Sanitation of equipment

[Westminster Brew]

newbie in brewing; question - can you use the dishwasher to clean and sanitize the equipment ? I'm told that a solution of 2 oz of bleach to 5 gal of water works well.

 

[loopmd]

Uh-oh, another can of worms has just been opened.

I use the dishwasher for a final rinse on my bottles. They are thoroughly clean before I do this. I also just use bleach to sanitize my stuff. I only use the dishwasher for my bottles, not my other gear. Let the flaming begin.....


Loop

 

[tnlandsailor]

I won't step out and say it won't work. I guarantee that at least 3 people will post here and say they've been doing it for years and their beer is fine.

But.......

For a beginner, I would not get in the habit of taking shortcuts on sanitation. This the number one way to screw up a beer and it doesn't take a very big mistake to do it. At least for the first few batches, get yourself a nice reliable no-rinse sanitizer like Iodophor or Star San and soak your equipment in a no-rinse solution right before you use it and then don't rinse (yes, that's redundant, but oh well). Once you are comfortable with how things go, you can alter your sanitation regimine and see how the results differ. But until then, I would stay on the well trodden path.

Prosit!

 

[Beer Snob]

I have not rinsed my bottles or anything I use sanitiser stuff with (been using One Step)... but have to ask though.... why is it that you should not rinse?

 

[Rhoobarb]

This has been debated a lot! Take a look here!

 

[bikebryan]

Uh-oh, another can of worms has just been opened.

I use the dishwasher for a final rinse on my bottles. They are thoroughly clean before I do this. I also just use bleach to sanitize my stuff. I only use the dishwasher for my bottles, not my other gear. Let the flaming begin.....


Loop

Agreed. The worms have escaped....

I've voice my reservations about depending on a dishwasher to sanitize bottles, so enough said there.

Cleaning bottles in a dishwasher? No way. There is no way a dishwasher can force the water column up into beer bottles to coat it anywhere near enough to even begin to clean it. The neck of the bottle prevents the water from coating the bottle inside where it flares out.

Don't confuse cleaning with sanitizing. They most certainly are NOT the same thing. You can't sanitize something that is not clean first.

 

[Beer Snob]

Well now thats a scrary re-read of a thread. Personally I think we should bury that thread in favor of a more calmer read. We don't want to send somone there who does not reaslize that this line of discussion (not being open minded to how other do things..... ummmmm.. shall I use the phrase "hostile langguage"... that sort of thing) is something that is not done here (we don't want to scare anyone off do we).

Still did not find what happens when you rinse out though....

 

[RichBrewer]

I used to sanitize my bottles in the dish washer on the hottest setting. I wasn't too concerned about water getting into the bottles. I just wanted them to be heated to the point where all the critters would get killed. When they came out they were so hot you could barely touch them. If the bottles are clean to begin with I think this method works.
However, I had never thought about the chemicals that could be in the dishwasher. Even if you don't put dish washing detergent in with the load (as I did) there could still be residual amounts of it in the system. As stated in other posts, dish washing detergent contains stuff to make the water run off everything to reduce water spots. Sounds like a foam killer to me. I don't think I will be using the dishwasher any more.
I have gotten so much great information from HomeBrewTalk.com.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 

[El Pistolero]

newbie in brewing; question - can you use the dishwasher to clean and sanitize the equipment ? I'm told that a solution of 2 oz of bleach to 5 gal of water works well.

You can put your bottles in the dishwasher...they will not come out sanitized. Will this be a problem? Probably not, since many people apparently do it. Just don't fool yourself into thinking they are sanitized because they're not...as long as they are very clean, it probably won't be an issue.

As far as bleach goes..2 oz per five gallons of water is a cleaning solution...if you use that much bleach then they will need to be rinsed very well. If you want to use bleach as a sanitizer, the proper no-rinse solution is 2 teaspoons per 5 gallons of water (this according to Papazian).