Bleach to sanitize

[deewilliam17]

Im about to make my first home brew, and I am wonder how to properly use bleach to sanitize my equipment. mainly: is it okay to use it on my plastic fermenter and how to properly use it.

 

[rodwha]

I did in the beginning, but don't recall what proportions I used. Don't let it sit long and rinse very well. It works well enough though.

 

[Glynn]

you can but you need to rinse it very well with hot water

 

[Dynachrome]

I use as hot of water as I can stand putting my hands in, rinse well, and let dry.

Chlorine should gas off.

 

[Dynachrome]

....also look at the threads at the bottom of the page for more info.

You titled your thread well.

 

[Calder]

I store my fermenters filled with bleach solution. No problem. I use idophor for everything else. Bleach is a ***** for sanitizing bottles; you need long contact time and need to rinse with hot water.

How much? I just pour a little in and fill with water. Probably about 1 tablespoon per gallon of water, maybe less.

How long? As long as you like, but probably at least 30 minutes. I'll leave fermenters filled for months.

When you need to use the fermenter, you need to rinse with hotvwater. Cold water will leave a bleach residue . Just add a few pints of hot tap water, rinse, empty, then repeat. That should be sufficient.

 

[BigFloyd]

I have some difficulty understanding why some folks still want to run the risks associated with using bleach when there's now a cheap and effective no-rinse sanitizer like StarSan available. Even the small 8oz StarSan lasts one heck of a long time since it will make 40 gallons of reusable sanitizer.

Bleach is a booger to completely rinse off of equipment, requiring the use of lots of hot water. You also have to be careful to avoid bleaches that are scented. A tiny amount of bleach residue in a fermenter when consumed by the yeast with the phenols in wort results in the production of chlorophenols which have an extremely low flavor threshold (a few parts per billion). The impact to the brew is a chemical flavor with usually a plastic or band-aid aftertaste. No thanks.

 

[rodwha]

Star San for me these days, but if did use bleach for several months beforehand.

 

[unionrdr]

To me,having to rinse off the bleach negates any sanitizing effects of the bleach. And since it makes off flavors,I use Starsan instead. It's no rinse & does a good job.

 

[Paradigm]

A lot of people will have anecdotal evidence on both sides of the arugment. My side has always been "if you rinse enough it'll be fine." Really give it a through wash. Really give it to it. You're not worried about poisoning, you're worried about flavors.

In the worst case it might make your beer taste a little off. Never happened to me, though.

 

[fearwig]

To me,having to rinse off the bleach negates any sanitizing effects of the bleach. And since it makes off flavors,I use Starsan instead. It's no rinse & does a good job.

If you're rinsing with sewage, I guess.

Bleach works fine. Rinse well until you can't smell it. After a few batches, save yourself some trouble and buy some StarSan.

 

[Jeffinn]

I have some difficulty understanding why some folks still want to run the risks associated with using bleach when there's now a cheap and effective no-rinse sanitizer like StarSan available. Even the small 8oz StarSan lasts one heck of a long time since it will make 40 gallons of reusable sanitizer.

^+1 to this.

 

[nicklepickles]

If you're rinsing with sewage, I guess.

Bleach works fine. Rinse well until you can't smell it. After a few batches, save yourself some trouble and buy some StarSan.

the point is you sanitize your vessel with bleach, then rinse it out with water that may have contaminants in it, therefore making your sanitized vessel no longer sanitized. to me its a no brainer, star san all the way

 

[boydster]

the point is you sanitize your vessel with bleach, then rinse it out with water that may have contaminants in it, therefore making your sanitized vessel no longer sanitized. to me its a no brainer, star san all the way

Most water supplies are sanitary. Rinsing with tap water really shouldn't be a source of contamination. Maybe if you are rinsing in a sink full of dirty dishes, I guess... The only issue I have with bleach is the additional effort required to make sure it is completely rinsed vs. using a no-rinse sanitizer like Starsan. It is so much easier to deal with that than bleach, and no risk of off flavors if I forget or do a poor job of rinsing.

 

[jtratcliff]

Also look into buffering your bleach with vinegar... Somewhere here on HBT I read a quote from the guy who makes star san where he talked about using bleach & vinegar in the proper proportions....

You could also sanitize with bleach. Rinse. Fill fermenter with your sparge water, add camden tablet, let sit a couple minutes, dump water into kettle, close up fermenter until ready to fill with wort.

The camden tablet should get rid of the chlorine.

ETA:

That said, while I have used buffered bleach a couple of times in the past, I now use StarSan

 

[ong]

Most water supplies are sanitary. Rinsing with tap water really shouldn't be a source of contamination.

Yeah, we're not shooting for sterile, just low populations of microbes and wild yeast cells. I don't worry about tap water, and haven't ever had an issue with anything outcompeting my pitched yeast.

 

[cheezydemon3]

A lot of people will have anecdotal evidence on both sides of the arugment. My side has always been "if you rinse enough it'll be fine." Really give it a through wash. Really give it to it. You're not worried about poisoning, you're worried about flavors.

In the worst case it might make your beer taste a little off. Never happened to me, though.

But what are you rinsing with? Tap water should be OK, but Water Heaters have TONS of bacteria in them, which you are spraying onto your sanitized object.

There is almost NO reason to use bleach.

 

[unionrdr]

I looked at our tap water under my old microscope once. Lots of amoebas in it with specs of dirt,etc. Although amoebas weren't moving that I could tell.

 

[Qhrumphf]

The thing is, the amount of residual chlorine needed to create a chlorophenol presence above detection threshold is far lower than the detection threshold of chlorine itself. Just because you can't smell it any more doesn't mean there's not more than enough residual chlorine to still cause chlorophenol problems.

I look at bleach as an absolute last resort. As in, an "oh sh*t, I've already started brewday and I don't have any Star San left" kind of thing, and even then, I've never reached the point of no return where I'd have to do that and couldn't postpone. Or, in the case of infection, I'll do a proper bleach bomb (which I've had to do once) to purge it from my gear. After which it gets rinsed with majorly hot water, cleaned with PBW, rinsed again, left out to air dry (where any residual chlorine should off-gas), and then I sanitize properly with Star San when I actually need to use it. And in the one time I did it, no subsequent infections some ~50 batches later, and no chlorophenol problem either.

Point being, bleach has its place but it's never a go-to for me.

 

[seefish]

You could boil the water before you rinse if you want to go with bleach. Not worth the trouble though imo.

This is the first step in the difference between drinkable homebrew and great homebrew.

 

[hunter_le five]

Also look into buffering your bleach with vinegar... Somewhere here on HBT I read a quote from the guy who makes star san where he talked about using bleach & vinegar in the proper proportions....

I was under the impression that mixing vinegar & bleach releases toxic chlorine gas?

 

[Qhrumphf]

I was under the impression that mixing vinegar & bleach releases toxic chlorine gas?

I've never tried it, but from what I understand there's a specific procedure/order you need to use to prevent that from occurring. I don't know what that procedure is off the top of my head.

 

[deewilliam17]

Thanks for all the feed back! I'm going to postpone my brew for a week and get a bottle of Star san.

 

[jtratcliff]

I was under the impression that mixing vinegar & bleach releases toxic chlorine gas?

You're not adding vinegar directly to bleach... You're adding a 1 oz of bleach to 5 gallons of water, mixing, then adding 1 oz of vinegar

 

[hunter_le five]

You're not adding vinegar directly to bleach... You're adding a 1 oz of bleach to 5 gallons of water, mixing, then adding 1 oz of vinegar

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[Calder]

Bleach is fine if you use it right.

There are a lot of folks here posting scare stories; many may have never used it, and many may have had issues using it occasionally.

- use about 1 tablespoon per gallon (or less)

- rinse well with hot tap water

I have used it for the past 15 yers for my fermenters and run it thru my tubing, with zero problems.

I use idophor for bottling and other sanitizing

 

[unionrdr]

Not just scary stories,but experiences. I'd rather use the right tool for the job instead of being cheap & trying to spend as little as possible. Or using old fashioned stuff.

 

[Math0]

I still use bleach very often for my equipment. When a batch finishes fermenting or secondary, I just rinse a bit with water and a gentle scrub and put in a bleach solution for a couple days, then rinse and use starsan before reusing. I find its the easiest and laziest way to do it. Everyone have their own tricks