Primary duration and chemical free sanitation

[ToddPacker69]

I would love some help from you kind people. I have my beer in my primary fermenter for about 4 weeks now, and I plan to bottle it on thursday. It is a california Common. One question, is 4 weeks too long to keep in the primary?

More importantly , with sanitation, I am trying to keep a pretty organic or natural beer, so I don't want to use any bleach or chemicals in my sanitation process. Anyone know of any good ways? THere is a sanitize button on my dishwasher so I may use that or just rinse them with boiling water, I have also heard Iodine? Any help would be great. Thanks

Todd


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GET OUT OF HERE YOU KIDS!! I'M GETTING SO OLD MY CABLE TV IS SMARTER THAN ME.

 

[DoubleAught]

Whew that subject line was misleading, glad it went in another direction

To answer you question, 4 weeks in primary is perfect. You'll have a nice beer from that.

As far as sanitizing without chemicals I'm not sure. I use star-san and it works great.

 

[amandabab]

I prefer iodophor (iodine) over the more popular starsan.

Not a fan of trusting household dishwashers for sanitizing. A commercial unit that pumps in qaut/bleach definitely.

 

[Nugent]

Four weeks is fine. Many on the forum leave their beer on yeast at least that long; sometimes longer. If you pitched healthy yeast, it'll be no problem.

As for sanitation, there are a number of biodegradeable sanitizers and cleaners on the market. They work really well, in my experience. Except for putting spotlessly clean, dry bottles in the oven to use heat to sterilize, you'll have to use some type of chemical. Some are much gentler thatn the bleachy ones while still being effective.

BTW, welcome to HBT!

 

[Nugent]

Whew that subject line was misleading, glad it went in another direction

Agreed.

Must admit that I clicked on the link to potentially get in before this was shut down by one of the mods.

 

[ToddPacker69]

Iodine? Hydrogen Peroxide? I heard these are good. Anyone have experience sanitizing with chemicals? The oven way would take too long with my oven, its so small. So I am thinking of looking for the least toxic/chemical sanitizer. Any suggestions?

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dut$yekcoh $evil

 

[bleme]

I always use either iodopher (iodine) or GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract)

 

[jonmohno]

Use idophor,and rinse with preboiled water.I spray my counter and turn them upside down to drip and usually dont rinse that way,yeah i stand them on their lips-im risky but carefull. I shake them dry breiflybefore bottleing also to get the drips out.I was using some preboiled water in one bottle and transferring that to each bottle to rinse and dilute the rest but i only make about 16 bottle batches so its not a big deal for me.

 

[ToddPacker69]

say I sanitized them at night, and then I bottled the next morning when they are dry. Would the bottles be unsanitary by the morning? Do I have to bottle right after sanitation?

 

[bleme]

The bottles should be wet with sanitizer when you bottle. Your way would probably be OK. It just leaves more room for infection to slip in.

 

[homebrewdad]

4 weeks is great, your beer will be tasty.

As for sanitizer... I don't use StarSan, but that's really only because my starter kit came with brewvint cleanitizer. I can't see how StarSan (arguably THE "go to" sanitizer for homebrewers) can be that bad, since you can drink the stuff without it hurting you.

 

[Golddiggie]

StarSan is an acid sanitizer, so not any freaky chemicals in it. I would go with a no-rinse sanitizer over one you need to rinse off every time. With it basically being a mix of two acids its not that bad.

IMO, you can be organic with your ingredients, but be smart about things like cleaning and sanitization.

 

[FattySparks]

I have used my household dishwasher with nothing but success. It's way easier IMO. I clean them first with a bottle brush and some PBW, then I stick them in the dishwasher with the electric dry setting on and no detergent, then while they're sanitizing I do any other things that I need to do to prep for bottling.

Edit: My dishwasher takes 30-40 minutes to finish, so the other things that I do is get my priming syrup ready, sanitize my racking equipment (which I usually use star-san for, so that might defeat the purpose of this conversation), and of course relax and have a homebrew!