buying sanitizer from restaurant=WIN!

[adam_d_j]

Noob here. I will be brewing my third batch tomorrow and am beginning to realize how much money I am not saving by doing this, but sure don't want to stop. This may not be saving me a ton of money but every little bit helps, right?

I manage a pizza delivery restaurant and we carry a no-rinse sanitizer for our 3-compartment sink. I did the math and bought 20oz. in a water bottle from my store for $2.95. The correct dilution for this sanitizer is 1/4oz per gallon of water so that's 80 gallons of sanitizer water for only $2.95! I even brought home a bunch of test strips that come with it so I can be positive I'm getting the right dilution of 200ppm.

I just thought I would share this as it seems to be saving me at least a bit of money. If anyone here works at a restaurant or knows someone who does, I'm sure they carry the same type of sanitizer(everywhere I've worked has), and I'm sure the manager wouldn't mind selling some(I've never had a problem buying extra product for an employee.). I think I'll probably order an extra gallon of sanitizer on my next delivery just to bring home. That could last me a very long time.

 

[ehedge20]

Just make sure the sanitizer you are using is not corrosive to your equipment.

 

[wailingguitar]

What is the sanitizer? There are some of those that I wouldn't use for beer making...

 

[MalFet]

Make sure it's not chlorine based, unless you like bandaid flavored beer! No rinse means different things in different contexts, eh?

 

[Bones1948]

My preferred sanitizer is a mist bottle (.99cents at the Dollar Store) and mist all cleaned surfaces with Everclear (95% ethyl alcohol) to instantaneously kill any organism exposed to it. No soak time required. Nothing can live in Everclear. For sanitizing bottles I simply poor a few ounces into a bottle, shake vigorously with plastic gloved thumb over the opening, then transfer by funnel to the next bottle and repeat 'til all bottles are treated. Pour the remaining Everclear back into the Everclear bottle to recycle. The Everclear residue on brewing surfaces is not enough to affect the brewing process, does not affect the taste of the finished product and certainly gives me the confidence my brew equipment is not only sanitized but completely sterile.

 

[Gear101]

i use the crap out of my mister bottle, bought three of them at sam's club, the real nice ones, worth every pennie.

 

[MalFet]

My preferred sanitizer is a mist bottle (.99cents at the Dollar Store) and mist all cleaned surfaces with Everclear (95% ethyl alcohol) to instantaneously kill any organism exposed to it. No soak time required. Nothing can live in Everclear. For sanitizing bottles I simply poor a few ounces into a bottle, shake vigorously with plastic gloved thumb over the opening, then transfer by funnel to the next bottle and repeat 'til all bottles are treated. Pour the remaining Everclear back into the Everclear bottle to recycle. The Everclear residue on brewing surfaces is not enough to affect the brewing process, does not affect the taste of the finished product and certainly gives me the confidence my brew equipment is not only sanitized but completely sterile.

Alcohol definitely won't sterilize, though it will do a reasonably good job of sanitizing if you give it the bottles a full ten minute soak.

Not Exactly Sterile

 

[ehedge20]

Star San is all one needs, kills most everything on contact. Goes reasonably far too as long as you mix it with distilled water. Then you can reuse and reuse until its gone. I too am a fan of the spray bottle.

 

[RickFinsta]

FYI, you need to drop EtOH down to 70% in water for sterilization or it won't pass through many cell membranes. I have used 70% EtOH to sterilize equipment in a validated aseptic handling procedure thousands of times.