RangerG
Well-Known Member
Couple weeks ago I thought I'd get fancy and try using secondary fermentation for the first time; I also needed to do that for a mead. At the time, I being a returning brewer after 12 years that knows what I'm doing; you know, a FNG, I must have drifted off at the part where bleach needed to stay in contact with surfaces for at least 20 minutes to sanitize - and three batches of otherwise well tended brews ended up looking like pond scum. The mead was a lovely blood-red raspberry that started going south within hours which was heartbreaking - it looked like a giant petrie dish covered in greenish colonies.
These sort of experiences must be where sanitation nazi's come from. Just use the P formula; P=Plenty.
I no longer attempt to use a secondary unless absolutely necessary, and for two batches of mead that are currently in primary I plan to use bleach at triple the strength, boiling water, and then pour in some grain alcohol and swish it around in the carboy just to make sure - maybe I should lite the alcohol? That'll kill those little beasties! (That lighting the alcohol part is just a joke, a fuel-air explosion like that in a warm carboy would NOT be a good idea). I even sprung for one of those hand-held CO2 dispensers so that I could purge the O2 out of the secondary.
To me using the grain alcohol is a small price to pay not to ruin something that I consider to be like children. I also saw a guy on YouTube using booze in a spray bottle and now I got one a those around too just in case. Just the cheap ABC grain alcohol vodka at about 153 proof; it's like $22 for the big bottle.
Anyone else out there ever sanatize like that, or do you guys just chuck the stuff together and fugetaboutit?
Do those "other" sanitizers really work as well as they say they do?
Any handy-dandy pearls of sanitation wisdom, or secondary fermentation advice for the old FNG so that I can tell my wife that "Everything will be be well in the garden?"
These sort of experiences must be where sanitation nazi's come from. Just use the P formula; P=Plenty.
I no longer attempt to use a secondary unless absolutely necessary, and for two batches of mead that are currently in primary I plan to use bleach at triple the strength, boiling water, and then pour in some grain alcohol and swish it around in the carboy just to make sure - maybe I should lite the alcohol? That'll kill those little beasties! (That lighting the alcohol part is just a joke, a fuel-air explosion like that in a warm carboy would NOT be a good idea). I even sprung for one of those hand-held CO2 dispensers so that I could purge the O2 out of the secondary.
To me using the grain alcohol is a small price to pay not to ruin something that I consider to be like children. I also saw a guy on YouTube using booze in a spray bottle and now I got one a those around too just in case. Just the cheap ABC grain alcohol vodka at about 153 proof; it's like $22 for the big bottle.
Anyone else out there ever sanatize like that, or do you guys just chuck the stuff together and fugetaboutit?
Do those "other" sanitizers really work as well as they say they do?
Any handy-dandy pearls of sanitation wisdom, or secondary fermentation advice for the old FNG so that I can tell my wife that "Everything will be be well in the garden?"