a few other uses.

About $2.00 for 50 or 100 available at any drug store.



I wait a short time to let the alcohol flash off.

David

 

I usually flame the lip of the flask.

 

That's a good/cheap idea. Does alchohol work as well as star-san? I use a star-san spray bottle, which is very easy.

 

Likewise.

10 chars

 

I spritz it with StarSan or wipe with Iodophor...

 

+1



34567890

 

I'm with the Star San in a spray bottle group. I don't really want those alcohol swabs close to my beer. I think the alcohol is denatured which means they other stuff in it to make it taste and smell medicinal. Star San is cheap to use and user friendly. I even spray it on my hands and arms as a precaution, but I don't know if that actually does anything or not.

 

Isopropyl alcohol swaps contains distilled water and propylene in most cases 70% solution for antiseptic or rubbing alcohol . The alcohol evaporates very quickly I have never tasted it nor would I . I have used it before as its an instant sanitizer that evaporates quickly. Once the alcohol evaporates there is no chance any taste can transfer to the beer.

 

Spray bottle of either iodophor or starsan (I have both) mixed with distilled waterfor me. Sometimes I flame the bottles AND spritz them with sanitizer.

 

Since I cover with tin foil while I boil the starter, I assume the neck and lip is sanitary.

 

I keep a bottle of rubbing alcohol around for quick sanitation stuff. It is great for airlocks as it dries so fast and you don't have any startsan slippery issues.

 

Isopropyl alcohol is cheap, but the downside is the prolonged contact time required. I don't remember exactly what it requires for most bacteria and wild yeast, but it's certainly longer than StarSan....maybe 5 minutes, but don't quote me.

Add to that the fact that it evaporates very quickly and I doubt it's done its job with one swipe from a swab.

 

Isopropyl Alochol has an exceptionally low boiling point. In a room at about 13C a spark will cause it to ignite (ie it's flash point is 13C). If some of this did wind up in your beer, it would
1. Be diluted to practically infinity (70% of bugger all is still bugger all)
2. Most likely evaporate very quickly.

We had a blend at my work that used this stuff and we had to completely change it because the risk is that on an average day in spring to autumn in Scotland, if we made this stuff there would be a huge risk of fire. If one of those wipe caught fire, it would be difficult, but not impossible, we were looking at about 4 tonnes...

 

I wouldn't use IPA. IIRC, it's capable of killing bacteria, but not spores. Combined with the long contact time needed with IPA, StarSan is the clear winner.

 

It doesn't taste good, burns a lot. Star-san doesn't taste great (definitely not tasteless to me at least) but isn't horrible.