Sanitizing the day before BD

[BlightyBrewer]

I am thinking about doing all my cleaning / sanitizing of my equipment the day before Brew Day. That way I can get straight into brewing without the added hassle. Is this a wise thing to do? It did occur to me that I would have to seal everything to ensure airborne contaminents don't find their way into my sanitized equipment.

Does anybody else practice cleaning / sanitizing the day before BD?

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I make sure my primary is clean and full of Star San. While boiling I drain the primary into an empty bucket and soak my utensils/hoses/airlock/siphons in it.

 

[2nd Street Brewery]

I put my stuff in to soak the day before and have had no problems so far. I use Idophor as a sanitizer.

 

[DeRoux's Broux]

i do all my cleaning and sanitizing the day of. i'm too paranoid and don't want to take a chance. a brew bud of mine does his that way, and never seems to have a problem.

 

[Waldo]

I put 2 gallons of water in my brew pot, turn on the burner and put in the bag of grain to steep, then clean my primary while the grain steeps. After the grain has steeped I add 2 more gallons of water and while it comes up to a boil I work on sanitizing all my other odds and ends which get sealed in a 58 quart tub with a lid, the same tub I use to sanitize everything.

I make sourdough bread and I know how easy it is to snatch wild yeast out of the air, so if you leave anything set out in the open air you are sure to pick some up.

 

[DeRoux's Broux]

i use my old primary bucket and keep it filled w/ sanitizing solution during brew day. i leave everything in there as i use it. then dump it out when i'm all done w/ clean-up.

 

[Thor]

As I understand the behavior of bacteria, the most substantial risk to brewing is from airborne contaminants that fall into or onto things - the wort, bucket, hose, etc. That said, it would seem perfectly fine to sanitize bucket and lid, hose, etc, store the smaller equipment in the primary with it's lid and closed (sanitized) stopper on, and open it when ready to use. If you only have open stoppers, consider covering with a small piece of foil or saran wrap.

Now, there's a reason I am in marketing and not chemistry or biology, so take this as input from someone who has read a fair amount on brewing, heard or read this in several places and, to date, not had bacterial problems with brewing (knock wood).

 

[tnlandsailor]

My approach to brewing is all about odds. The better you can stack the odds in your favor, the fewer things are at risk and the better your chances are to brew a good (or great) beer. With that said, we need to think about what sanitizing is: the extermination of most (not all) nasties on a surface. If you sanitize the night before, you give the remaining nasties an extra 12 hours or so to fortify their positions before you introduce your contaminant of choice - brewers yeast. Does this mean your beer will be infected? No. But if you have a slow yeast start or some other anomaly, your odds would be better with a freshly santized surface than one that has sat for 12 hours.

What's the rush anyway? There's lots of down time in brewing. You have to wait for the wort to boil, you have an hour while it's boiling - yes there are other things to do in that time but how much time does it really take to fill a fermentor with sanitizer and let it sit while all this is going on? Frankly I see more risk than benefit, but then again, everyone brews differently and the extra 12 hours on sanitizing might be worth more to you than it would to me. In the end, it's just minimizing risk and the risk in this case is pretty small, but still present. While we're at it, I'll put my extremely biased opinion in on glass over plastic: you increase your odds of good (or great) beer with glass.

Prosit!

 

[HomerT]

I sanatize all of my bottles before brewday....sometimes up to three weeks early. I place three layers of new paper towels in the bottom of my bottle cases. I soak the bottles in BTF idaphor for ~2min, then wipe down the outisde and place them upside-down in the cases with a towel on the top.

I figure if anything can get under the big towel, snake between the bottle and the papertowel, crawl up inside the bottle, battle the idaphor and wait till bottling day to attack my beer....well, then those nasties deserve to have some beer.

-Todd

 

[BlightyBrewer]

Thanks guys, the advice has been great. I'm a relatively new brewer, and I'm still in the process of finding what works for me in terms of technique. I can see that it probably would be too risky to sanitize the day before, and maybe I should be making better use of my time whilst waiting for the pot to boil.

I figure it's all about developing good habits that work best for the individual, and tweaking them as you gain more experience.

A good forum with great advice helps a lot too!

Cheers!