Reusing iodophore sanitizing water

[paulfoxx]

I make up a 5 gallon batch of iodophore. It sanitizes my 6 gallon primary fermenter carboy. Then I use my auto siphon to transfer it to another 5 gallon carboy. I cap this 5 gallon carboy and when I go to rack to the secondary I just add iodophore to the water, let it sanitize and then transfer it to another 6 gallon carboy. Then I cap this one off and do the same addition of iodophore, transfer process when I brew again. This makes for a simple, efficient loop.

Any reason why I can't keep using the same iodophore water indefinitely as long as I add new iodophore each time?

 

[landshark]

Because the water starts to look nasty after cleaning about 3 kegs, a primary, 2 secondaries, and 3 champagne bottles in the mater of 4 days.

Same water, no topping off.

Well, that was star san. But same idea.

 

[beerman0001]

I will say yes and no. You need to have a test strip to make sure your ppm are in the correct range if you can not do that it is just a guess.

 

[smyrnaquince]

5 gallon batch of Iodophor? Why? You only need to wet the surfaces. Make a 1 gallon batch and swish it around to wet the carboy. Make up a fresh batch for the secondary carboy. You'll still be using less Iodophor than you are now.

 

[microbusbrewery]

5 gallon batch of Iodophor? Why? You only need to wet the surfaces. Make a 1 gallon batch and swish it around to wet the carboy. Make up a fresh batch for the secondary carboy. You'll still be using less Iodophor than you are now.

+1.

To the OP, for argument's sake let's assume that some of the iodophor from the last time you added it is still effective. When you're adding more, you could be elevating the concentration so that it's no longer a no-rinse sanitizer. "If some is good, more is better" does not apply to sanitizer. It's so cheap and there's no need to mix up more than a gallon. Also no reason to not mix up a fresh batch when it's needed. Sometimes I even mix up a half gallon at a time; an oral syringe comes in handy for precisely measuring iodophor. Also worth mentioning, iodophor should be mixed with cold tap water. My understanding is the higher the temp, the faster it becomes ineffective.

 

[wailingguitar]

Just make sure you test it to determine how much to add each time... as Microbus noted, you don't want to use too much. Commercial breweries often have centralized CIP systems with vats for caustic, acid and iodophor. The chemicals get reused many times and simply charged when they start to lose efficacy. Last place I worked that had one of those, I think I was dumping the old about every 4 months and adding a little bit of chemical to recharge around every other week or so on the sanitizer. It held pretty well, so it didn't take much.

 

[AdamPag]

I asked this question a while back and the general consensus was No, dont reuse iodophor, iodine apparently has a short half life and becomes useless quiet fast, on the other hand, Star San can be kept in the fashion for long periods of time provided the water you used is good

 

[wailingguitar]

I asked this question a while back and the general consensus was No, dont reuse iodophor, iodine apparently has a short half life and becomes useless quiet fast

This is simply not true. As mentioned in my previous post, I have used it in a commercial situation and know it to be effective and stable. As mentioned, it is often used in central CIP systems where a vat of the solution is kept to be reused multiple times. I first encountered this when working for Breckenridge in the mid 90s. At that time, they had seven or eight locations. With the exception of one facility that had been built by a different company, ALL of those breweries used central systems and ALL reused iodophor. John Mallet, an instructor at Seibel, an industry consultant and currently production manager at Bell's, designed four of those systems and his company constructed one. The central CIP system which reuses iodophor (along with caustic and acid vats as well) was his preferred procedure. If someone of his knowledge and stature within the brewing community says it works, in fact prefers it, I think it is more than safe to say that it will work just fine.

 

[AdamPag]

There's no additional treatment of the reused sanitizing solution or anything? It can just sit for an extended period of time and not lose its sanitizing properties? obviously, Id much prefer to NOT have to make sanitizer every time I want to do something and just save a few gallons, was just told its not the best idea

 

[wailingguitar]

Usually would add a small amount of concentrated chem to the iodophor vat about every other week or so. If you brew or clean something at least weekly, you should be able to get a few sanitizing cycles from the solution before adding a little bump up of chem.