Sanitizing Cold Crash Guardian

[EscapeArtistBrewing]

Recently got an infection of the CCG bladder (Serratia marcescens ?). I used Star San to do a pre-sanitize, but I did not dry the bladder out completely, hence a moist environment in the bag. I'm planning on running this again, but I would appreciate comments on using a 70% ethanol solution (95% Everclear diluted down with 3% hydrogen peroxide), as this would probably evaporate more quickly than a Star San rinse.

 

[cfrazier77]

With the bag being plastic I would not use it again. I would buy a new bag. For hat drying you could use straight everclear if you wanted to. I don't know what cutting it down with hydrogen peroxide would do. Star san should not have done that. It is sanitized until it is dry. That big must have come after from something else.

 

[EscapeArtistBrewing]

The bag was dumped--trust me! Tubing, check valve, bladder valve as well.

Everclear comes in 95% and 75% strengths; I have the 95%. Optimal ethanol dilution for sanitization is about 70%. (There are a number of references out there that talk about the reasons for this, mainly regarding protein chemistry and evaporation rates). I could always use plain water as a diluent, but a little extra oxidative oomph seems reasonable.

There was no other sign of infection anywhere else in the closed system. Guess I could give Star San another go, since I have extra bags now.

 

[Whisky River]

I can’t comment on your sanitizing plan but I will say that several people have had black mold/ mildew growing on the walls of containers of Star San so it’s not out of the question that the damp environment fostered whatever growth that is.

 

[Brockness Monster]

70% ethanol works better than 95% or even 100% ethanol because of the presence of water and how the water is able to penetrate the cell whilst carrying ethanol with it. Forget the actual term for this. Either way, you need to dilute the ethanol with water in order to get the benefit.

 

[EscapeArtistBrewing]

... I will say that several people have had black mold/ mildew growing on the walls of containers of Star San so it’s not out of the question that the damp environment fostered whatever growth that is.

Interesting note, Whiskey. I'm thinking I will allow the entire bag to dry completely before hooking the apparatus up. Ethanol would probably better evaporate, even in a resting bag. Timing the setup with the bag's drying might prove difficult, though. There's always risk of the open container letting in nasties from the atmosphere, even with the bag drying "upside down". Condensation from the fermenter is probably going to occur as well.

If it happens again, I may have to go to plan B (mini regulator with a Soda Stream canister with maybe a spunding valve). Wouldn't want to use a bigger tank in case a leak occurs. But that's for much later, if at all.

 

[Whisky River]

Not sure if it would work for your situation but I use one of these sanitary filters in the gas line when I purge kegs with fermentation gas. There are a ton of aromatics and some moisture and particulates that come off the fermenter that I wanted to keep out of my “sanitary” keg. I used to consider them cheap and disposable insurance against infection but I see the price has gone up (no surprise) to over $5 now so it may or may not make financial sense to use it as protective measure but it’s one possible option.