Sterilize Or Sanitise

[bcp]

completly agree Nick.. enough water at near to boiling in the vessel when agitated will release enough energy to cause a hell of a lot of steam to be released. And as we all know steam is well ebove 100C. Brave man to give that fermenter a shake with the ultra hot water and steam flying out.

If anyone doubts this happens... Grab a plastic sporst drink bottle, fill it with a little bit of water.... Say 150mL put the lid on and give it a shake. Ensure the lid is open (that is the little mouthpiece... Dunno what it's called) you'll see steam start to billow out. And as we know that means the conditions in the bottle are above 100C.

Of course I only know this really by accident and lost a fair bit of skin off my knuckles. Added too much water into the bottle, shot the lid off and hit the ceiling and boiling water over my hands. Pretty sure that'd knock out some nasties.

You may be right, but i do know that boiling water is not sufficient to kill all bacteria. Some form spores to withstand harmful environments, such as drying out or extreme heat, and can survive boiling water. To reach autoclave-type temperatures which would achieve kill the spores or other survivors (over 121) would take pressure, which cannot be achieved from a pot.

Boiling water isn't necessarily instant - general standards are boiling for 5 minutes minimum for drinking water...

However, i don't know whether such bacteria will infect wort - which is why you may be right - but the no rinse sanitisers are a better bet.

 

[drsmurto]

Using boiling water for sanitation is about as useful as divining for water with a forked stick.

And can a moderator please change the title - there is no z in sterilise.

 

[Sydneybrewer]

Slightly ot what is a good sanitizer that will not ruin clothes i now have had 2 pair jeans ruined sanitizing my equip with bleach/vinager solution and its a pita

 

[drsmurto]

Slightly ot what is a good sanitizer that will not ruin clothes i now have had 2 pair jeans ruined sanitizing my equip with bleach/vinager solution and its a pita

Or sanitise

 

[jetfoley]

I have this little spray bottle with some tiger repellant in it. Bought it off e-bay at a lot less than what they said the rrp was ! Spray a little on myself each day and haven't seen a tiger yet. This stuff is amazing ! Running out though, so I'll have to get some more.

Do you know if they make something like this for mother-in-laws??

Or perhaps a Tiger attractant? that would also fix the problem.

 

[LLoyd]

If you can see it it aint steam, it's tiny droplets of condensed steam (water). I can see "steam" coming out of my mouth on a cold day. :icon_cheers:
The only reason I'm picking holes in this is, splashing a bit of hot ish water (I measured 76C after tipping a full kettle of boiling water into a fermenter and shaking it just three times) around a plastic container may (just) stay ahead of most airborne microbes that drop in, like any cleaning regime, but it's got Buckley's Mother in Law's chance of killing an established CHRONIC ******* BREWERY INFECTION (CBBI). h34r:

 

[LLoyd]

Do you know if they make something like this for mother-in-laws??

Or perhaps a Tiger attractant? that would also fix the problem.

1001 uses for HAPPY DUCKLING TIGERATTRACTANT.....

 

[bum]

I have a bottle tree with a rinser/squirter thingy on top of it...should I put the no-rinse stuff in that...at the right proportions of course and use that to no-rinse my bottles?? Are these rinser/squirter thingies good?

I use one like this and it saves me a lot of time. Napisan mix goes through bottles. Bottles sit upright for a bit. Bottles rinsed thoroughly with bottle pump. Bottles drain on bottle tree (in direct sunlight if possible). Starsan applied by bottle pump (squirt, leave on pump, fill previous bottle, cap it, take bottle off pump, squirt next bottle - ad nausium). Yeah, I guess when written out like that it looks like it wouldn't save me much time but it does seem to knock at least an hour off bottling day for me.

If you do use the bottle pump make sure you change whatever you've got in it regularly - you'd be surprised how quickly the colour of the wash solution changes (even with bottles rinsed thrice upon emptying).

 

[Wolfy]

To the people that use StarSan: on the container it says you can make up a spray bottle and use it to sanitise. I am wondering if many people do it this way and if so, how long can you leave StarSan in a spray bottle in order for it to be effective?

Also do you guys use StarSan for bottle sanitation? If so, how? Do you spray the bottles or immerse them?

I store my StarSan in a spray bottle, use it to squirt it in difficult places that need sanitising, like up into fermenter-tap-holes before racking etc
For full info you should listen to the BrewStrong podcasts linked earlier in the thread - but essentially it lasts indefinitely (as long as the PH fine and the solution is not cloudy it's OK to keep and use over and over).

For bottles, I mix up a small batch of StarSan, fill a few bottles, up-end them into the mixture (sanitize the top/cap area) and drip dry upside down, the bottle caps swim in the remaining StarSan immediately before use. Any left over StarSan then goes into a spray bottle/stored for later use.

 

[goomboogo]

Slightly ot what is a good sanitizer that will not ruin clothes i now have had 2 pair jeans ruined sanitizing my equip with bleach/vinager solution and its a pita

Don't wear jeans and don't worry about ruining your legs. The skin will grow back. If you don't like this idea, a product like Star San might be a little easier on the clothing.

 

[Hatchy]

Don't wear jeans and don't worry about ruining your legs. The skin will grow back. If you don't like this idea, a product like Star San might be a little easier on the clothing.

I figure that any product sold at a good LHBS is going to be a good sanitiser. If something isn't sold at a LHBS there's possibly a reason for that.

 

[zoigl]

Using boiling water for sanitation is about as useful as divining for water with a forked stick.

And can a moderator please change the title - there is no z in sterilise.

The Macquarie concise dictionary 1998 shows sterilize and sanitize as alternative spelling, it is acceptable to use either "S" or "Z".
Just my two bob's ( sorry, twenty cents!) worth. :icon_cheers:
Kampai!

 

[Florian]

I store my StarSan in a spray bottle, use it to squirt it in difficult places that need sanitising, like up into fermenter-tap-holes before racking etc
... essentially it lasts indefinitely (as long as the PH fine and the solution is not cloudy it's OK to keep and use over and over).

I do the same, but make sure that I use de-mineralised water if I want to store the mixture for a while. According to the manufacturer, the minerals in tap water eat up all the starsan goodness within days.


I found the best way to sanitise (even sterilise) my Bunnings fermentor: As the Bunnings (no affiliation) fermentor has a smaller lid, it fits perfectly up side down onto a baby bottle steam steriliser. Just leave it on there for 20 minutes or so, and towards the end just open the tap, so the steam can escape through it and give it a proper steam kill too.
If you want to you can even put the lid into the steriliser afterwards, but I don't, as I use glad wrap instead of the lid.

Florian