First brewday ever - sanitization questions

[akramer]

So, it's my first brew day. I'll be making a partial-mash porter. I have my ingredients and tools. I just have some sanitization questions.

I have both starsan and iodophor. (well, generic equivalents of the two.)
It seems like the easiest thing to do would be to mix up a 5g bucket of starsan in my fermenter and leave the other things that need sanitization soaking in it. (airlock, hydrometer, tubing, etc)

Then, once ready to pour the wort in, I'd use the spigot to put the starsan into my bottling bucket to save it for the time being.

My questions are:
Is it safe to use a generic home depot plastic bucket to store starsan? I figure the reasons why a home depot bucket isn't food safe couldn't really hurt a solution that will not be any major ingredient in my beer.

Does the extra water added to the fermenter to fill it to 5 gallons need to be boiled? I can't find non-conflicting information on this part. Is tap water considered sanitary enough to avoid infection?


Thanks!

 

[northernlad]

The bucket will be fine for your sanitizer.
While we have great water up here I would boil off the chlorine. Although you could just run it through a Brita if you were that patient.
You will find over time that making a full 5 gallons of sanitizer is an added expense. I purchase a gallon of distilled water and make a batch of sanitzer, then use a spray bottle to apply to the necessary items. My last gallon has lasted me 4 or 4 batches. There really aren't that many things that need to be sanitized. Anything pre boil only needs to be clean.

 

[Rentachik]

I use tap water in my batches with out boiling it and I have NEVER had an infection. 30-40 batches

 

[earwig]

I buy spring water... It's cheap and easy. You'll find many people on here who try to brew as cheap as possible... I'm not one of them I guess. It's a hobby and any hobby usually costs some money. I'd rather pay a bit more for convenience.