Using Chlorine To Sanitise

[rolandrollerdoor]

Gday All,
I am new to Home Brewing and have a relation that is also a brewer and was advised by him to use chlorine to sanitise bottles,fermenter,ect and have used it to clean my gear once but am a little concerned as to if its a good idea or not.I have a 40ltr tub and used about 1/2 a cup to soak bottles for a couple of hours and rinsed bottles twice.Also filled 30ltr fermenter and soaked in again about 1/2 a cup overnight and a good rinse out.I am keen to find out what the general view on this is because I'd like to get off on the right foot.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

chlorine = bleach.

Excellent sanitiser, but be carefull using it on stainless.. Rinse off with hot water.

 

[Steve@PMF82]

Gday

Starsan - no rinse sanitiser is better and easier

I started out using bleach /vinegar mix, then switched to starsan.

For a good listen on the whole deal go here - http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page...wing-radio-2007

March 29, 2007 - Sanitizing with Bleach and Star San

enjoy

 

[Lecterfan]

Generally speaking, rinse with hot water AFTER using the chlorine solution and you will be ok (however, this will then require a rinse with a no-rinse sanitiser such as starsan OR rinse out with water that has been boiled in the first place).

Check out the articles section and read everything you can on sanitising...

Cheers,
:icon_cheers:

 

[ChrisECarpenter]

I'd be careful on Chlorine - with some moulds you can end up with Tri-Cloro-Anisol (TCA) which is the cork/old sock/wet hessian bag aroma and taste that has destroyed the cork industry in wine.

Far better to use napisan and a no-rinse santiser.
The search function will return hundreds of threads on this.

Good luck!
Chris

 

[pcmfisher]

Generally speaking, rinse with hot water AFTER using the chlorine solution and you will be ok (however, this will then require a rinse with a no-rinse sanitiser such as starsan OR rinse out with water that has been boiled in the first place).

Check out the articles section and read everything you can on sanitising...

Cheers,
:icon_cheers:

And then fill up with water straight from the tap when mixing up your brew :huh: .

Would this not be a waste of time for kit brewers?

 

[Lecterfan]

And then fill up with water straight from the tap when mixing up your brew :huh: .

Would this not be a waste of time for kit brewers?

...possibly/maybe/probably - good point. I wasn't thinking of the next step, just how to get a clean and sanitised FV. Also, if OP is using bleach in bottles, then some people would prefer to have sanitised bottles (as opposed to simply clean and rinsed with hot tap water - and yes, I know lots of people do that with no detrimental outcome) which I was assuming would require the hot water rinse to have been boiled wouldn't it?

I use a variety of cleaners and starsan for the rest. :icon_cheers:

 

[ianh]

I generally use Bleach/White vinegar at the rate of 1.5ml each per litre to sanitise my fermenters and cubes. I don't rinse afterwards but just invert to drain for a minute.

If worried about bleach carry over just do the sums, Bleach is about 5% Sodium Hyperchorite, you put about say 40ml in a 25 litre fermenter, empty it and let it drain say 2ml carry over you then add about 23 litres to brew.

=0.05*2*(40/25000)/23000 comes out at about 7 parts per billion

 

[mwd]

I generally use Bleach/White vinegar at the rate of 1.5ml each per litre to sanitise my fermenters and cubes. I don't rinse afterwards but just invert to drain for a minute.

If worried about bleach carry over just do the sums, Bleach is about 5% Sodium Hyperchorite, you put about say 40ml in a 25 litre fermenter, empty it and let it drain say 2ml carry over you then add about 23 litres to brew.

=0.05*2*(40/25000)/23000 comes out at about 7 parts per billion

Got to say I used the same for ages before investing in a bottle of Iodophor and never had a problem that I could detect.
Still use it every now and again for variety. Must be the cheapest effective no rinse out there.

 

[pdilley]

I use the cheap no name non scented homebrand bleach with the homebrand white vinegar. Mixed with water to no rinse ratio all the time. To keep it easy in my head without decimals to remember I just use 5 litres water to 10ml bleach and 10ml vinegar. Never had a problem with it but won't knock any other sanitiser. Its just what I use, serves me well and won't change.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[ChrisECarpenter]

I generally use Bleach/White vinegar at the rate of 1.5ml each per litre to sanitise my fermenters and cubes. I don't rinse afterwards but just invert to drain for a minute.

If worried about bleach carry over just do the sums, Bleach is about 5% Sodium Hyperchorite, you put about say 40ml in a 25 litre fermenter, empty it and let it drain say 2ml carry over you then add about 23 litres to brew.

=0.05*2*(40/25000)/23000 comes out at about 7 parts per billion

I absolutely agree -
But dont forget that if you have TCA or TBA (tri-bromo-anisol), most people taste these compounds in the parts per trillion range, so your concentration is sufficient to be a serious problem.
More on TCA here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4,6-Trichloroanisole
TBA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4,6-Tribromoanisole

Chris

 

[Nick JD]

I use diluted Starsan in a squirty bottle. One of those bottles looks like lasting me about 15 years.

Why use anything else?

 

[seamad]

+1 for the starsan.
I put 5ml in a old 3 L juice bottle, keep it in fridge, plus have spray bottle.
For the price and ease of use why not

 

[Wolfy]

I use the cheap no name non scented homebrand bleach with the homebrand white vinegar. Mixed with water to no rinse ratio all the time. To keep it easy in my head without decimals to remember I just use 5 litres water to 10ml bleach and 10ml vinegar. Never had a problem with it but won't knock any other sanitiser. Its just what I use, serves me well and won't change.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

I've found that the cheap-ass non scented homebrand bleach is actually better than the White King 'extra strength' stuff, the White King has something which make sit foam up and go all frothy like dish-washing-detergent, where the homebrand stuff is much easier to rinse and clean away (just need to use twice as much, 2ml per 1L rather than 1ml per 1L for the White King).

 

[Nick JD]

...ease of use why not

That's it for me. The "no rinse" bit.

 

[seamad]

Being on tank water I thought that "rinsing" may actually introduce pathogens. Town water probably OK because of the Chlorine

 

[Steve@PMF82]

Being on tank water I thought that "rinsing" may actually introduce pathogens. Town water probably OK because of the Chlorine

Yep be assured there will be all sorts of things living in tank water.
I filter then boil in kettle my water i mix the starsan up with, my tank water is pretty clean and i drink it straight out of the tap as well.

 

[rolandrollerdoor]

Gday All,
Thankyou very much for your feedback, most helpful advice.Going by the replys there are not many people using chlorine so I may give it a miss and take the advice of most of you and invest some Starsan,sounds alot easier.

Cheers Rolandrollerdoor.

 

[ianh]

I absolutely agree -
But dont forget that if you have TCA or TBA (tri-bromo-anisol), most people taste these compounds in the parts per trillion range, so your concentration is sufficient to be a serious problem.
More on TCA here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4,6-Trichloroanisole
TBA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4,6-Tribromoanisole

Chris

I sorry but what has this got to do with usuing bleach to sterilise fermenters. TBA is a bromine compound absolutely nothing at all to do with bleach which is a chlorine compound.

TCA is a chlorine compound that may be produced when bleaching or sterilsing wood or paper, so unless using a wood or paper fermenter again not a problem.

Ian

 

[Bribie G]

Roland, good idea - I'm an ex chlorinator and went through quite a few bottles of ALDI bleach before I realised that Starsan, whilst not cheap per bottle, works out probably cheaper in the long run. However keep raiding that supermarket - napisan (or generic equivalent) is a brilliant oxygen cleaner for shifting yeast rings and getting everything squeaky clean - then rinse well - then Starsan. I haven't had an infection in over 2 years. It's something I don't even think about any more which could be dangerous thinking