sanitizing my glass carboy?

[dsteele1234]

what all can i use besides the normal starsan kind of stuff

 

[humann_brewing]

I have used a dairy sanitizer that I got from smart n final but I moved on to star san and am fine with it.

It doesn't take much, just get the surface wet, you won't have to fill it up all the way. I usually only use 1oz per brew day of starsan mix it with 2 - 2.5 gallons of water and use that throughout the day.

 

[carnevoodoo]

Star san and iodophor are your best bets. some people use diluted bleach, but I don't want that anywhere near my beer.

 

[carnevoodoo]

I have used a dairy sanitizer that I got from smart n final but I moved on to star san and am fine with it.

It doesn't take much, just get the surface wet, you won't have to fill it up all the way. I usually only use 1oz per brew day of starsan mix it with 2 - 2.5 gallons of water and use that throughout the day.

If you have a vessel to store it in and you use distilled water, you can keep star san around for a long time. I use one ounce every 2 months.

 

[dsteele1234]

yeah if i use bleach how much should i dilute it

 

[humann_brewing]

If you have a vessel to store it in and you use distilled water, you can keep star san around for a long time. I use one ounce every 2 months.

I do have kegs with leftover starsan that are pressured. Easy way to get a keg ready to fill to, it's all ready to go But with the 32oz pack it lasts long enough to not worry about it.

 

[carnevoodoo]

yeah if i use bleach how much should i dilute it

I'm sure you can find that information somewhere, but realize bleach plus beer = BAD if you're not really thorough with rinsing. It is just not necessary to use bleach when there are so many better alternatives.

 

[LarryC]

One other thing to consider if you are trying to go the bleach route. Getting the proportion right is much more critical than it is with StarSan or Idophor. I'm not smart enough to give you the reasons for that but if you listen to the boys from Brew Strong, they have a pod cast on sanitization and a big chunk of it is on the issues with bleach.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

why do you not want to use starsan?

 

[lunchbox]

I use iodophor. It's cheap and easy to use.

 

[Malticulous]

Bleach is not so much about proportions but RINSING! 1 tbs per gallon is all you need but two doesn't hurt. 20 minutes contact time. Rinse, rinse, or let it air dry.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

yeah if i use bleach how much should i dilute it

I used bleach for a while, and I used 1 tbsp per gallon. At that concentration, you'll need to soak it for a while, and then rinse. To me, it was way too much work to boil a couple gallons of water to sanitize it. Then I had to let it cool before rinsing. What a PITA. Use Star San or iodophor. Much easier.

 

[Etoh_love]

+1 for Starsan

I made up one gallon of starsan about 6 months ago and put it in a heavy duty spray bottle I got from walmart for a few bucks. Mist down your wort touching equipment a few minutes before contact. Spray liberally into the carboy or whatever fermenter and rotate so that the star san touches and sterilizes the entire wort touching surface.

Haven't had an infection yet.

I've still got 1/4 of the 1 gallon left and damn near all of the starsan I bought.

I will also use this same spray bottle, dump the starsan back into its 1 gallon jug, rinse and fill with water to fight the boilovers. :rockin:

Edit: Why don't you want to use Starsan?

 

[marubozo]

I'm also curious as to why we get the occasional posts from people who don't want to use a proven sanitizer like star san. I mean, is it more expensive than using a little bleach that you might already have at home? Sure, but the potential problems far outweigh the small cost.

I bought a small bottle of star san back in May of 2009 for $8 and I'm still using it. Probably have about one ounce left. That's going on 14 months, or just $0.57/month. I don't even know how many batches of beer it's been through, cases of bottles and kegs sanitized, etc.

The best part is I don't have to worry about my rinsing or how well my sanitation procedures are since as long as it's wet, it's effective. The few cents per batch of beer it costs is more than worth it.

 

[Etoh_love]

It's probably the cheapest aspect of my brew day too,

I'm sure if you were to itemize the list of costs that go into a brew: energy, fuel, water, raw ingredients, iodophor or starsan will be the cheapest, unless you use tap water.

 

[knelson]

I'm anal so I fill my carboys up completely while I am brewing and let the sanitizer sit in them . When it is time to transfer the wort to the carboy, I syphon the Star San out of the carboy into a spare 5 gallon bucket (in the meantime sanitizing and rinsing the syphon out). I then throw anything that will be needed (i.e. thermometer, bungs, airlocks, etc) into the 5 gallon pail to sanitize them. By the time the 5 gallon carboy is empty everything has been sanitized and I can transfer the wort.

I put the lid on the 5 gallon pail and reuse the star san for gravity readings, blow off tubes, basically anything that needs to be sanitized until its time to bottle. Then I mix up a new batch to sanitize by secondary or bottling bucket.

Like I said, probably overkill, but one 5 gallon batch ruined is too much for me to handle, so I would rather use an extra oz of Star San.

Use Star San. You will run into problems with bleach, I can almost guarantee it.

 

[BlackDogBrewing]

Just use starsan abd don't fear the foam!