Commercial Sanitizers or Chlorine Bleach?

[Steve973]

What do you use, and why? Is it worth it to buy commercial sanitation products for your brewing equipment, or is the traditional and cheap bottle of clorox just as good?

 

[Kephren]

Household bleach is just as good, but I use iodophor. It's cheap and it doesn't have to soak as long - 5 minutes vs. 1/2 hour.

 

[bikebryan]

Household bleach is just as good, but I use iodophor. It's cheap and it doesn't have to soak as long - 5 minutes vs. 1/2 hour.

The best advantage of iodophor is that you don't have to rinse after using it.

 

[Kephren]

I never used to rinse bleach. I just let it drip dry and never had any problems with chlorine smell or taste. But Iodophor is a true no-rinse where I was just gambling with bleach.

 

[PT Ray]

Quat, aquired it while working in the food industry. Also used it while working in a brewery instead of iodophor. Good on a hombrew level as it does not stain plastics.

 

[kneemoe]

well, i use c-brite, but its probably the same exact thing as diluted chlorine when it comes down to it - i just use it cause my brother seems to have an unending supply of it so its free , and doesn't seem to leave any off tastes around

 

[brewhead]

bleach here since i started brewing - never any problems

the thing is to measure. i know the tendancy is to dump a bunch in thinking a little is good a lot is better - and that's wher e i think you get into problems. also bleach takes around 30 minutes of contact time to truely sanatize

 

[tnlandsailor]

I think bleach makes a great cleaner. I use quite a bit of it in the brewery. For a sanitizer, I like something a little (a lot) less pungent and no rinse. Iodophor is my sanitizer of choice, but dollar for dollar, nothing cleans organic stains like bleach.

 

[Lost]

I clean my plastic buckets with a strong bleach solution.. and I soak my hoses in the solution as well.. I really don't know how well bleach cleans the hoses since I'm just soaking but I haven't had any problems so far. Of course, do not clean metals with bleach.. I use either powdered or liquid bar keepers friend for that task.

I no longer sanitize with bleach.. star san is so simple.. I just mix up about a half gallon of it with distilled water and store it in a cool dark place and fill a squirt bottle with it. That way I always have sanitizer on hand to quickly (30 sec to 1 min) sanitize anything that touches the countertop, ground, chair, etc... plus it's no rinse and will not contribute off flavors even at higher than recommended concentrations. Every single time the thermometer, spoon, hydrometer, or auto siphon contacts my cooled wort it has been sanitized beforehand - you just can't do that with bleach. Also, everytime I crack open a brew I simply thoroughly rinse several times until all beer smell is gone, spay in sanitizer, shake vigorously, spray bottle neck, and dump out excess sanitizer.. then cover the bottles with plastic wrap and they're ready to be refilled.. no bottle sanitizing necessary on bottling day (do remember to sanitize the caps though).

Even though bleach is supposed to be no rinse at 1tbsp per gallon I've heard many suggest rinsing just to be safe.. of course when you rinse you must use boiled water... real PITA if you ask me.

edit: I've also heard star san leaves a anti microbial coating on all sanitized surfaces.. anyone know if there's any truth to this claim?

Oh.. and not to threadjack.. but how do y'all clean your hoses?