How careful should one be about sanitation?

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jwic

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I've posted a couple of times and have not yet thanked the numerous members who have been so incredibly helpful; I have learned A TON just from reading HBT.com posts.

I understand the utter importance of sanitizing but I'm wondering just how careful one must be. For example, if I do a partial boil of 3 gallons and simply buy two gallons of filtered/distilled water from the store to top off the carboy, should I spray Iodophor on the lip of the opening on the gallon jug or is it clear of anything harmful to the beer by the sheer fact that the cap has been covering it since the bottling plant?

If I use my britta for the water to top off the carboy, should I sanitize every, single part of my britta, too?

Any other sanitizing tricks/tips?

Cheers,
JWiC
 
I think at a partial boil level you take what you could get. you could basically pasteurize the water or even boil it if you really were worried but I say just toss it in.

I am not crazy about sanitation until the end of the boil but I have tried to plug any holes where off flavors could enter including pressurized fermentation and purging kegs before their filled etc...
 
Well, I think it's hard to overkill in this area. No one ever complained about the quality of a beer due to over sanitization. (Actually, with Iodophor, some have... but that nullifies my point). If you buy water, I wouldn't worry about sanitizing the top. I'm not sure about how I feel about the Britta...

Instead of buying water, you could always just boil 2 gallons the night before, chill them, and then dump them into a clean, sanitized carboy and place an airlock on the top. The next day, you could just dump the wort on top.
 
I am pretty anal about everything being sanitary and sanitized. I will clean the kitchen thoroughly before bottling, I only scrub with a soft rag as to not scratch buckets, etc.

But one thing I wouldn't worry about is the lip of a store bought water bottle. You can always sanitize the cap before hand if you wish, but I very much doubt it is at all likely to pick up an infection from it. It is just common sense: if the seal is still there, the water inside will be fine.
 
It's extremely important.

Bear in mind, however, that people were brewing beer hundreds of years ago when: there was no such thing as sanitizer, the only cleanser was soap made from animal fat and lye (made by running water through wood ashes), they didn't have airlocks, fermentation was done in open vats, there was no refrigeration, etc.
 
Rich_S - And there was soo much infection that we would not even recognize it as beer today. Bacteria was so incredibly common that they only had a week or so to finish the whole batch. Really, Louis Pasteur is the patron saint of beer.
 
sanitizing doesn't have to be stresfull. sanitizer in a spray bottle, then if you worried about something, you just squirt it. the water jug lid... probably fine, but if your worried then squirt it. the better you sanitze the less you will worry. if its something that will bug you the whole time its fermenting then its worth it to take five seconds and sanitize it.
 
Rich_S - And there was soo much infection that we would not even recognize it as beer today. Bacteria was so incredibly common that they only had a week or so to finish the whole batch. Really, Louis Pasteur is the patron saint of beer.

That sounds like a little bit of an exaggeration. I'm sure it happened, but I doubt it was that extreme.

I'm not suggesting doing it that way, just that people get a little crazy with wanting to sanitize the tops of distilled water bottles and such.
 
I think in general, we over sanitize. Cleaning is probably more important and you can't make up for poor cleaning with sanitizer.

But, if you are pitching the correct amount of yeast into a properly prepared wort in a thoroughly cleaned container, sanitizing is probably not even necessary. Now, shaking that container with a half gallon of iodophor solution for a minute is not hard.

The important time is after the boil until high krausen. But on either end, it probably is not that big a deal unless you live near a vinegar factory or something. ;-)
 
Many thanks, everyone, for the replies!

I'll go with the "if it'll worry me, I'll sanitize it" rule. I'm only on my first batch of beer so I'm sure I will streamline my technique (and dispel some worries) as I brew more.

Cheers,
Jim
 
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