ProForce Sanitizer

[c72]

Anyone ever used this and want to report the results?

Picked up a gallon @ 5 dollars of this:

Overview
ProForce Sanitizer at 1 oz. per gallon of water is an effective sanitizer for use on food contact surfaces in 60 seconds at 200 ppm active and 500 ppm hard water against: Campylobacter jejuni, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli 0157:H7, Klebsiella pneumon
Specifications
# 1 Gallon value
# EPA Registered product approved for use on food contact surfaces
# No rinse required - apply and allow to air dry
# Concentrated formula

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=388005

Looks like the active ingredient is ammonium chloride. Stoked to see it's no rinse, seems like a good value, should make many many gallons of no rinse solution.

Thanks guys!

 

[drost]

Looks like a great deal! Let us know how it works.

 

[malkore]

hmmm...

Campylobacter jejuni, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli 0157:H7, Klebsiella pneumon...these aren't really the 'bugs' we're concerned about in brewing AFAIK.

is it going to kill lacto bug? brett? mold spores?

 

[ldkoehler]

"Looks like the active ingredient is ammonium chloride."

I'd be sure to rinse this sanitizer off stainless steel. It will cause stainless steel to corrode just like bleach does, since it's the chloride part that causes chloride stress corrosion cracking. This kind of failure is especially likely in places under heat or pressure, meaning that corny kegs are likely to be most readily effected by this problem. I'd look for poppets to fail first if you are looking for problems.

Just a heads up.

 

[c72]

Doing a little more research on ammonium chloride I found this:

Other uses include a feed supplement for cattle, in hair shampoo, in textile printing, in the glue that bonds plywood, as an ingredient in nutritive media for yeast....In several countries sal ammoniac is used to spice up liquorice-type dark candies (Finland's salmiakki, Sweden's lakrisal, the Netherlands' zoute drop and the Danish Dracula Piller are popular examples), and as a flavoring for vodkas.

Sounds like a good way to get an off flavor?

Although it's not straight ammonium chloride, a bunch of variants. This has scared me off it, I think.

 

[jobrien913]

I have used this sanitizer on a few batches and the jury's still out. To me the first batch had kind of an off flavor, but no one else who tried it thought so....so it may be my own paranoia. Plus I also did a few other things differently w/ that batch so if there was any off tastes it could be from other factors. I currently have a nut brown ale, and a hard cider brewing that I used it on, and I also started an irish stout today using One Step, for comparative purposes.

Proforce is cheap enough (4-5 bucks for a gallon jug of concentrate) and it only takes an ounce per gallon so the bottle is going to last a long time. This lends itself to being able to make a bunch of sanitizer cheaply (I was making about 4 gallons and immersing everything in it.)

All that being said, I think it is probably ok to use this sanitizer, however, i've decided that I'm going to switch to Starsan or Iodaphor...mostly for piece of mind. The Proforce solution does have a slight chemical or detergent smell to it, plus, it is sold in the same section at Sam's as the degreaser and heavy duty floor stripper. They do use it in restaurants to sanitize the dishes we all eaten from, but by the time we get them they've had a chance to totally air dry. And I'm not so sure the standards of sanitization for food service need to be as high as for brewing. I don't feel like the research it's going to take is worth the few dollars I can save using proforce.

lastly, I've heard that using starsan in a spray bottle is nice because the foam shows where you've sanitized, and that the residual foam (no rinse product) is good for yeast activity. Plus using a spray bottle doesn't use as much so i can probably get away w/ a half gallon or gallon of sanitizer as opposed to making a bucket full...and I know I'll feel more warm and fuzzy using a product designed for brewing....

 

[JesseRC]

I saw this at Sam's yesterday for 4.97, sounds good, although I think you're right. The insructions say to allow to dry. By that time spores and other nasties have probably landed on our brew equipment. I think it would be great for home use though.

 

[BrewBeemer]

I had a couple keggles that had dry black stains and some brown sticky stinky matter from a brew day and being put away dirty this over 5 years in storage. I used some cleaner that they use at the tank wash for stainless big rig tankers. When cleaned these tankers can go from epoxy or poison to FDA certified to haul food grade product the next load. This cleaner with hot water does not leave any residue plus cleaned these keggles as if they were brand new without any etching of the stainless. I'll need to find out what this cleaner is and the specs and ratios to water mix.

A little off topic but you may find intresting what I learned today.
Another product we used today was called "Cab Wash" a powdered soap that is a super strong cleaner used on truck exteriors that is caustic base.
Today we used a 14 0z liquid measurement to 10 gallons hot water into the Cat diesels cooling system that had 3 quarts of motor oil in it due to a water oil cooler failure putting oil into the radiator cooling system. One quart of Wisk as well one quart of Simple Green to 3 gallons of radiator coolant only left oily lumps of gray paste in the 5 gallons buckets with this oil paste as a test before adding anything to the cooling system. Caterpillar Truck Repair said due to Calif EPA they run 2 gallons of Simple Green to clean out a cooling system that had a oil cooler failure like this. Simple Green as well Wisk were a total failure and crap as far as the test went and this with 175*F water. The Cab Cleaner plus a 40 mile drive totally dissolved these globs of oily paste to gray dirty water meaning the oil was totally disolved in the cooling system and suspended in the water. The next coupe days will be 4 complete drains with 190 degree water flushes at the tank wash business while closed for the holiday. Then distilled water with anti-freeze plus Ph correction additives for the proper Ph in the cooling system.

They also use a tanker cleaner product they can clean a tank from epoxy to food grade certified the next load without etching the stainless leaving a shiny surface finish it must be a great product. I will find out what it is and the ratio to water mix in the future. As cleaning 15.5 or larger kegs for home brewing is nothing vs 25-40 trucks a day at 6,000 gallons each i'm a speck of sand on the beach the amount of cleaner I can have for free from my friends tank wash business. I had to share what I found out that they use as a heavy cleaner.

 

[BleuChien]

Has anyone had any results with this? Sorry to bump an old thread but the results seem inconclusive.

 

[bs72]

I have been using this for a few years and I have not had any problems. I do use a very light rinse even though it says not to. Even though I rinse I still have not had any problems.

Anyone ever used this and want to report the results?

Picked up a gallon @ 5 dollars of this:

SamsClub.com - Sam

Looks like the active ingredient is ammonium chloride. Stoked to see it's no rinse, seems like a good value, should make many many gallons of no rinse solution.

Thanks guys!