Sanitation

[bvanlathum]

Would love to know the most effective sanitising chemical available, is it starsan?. How does everyone sterilize their equip and bottles?.

 

[mika]

Happy Reading

 

[aforsyth]

Don't know about most effective but I find Morgan's sterilizer to be easy. Just mix with water, put in a plastic spray bottle, spray everything, let it sit for a bit and everything's ready to use without the need to rinse.

I soak some of the smaller, fiddly bits in some of the solution as it is difficult to spray some of them.

 

[Sammus]

I have a collection going, some of the peroxide stuff (aka 'sanitise' and something else i forget the name of), a 1L (33oz actually) bottle of iodophor and one of starsan, I use whatever is closest to me at the time they all seem to work.

Theyre all easy to use because theyre no rinse, but Iodophor smells funny and turns everything from white to brown, starsan covers everything in soapy looking suds - so those two have their off putting points, but neither of them seem to affect the end product. The peroxide stuff has the least off putting qualities apart from the price (ie, starsan and iodophor and both used at 1.56ml / L and the santise is used at 30ml / L, starsan is $45/L, iodophor was about $18/L (when I bought it - saved due to good aud/usd plus lots of other stuff kept the relative shipping down), and I think the other stuff is like $3 for a 250ml bottle or something... I cant remember if its 3 or 6, but I'll say 3 just to give it a chance)

now the calculations: The starsan and iodophor both give you about 624L of sanitiser, so thats about 7c/L for starsan or 3c/L for iodophor, and the other stuff is at least 36c/L.

There you go

 

[Thunderlips]

Don't know about most effective but I find Morgan's sterilizer to be easy.

Easy and effective but quite a waste of money.
Don't you need to use something like 30 or 40ml per litre?

You'd do better (as Sammus mentioned) with Starsan(1.5ml per litre) or iodopher(I use 1ml per litre).
They can also be re-used but at around 2 to 3ml of usage to sanitise my fermenters I hardly bother.

 

[sid]

if I'm using glass bottles (which i rinse straight after drinking from them of course), I give them a quick rinse then put a bit of tin foil over the top and stand them in the oven at 170c for an hour, that kills everything and is easy, my oven takes 2 dozen.
If I'm using PET bottles I just fill a bit of sodium metabisulphite in each one, shake and stand for a couple of hours. then rinse off.
Haven't had any problems yet, the glass bottles are my favourite though, so easy.

 

[fraser_john]

now the calculations: The starsan and iodophor both give you about 624L of sanitiser, so thats about 7c/L for starsan or 3c/L for iodophor, and the other stuff is at least 36c/L.

There you go

Problem with the $/L calculation is that Starsan is totally reusable for many many rinses, especially if you are rinsing well cleaned equipment. I have had 1 litre bottle of Starsan for over two years and have only mixed up a couple of litres of solution! I'd say starsan is probably one of the most cost effective because of this. True, it does foam, and it can REALLY foam when shaken up vigorously, that and if you let it get on your skin for long periods of time it feels like you have been using sand paper (acid etched flesh), but that is the only real problem I have found with it.John

 

[PJO]

What are the active ingredient(s) in all of them?

Iodophor is iodine (bound to some larger molecule)

What about Starsan??

Thanks
PJO

 

[fraser_john]

Starsan is a phosphoric acid based sanitiser with a low foaming agent added to it so it sticks to surfaces.

 

[Sammus]

Problem with the $/L calculation is that Starsan is totally reusable for many many rinses, especially if you are rinsing well cleaned equipment. I have had 1 litre bottle of Starsan for over two years and have only mixed up a couple of litres of solution! I'd say starsan is probably one of the most cost effective because of this. True, it does foam, and it can REALLY foam when shaken up vigorously, that and if you let it get on your skin for long periods of time it feels like you have been using sand paper (acid etched flesh), but that is the only real problem I have found with it.John

I reuse the others a lot too. In an opaque plastic container my iodophor stays light brown for months... the other two im not so sure of, the bubbles stay in starsan for ages (Ever?) but is that an indication that the santising agent is still active?

 

[drsmurto]

What are the active ingredient(s) in all of them?

Iodophor is iodine (bound to some larger molecule)

What about Starsan??

Thanks
PJO

The name is a bit of a give away....

Iodo - iodine
Phor - phosphoric acid



And as far as resuing these types of one-shot, no rinse sanitisers (please, not sterilise and for ^%#$ sake no Z in there either) its great, i fill up a bucket on brew day and reuse it all day, a week later i am still rinsing bottles/kegs etc with it.

I used to hate that job when using the sodium metabisulphite, once you get SO2 in your nose/throat its there for hours.

 

[Hutch]

The name is a bit of a give away....

Iodo - iodine
Phor - phosphoric acid

Not meaning to be petty, but there's no Phosphoric acid in iodophor.
It's iodine mixed with a surfactant. The iodine does the sanitising.

Phosphoric acid is also a sanitising agent, mixed with a surfactant in products like Star-San.

 

[kook]

Not meaning to be petty, but there's no Phosphoric acid in iodophor.
It's iodine mixed with a surfactant. The iodine does the sanitising.

Phosphoric acid is also a sanitising agent, mixed with a surfactant in products like Star-San.

Might want to tell all these manufacturers to change their MSD sheets :huh:


http://www.abccompounding.com/MSDS/LA-513%20MSDS.pdf
http://www.west-penetone.com/literature/7511.msd.pdf
http://www.turnmore.com/msds/d46%20sanitizer.pdf

 

[razz]

Hey Hutch, my bottle of Iodorphor says phos acid on the label.

 

[Sammus]

Weird... I always thought it has phos in it too, but the MSDS for B-T-F (which is the one all the yanks use, and yes I'm aware that doesn't mean its good lol) doesn't list it as an ingredient...

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I'll throw another vote in the direction of starsan.

The best part is the foaming. The foam sanitises as effectively as the liquid. So you shake up whatever you are sanitising, foam sticks to everything, then you drain the liquid straight out. You don't have to even worry about getting excess foam out, If the given container is less than half full of starsan foam, I just fill it up with wort/beer/whatever. If its more than half full ... i just shake a bit out.

That combined with the many uses thing sells me.

Mind you, I use Iodophor every so often to keep the brewery bugs on their toes, and every now and then, I will use an acidified bleach solution to really bowl the buggers a googly.

 

[Adzmax]

I also use Star San, it's so easy to use, cost effective and re-usable. It's tops

 

[SJW]

http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/1241193

This is worth a listen.

I am a PSR or Sod Per for cleaning and Iodophor for Sanitisation.

 

[SJW]

This is a good one too!

http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/82370

 

[mfdes]

I'm using a peracetic acid sanitiser (Proxitane, Oxonia activ, Vortexx) which works extremely well, is completely degraded to acetic acid and water when exposed to the beer, works best when cold, and the made solution lasts for weeks.

MFS