homebrewandbeer.com

General,

Yes, I reuse the run off bleach. What I do is pour bleach into about 5 bottles at a time from a plastic watering spout (Has a long thin end). I swill the bleach and then pour staight back into the spout for the next 5 bottles. I rinse the first 5 as mentioned above before going onto the next 5. Takes about 25-30 minutes to do 30 (Maybe even quicker).

Happy Sanitising,
Jay.

Thanks Jay,

I reckon I might just try it next weekend, got a nice Pilsner on the bubble right now.

Don't know yet how I'll feel drinking it out of old VB stubbies though, might try getting my hands on some Hanh Premium bottles.

General,
Beware of using green bottles (as in Hahn Premium) Green glass apparently does not filter out UV light. Exposure to UV light can apparently effect the taste of beer. I guess if you store your bottles in a dark spot it should not be a problem. The same goes for clear glass. Thats why brown is better.

Cheers
Steve

I use mainly clear glass Carlton Cold Hahn Premium etc. The main advantage is that you can see exactly how clean the glass is. I store them at teh rear of eth garage, under the house. So not affected by light. I wouldn't be too keen storing any beer in brown green or clear in sunlight or any light.

You guys don't want to know why beer goes skunky in clear glass do you?

Dogger

Dogger,

I'd love to know, I find your explanations informative, as well as entertaining (no sarcasm meant).

I currently store my beer in a cupboard in the laundry, no direct sunlight, door only opens occasionally, and if there's a risk of infection or skunkiness I'd cover with a couple of towels, possibly might anyway, I don't want beer shrapnel going everywhere.

I have issues with priming, scared I use too much, know that I don't.

General (forgot my password so could log in)

P.S. Can someone point me to the explanation of the difference in priming between desxtrose (which I currently use) and sucrose, there was something about percentages.

Use to use SMB but didn't like the fact that it made my throat and nose feel like I'd inhaled paint stripper.

I thought I'd give the Brewsheild ago. It works great. All you need is 30 mils to about 1 litre of water. I bought a 1 litre weed sprayer from Bunnings. After cleaning with detergent I just spary the inside of the fermenter and all the bottles. Have done a few brews this way no problem.

It significantly reduces the amount of time it takes to sanitise everything.

Plus it only costs $6 for a 250 mil bottle. Check out this link.

http://www.liquorcraft.com.au/shop_vic/vic.htm

Dogger, as I store most brews in clear glass, I too would like to know why beer goes skanky? in clear glass please

Sorry Jeff,

I am out of the reply bussiness.

Suggest you look at autoxidation and how molecules are elevated to higher excited states through sunlight which allows the reaction to occur spontaneously. One of the by products is peroxides.

Dogger

Mr Dan, grabman...

</end Hrundi grammar for a serious post>

Some no rinse contact sanitisers are good. Iodophor is the same product that dairies use to bring you milk that is cleaner than tap water. Iodine, the active ingredient, is neutralised by oxidation before the water it is delivered with has even evaporated. It should be used on bottles that are completely clean to make them sanitary. With sufficient concentration and contact time, it can leave surfaces sterile. Hospital sterile infact! Your tap water is not that sterile. It may not matter if you add unclean water to your beer, but if you have full-boiled wort or filtered water, it should be going into a vessel cleaner than itself.

Traces of inactive iodine are negligible after being left to drip-dry.

Concetration: 1ml/Litre working solution about 5 litres of working solution will sanitise 2 fermenters, bottling bucket plus bottling gear plus 30 beer bottles, your bench, caps and everything.
Contact time: ideally 20mins but even much less will be very good.
Cost: about A$9 for 500ml (makes 500 litres of working solution) from your HBS.

<start Hrundi grammar>

Cleaner than tap water, cheap to use, safe, no chlorine fumes, isn't it.

Google it baby.

Well Mr Bakshi, aren't you the erudite one ? This is good. Now I can ask you a question I have on Sanitize (by Morgans). If you aren't aware of it, it is another no rinse sanitiser. The active ingredient of this is hydrogen peroxide and silver ions.

My original thoughts were that yes, H2O2 is a sanitiser, but casting my addled mind back to high school chemistry, H2O2 has a very weak hold on that extra O molecule. This means that after time H202 will turn in to water (H20) and oxygen (0). I'm assuming, after reading your previous post, that this is exactly the same way Sanitize works. After it is sprayed, it loses it's extra oxygen molecule and becomes water, therefore needs no rinsing.

Am I on the right track ? If not, please enlighten me (preferably in the speak of Mr Bakshi).

Cheers pardner !

Evo,

Oxidize the crap out of it.

Yes, that extra oxygen is the link,

I will argue the sterilize side of it though. Even Eco-Lab doesn't make that claim.

Dogger

Mr Evo,

I am not a chemist and my words are based on my understanding, not a detailed study. Our Prophet the highest Mr John Palmer has spoken wisely on this topic on this page of Real Beer. Iodine in iodophors are delivered by way of mysterious polymers.

One thousand apologies for my repeated misuse of the word sterile. The connections of the use of iodine in medical applications was grossly misunderstood. Iodophors are being superior santisers only.

I do however rinse the iodophor from bottles in my humble brewery. It is my father who does not drink and does not smoke and does not eat of the flesh of crabs for fear of iodine alergy. He may get reactions from not drinking my beer I rinse inside bottles. Rinsing is done with cooled boiled water but even so I am thinking the rinse serves no purpose.

For it is cheap, it is excellent and it does not overwhelm the aroma of my wife's curries that I am using it.

Note that Oxygen "Nappy bleaches" are mostly percarbonates and make superior detergent for the brewery if obtainable in a non-perfumed form.

i use pinoclean

it contains quaternary ammonium compounds which are also used in some brands of mouthrinse - hence if traces are left there aren't any safety issues

also its free because my mum buys it to clean the toilet

and fyi - none of the brews (3 or 4) ive sanitised with it have had any problems

tcc wrote:i use pinoclean

it contains quaternary ammonium compounds which are also used in some brands of mouthrinse - hence if traces are left there aren't any safety issues

also its free because my mum buys it to clean the toilet

and fyi - none of the brews (3 or 4) ive sanitised with it have had any problems

But you must be rinsing this "pinoclean" away or you will be getting pino flavours and aromas in your plastic equipment, yes? Contact time is an issue here, to be sure.

We put down a couple of brews last night and sanitised the fermenters with the ubiquitous Sodium met.Both Craig and I inadvertently got a lungful of the fumes and coughed and spluttered for some time after.Guess we'll change once this lot is used up but have found it effective to date.
Just digressing somewhat but have a workmate who owns a couple of Subway stores and he is always bringing in the promo material.Got a shirt last week so musn't complain.Noted in the nutritional blurb on the new Wraps that amongst a shit pile of ingredients is listed our friend Sodium metabisulfite.(Is this the same lung contracting substance????)

Sago

Yes

I am not at liberty to discuss further

Dogger

go one Dogger, promise we'll set the dog's ( no pun intended) on anyone who starts to misbehave or I can put on my best teacher voice and send them to the naughty chair

Yeah, I'm with Grab, Dogger. You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. If they don't like your opinion, &%$# em !

Maybe Dogger's reluctance is due to the fact that he (being a food scientist) developed the recipe, and as such he is responsible for the inclusion of the sodium met

Over to you, Dogger.

Oliver