Sanitizer option

[caol]

Hi there, my name is Caol and its safe to say im a beer noob. About to bottle my first batch and im about out of PBW.

So the story goes that my wifes work is closing (works in a kitchen) and they had surplus Sanichlor tablets and i was wondering if there is any reason i shouldnt use these for sanitizing my equipment providing i rinse them out properly. Basically im trying to cut a cost for the time being as there is a good amount of these tablets in her work.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers !

 

[EPS]

I never Heard of that product does it use food-grade safe phosphoric acid. Also is it odorless and flavorless.

 

[caol]

Hey EPS, its at home to be honest. What i do know is they use it for rinsing off salads and what not. Might aswell ask as you get some purpose sanitizers that you need to wash the chlorine smell from.

My worry is if no-one has heard of it maybe its better left alone.

 

[Matt3989]

I'm not sure about that one, but any food grade sanitizer should be fine. With tablets be sure to follow the instructions, they probably take a few hours to dissolve and properly work (maybe test the ph to make sure they worked).

also, PBW is NOT a sanitizer, it's a cleaner, but it doesn't sanitize.

My advice is to pick up some StarSan.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I'm not sure about that one, but any food grade sanitizer should be fine. With tablets be sure to follow the instructions, they probably take a few hours to dissolve and properly work (maybe test the ph to make sure they worked).

also, PBW is NOT a sanitizer, it's a cleaner, but it doesn't sanitize.

My advice is to pick up some StarSan.

+1 on this. The initial cost is <$20 and an 8oz bottle will make 40 gallons of sanitizer!

Just my $0.02

 

[Clonefan94]

Looks like they are food safe, but the problem I see with them is that they are chlorine based. That leads me to think that if you don't end up rinsing, you run the risk of having that chlorine taste in your beer. I wouldn't use them without doing a final rinse, but then, what's the point of sanitizing if you are once again rinsing with possibly unsanitized water?

 

[caol]

Thanks CG, i know Starsan is what im going to go for but i thought, hey, better ask those in the know, might be missing a trick.

The consensus here is "stop being a tightass and pay for some Starsan!" Hahaha, you sound like my wife

Thanks!

 

[caol]

Clonefan, thats true. Im going to just buy some Starsan seems to be the consensus amongst brewers.

 

[unionrdr]

I bought the small bottle of starsan 2 years ago,& barely made a dent in it. That stuff goes a long way. I save it for several uses & filter occasionally through coffee filters in a funnel to get the dirty stuff out of it. As long as the PH is 3.5 or lower,it's still good.

 

[caol]

Thats also a good point, im new to all this, how much do i need to worry about using my tapwater in brewing? im using malt extract just now where the recipes ask you to top up with water and from talking to friends who used to Brew they all seem content with sticking tap water in (Scotland). Our tap water here is great and you drink straight from the fawcett.

Any opinions?

Forgive the noobishness.

 

[EPS]

Ya i agree with everyone here. I would just be better safe then sorry and go grab some Star San. I live by this stuff i use it on everything and never had an infection. Some recipes are expensive and i would not want 2 risk the whole batch on something i didn't know about. You could also google the product and get the ingredients. And then compare them to sanitizers like Star San. And like someone also said if u do decide to use them read the directions for contact time and what not. Seeing the tablets have to dissolve it may not start sanitizing at all until tablets are completely dissolved. And as someone stated above PBW is a cleaner not a sanitizer good catch MATT3989.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

This brings up a question while I we are all here. Will a swirl of starsan in a new carboy be adequate or must you fill the whole carboy? Also... I left starsan in beer bottles for about 2 weeks by accident. Any harm to emptying and continuing as usual?

 

[unionrdr]

Generally,if it taste good to drink,it's good to brew with. A small water filter device is never a bad idea either.

 

[EPS]

If your tap water taste good it will prob in most cases make good beer. My tap water taste like a$$ so i buy 10 gallons of spring water for 87 cents a gallon at wall-mart.

 

[EPS]

I usually fill my carboys up half way with star san solution then shake them up back and forth for like 2-3 min. I never fill them to the very top. And if the beer bottles were clean i don't see any reason why not.

 

[caol]

Epic replies thanks all!

 

[LovesIPA]

This brings up a question while I we are all here. Will a swirl of starsan in a new carboy be adequate or must you fill the whole carboy? Also... I left starsan in beer bottles for about 2 weeks by accident. Any harm to emptying and continuing as usual?

I use about a quart to sanitize a carboy. I shake it around for about a minute and then dump it back into the bucket of sanitizer. Then I put the carboy on a plastic carboy stand (It goes on upside down) and let it drip for a while. The foam never goes away, but I just rack right on top of it. No issues at all so far.

The stuff will last a while. I leave it sitting around for weeks at a time. I can't see any harm in leaving it in beer bottles.

 

[Clonefan94]

We drink a lot of bottled water in our house and have a large supply of the 5 gallon bottles for our water cooler. Once every 2 months, I go buy an extra 5 gallons of distilled water and bring it home then use that to make up the 5 gallons of star san solution. I just keep it stored in that 5 gallon bottle the whole time and leave it in my basement out of any light (not sure if this matters). I've been doing this for the six months I've been brewing and always check the PH before use and it's always right at 2.8 for ph. The only reason I swap out every 2 months is somewhat out of fear, but also the fact that by that time I've usually used up about half the bottle in stuff like a blow-off vessel or constantly refilling my spray bottle. Also though, I only put the solution back in the bottle that has touched completely clean stuff, such as my clean fermenter or clean kegs. Anything I used to soak spoons, blow-offs, air-locks, and just general wiping down during the brew day, gets used in a separate bowl and never saved. This is great for keeping it clean and giving it a long shelf life.

So basically yeah, I've used 3 ounces so far, in six months out of my 32 oz. bottle of concentrate. IT should roughly give me about 5 years before I need to buy a new one. That's a pretty good value, imo.

 

[unionrdr]

I just swirl a gallon of starsan around the inside of my squeaky clean fermenters right before filling them. Never an infection. I have a vinator & bottle tree for sanitizing with starsan on brewday.
And look around in your local phone book for sources of spring water. Getting it directly from them is way cheaper. both the local ones have coin op taps to get as much as you want. Ours have ones for a gallon at a time for 10c,& 2.5 gallons for something like 25c. It's worked out great for me. I save money getting it for 10c vs 79c in the store. wash yeast & brew partial mash,& you'll save quite a bit. $25 kits work out to about $15.50 for five gallons of PM beer after all that.
And I've been using the same small bottle of starsan for two tears so far. Haven't put much of a dent in it thus far. Great value for the money!

 

[Foghorn]

How about a Quaternary based sanitizer? It is in tablet form and takes about 5 minutes to dissolve. It use is for food grade sanatizing of glasses, and kitchen utensils. Used in that capacity it is a no rinse sanitizer, but i never see it talked about. It is for sale in restaurant supply stores, under names as Sani-maid. Just curious as I have 5 bottles of the stuff.