Hey all,
Just after some help on cleaner and sterilisers.
I normally use home band nappy cleaner but was going to make the switch to star san however I went to a hospitality trade store and they stocked a product called K San. It is a hospital grade disinfectant no rise given sufficient drying time. Has anyone had experience with this product or does it sound like it would work for home brewing applications.
It costs $25 for 5L and recommends a dilution of 50ml t 1L to achieve hospital grade cleaning. To me this sounds like a cheap option.
Cheers Stu
Stu,
whilst it sounds like a cheap option, it kinda is and it kinda isn't. 50ml per litre is a fair bit to have to use in a litre. I don't use Starsan (will when my current stuff runs out), but i'm sure that it's no where near 50ml per litre. The one i use is called BacBan and is working great for me. I use this instead of Starsan because i have a mate of mine who works in wholesale/distribution industry and can get it for me for less than $20 for 5 litres. This means that i don't have to get Starsan freighted to me, and 'cause i live in the arse end of the country, that makes it a very cost effective solution for me. The dosage rate of my Bacban is 4ml per litre, and i believe Starsan is similar.
That's not a typo - 4ml per litre. I use a 2lt cordial bottle for mixing up my solution and i use 4 x 2ml cough syrup syringes per 2lt bottle.
Bacban is a non rinse Sanitiser/Steriliser (forget which one). I wouldn't use Starsan to replace nappy san cleaners as i am under the impression they are designed for different purposes. I thought (could be wrong) that Starsan is not a cleaner, but a sanitiser/steriliser type product, and nappy san is not a steriliser but a cleaner. Your process would need to go: Nappy San (or similar) for cleaning, and then follow up with a Sanitiser/Steriliser type product.
There is also a difference between sanitisers and sterilisers but someone else with a more technical brewing brain will be able to go into that.
$25 for 5 litres sounds cheap on the surface, but when you have to use it in those quantities for dilution, i wouldn't be surprised if Starsan would still possibly come out in front (or close to it).
EDIT: just checked CB's website.
Starsan dilution recommended rate is 1.5ml per litre. 1000ml/1.5ml - If you buy a 1lt bottle, that's 666 x 1lt solutions.....That's a lot of cleaning...
your product - 5000ml/50ml therefore at 5lt at 50ml per litre, thats only 100 x 1lt solutions.
Your 5lt product needs to be LESS than a fifth of the cost of the 1lt Starsan to be worthwhile.
My Bacban works out to 1250 x 1lt solutions (5000ml/4ml) , so for my money, if you can find it, i'd go for that. I'm very happy with it, and have had no problems since using it.
(apart from stupid recipe formulations that didn't work out but i can't blame that on my cleaning products...)
If you can't find something similar to the one i'm using, definitely go the Starsan. Looks expensive for the size bottle, but you need to think of actual cost over the journey, and that's when starsan will shit over the other one.
