Sterilizing equipment

[Sparrow]

How do people here do it?

I was reading online and as surprised to see things like bleach and chlorine ad recommendations for sterilizing equipment. Does anyone here use anything less detrimental to human health? :razz:

[Doubleuj]

no real need in our game compared to beer making.
i dont bother anymore but if you want to then napisan or Starsan mixed in a spray bottle is the go.

[rumsponge]

no real need in our game compared to beer making.

:text-+1:

I still use bleach occasionally on very manky fermenters . A good rinse with tap water afterwards is fine. Look at it this way, if the yeasts survive in your ferment, then there is probably not much steriziling agent around (both chlorine and bleach arent terribly stable either). if you are worried, then you shouldnt really drink tap water (or cook with it) which is chlorinated in most of Australia.

[seehuusen]

Hey mate,

I've used a phosphoric acid based sanitizer for beer brewing for years, without any infection issue. I will continue to do so for these types of ferments too.

Having said that, some of the pitch rates suggested in the recipes for distilling, would out perform any other bugs quick smart. So the above less stringent cleaning procedures would most likely suffice :)

Cheers

[warramungas]

Sodium metabisulphate. Harkens back to my beer brewing days. Use it on all my fermenters before I put a fresh wash in it. Most of mine are stored in a shed so a quick sterilize cant hurt.
Most, if not all, of these products can be harmful in concentrations but when used as recommended they shouldn't be a problem.

[Sparrow]

no real need in our game compared to beer making.

:text-+1:

I still use bleach occasionally on very manky fermenters . A good rinse with tap water afterwards is fine. Look at it this way, if the yeasts survive in your ferment, then there is probably not much steriziling agent around (both chlorine and bleach arent terribly stable either). if you are worried, then you shouldnt really drink tap water (or cook with it) which is chlorinated in most of Australia.

I learnt from a bloke working in water quality "when you treat water for drinking it becomes carcinogenic. The trick is to minimise how badly".

[krusey]

i use boiling water it kills everything and ive never had any issue

[seehuusen]

i use boiling water it kills everything and ive never had any issue

Just adding to this, as there is a misconception around boiling water and sterilization.
For medical grade sterilization, the boil has to happen for at least 20 minutes.
For baby bottles etc, the generally accepted length is minimum 2 minutes, I doubt it does anything more than sanitize.

When doing yeast captures for beers, it is recommended to go a step further and use a pressure cooker, as these will provide an even higher temperature than boiling water. 15 minutes minimum under full pressure...

[Triangle]

Sodium metabisulphate as well.

Mixed up in a spray bottle will keep for a couple of weeks (for small items/funnels/test equipment etc). Containers I make up 4lt or so. Relying on the SO2 gas given off so needs time.

[Fishleg]

i use boiling water it kills everything and ive never had any issue

:text-+1: I also only use boiling water even back when I was doing a lot of beer. Never had a problem. And if I empty a fermenter and fill it again within short period of time just a quick rinse

[Plumby]

I use to be very fussy about sanitation when I was brewing beer, i would spray everything that I was using on brew/bottling day with starsan and I use to soak all my fermenters with nappy san for 24 hours after emptying them, then a rub with a dishcloth and a hot water rinse. Since taking up distilling I haven't worried so much, a rub with a dishcloth and a hot water rinse is all I do now, as long as everything is clean I'm happy. If you start doing washes that require generations you won't be able to sterilize between generations.

[jaypes]

StarSan is great and much better than just plain phosphoric acid. It has more foaming properties/ingredients to make the contact time less for sanitisation

I usually pick mine up from CraftBrewer in QLD and lasts for ages

Just keep it away from granite bench tops!

[bluc]

StarSan is great

Just keep it away from granite bench tops!

Why :think:

[copperhead road]

What does it do to granite????

[jaypes]

It started to eat it away. Have a bit of a rough patch on what was a pristinely shiny bench

[bluc]

Dam :angry-banghead: whats in it? I think i would rather rinse with the hose if that eats granite..

[Sam.]

I have seen a moldy pear eat through the same sort of thing, wasn't true granite more a concrete slab with a weird covering on it, looked like granite tho :?

[jaypes]

It's a blend of phosphoric acid and dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid which can etch granite. This was undiluted though in my case

[Sparrow]

Thanks for all the advice guys!

Put my first tpw on Wednesday after a clean out of the fermenter with boiling water. They're happily chugging away at the moment.

Next challenge will he actually running the still for the first time. After my vinegar run I'll run one tpw as a sac run but use it as practice for getting the swing of things and practicing cuts. Fingers crossed :pray:

[Tin chucker]

I use only hot tap water to rinse fermenters once after a ferment and just before. Never a problem
I do the same for wine ,I don’t use any of the chemicals for wine , the only additive I use is time
I use vinegar to clean my ss still to rid the water or shine of the metal taste. I make distilled water before any spirit run to clean out vinegar ,steam for 1/2 hr then collect water. if it tastes great I do the spirit run. I’ve also used the same vinegar for almost a year now. It keeps getting more watered down but as long as I can smell vinegar it’s good. Above my primary condenser ,I plug end and fill with vinegar for 24 hrs.then rinse and run. I’m not sure if this is overboard but I have not had a metal tasting run since I started this ritual. The distilled water is my canary in a coal mine ,if it’s not good the run does not happen.