Noob question, difference between Sanitising and Sterilising

[Yettiman]

Hi all,

Sorry to ask such a newbie question, but What is the difference between Sanitising and Sterilising?

Please

Sorry wrong area, meant to post in the Beginners section

 

[LuiInIdaho]

There are three terms that are used by homebrewers to describe the condition of cleanliness of an item.

Clean -- The item is free from surface grime or particles, but it may contain surface bacteria, etd. Common cleaners include OxyClean and PBW.

Sanitized -- The item is cleaned and the items is free of most surface bacteria etc. Most is like 90 some percent free of bacteria. It is not 100% free, but you have created an environment where the remaining live bacteria will not be able to do much. This is accomplished by using santizers like Iodophor or StarSan. Usually a minimum amount of surface contact is required to achieve sanitization.

Sterilized -- The items has been subjected to sufficiently high temperatures to kill all bacteria. Boiling the wort for a sufficient period of time, or sterilizing an items in an autoclave will accomplish sterilization.

You need all three steps in various parts of the brewing process. However, some people will refer to OxyClean as a sanitizer. It is only a cleaner.

I hope that this helps.

Mark

 

[Revvy]

Lui pretty much nailed it, but there's one other thing;

Sanitized- What we homebrewers do.
Sterilized- What we homebrewers almost NEVER do. Except maybe in yeast harvesting and canning wort.

But if you're not doing those things, then you're just sanitizing, and that's really all we need to do (besides cleaning of course.)

 

[Yettiman]

Wow, awesome answer thank you

Very grateful,

Will post in correct area in future