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I have a question and a snippet of weird info re Sodium Metabisulfite. Does anyone know how long this will remain potent after mixing? Is it true that it loses its potency after 48 hours? Was reading the ingredients list on the label of a bottle of 'Cottee's Light Coola', of all things, before dosing the kids with it recently. Would you believe that among the sundry additives was listed Sodium Metabisulfite!!! Needless to say, the kids missed out on a drink. I'm thinking of sanitising my fermenter with the lime cordial instead.
-------bb

My brother used to work in food production, he now works in a chemical factory, I asked if he could get me Sodium Met, he asked what I wanted all that "preservative" for?

I think Sodium Met in low dosas works as a spoilage bacteria inhibitor, and is therefore a preservative, and at higher dosages is a sanitiser, like chlorine, at low doses it is added to water purification plants, and at higher doses, it works as a sanitiser.

I used to work in a seafood shop, and we put it in with the green prawns to stop them going black!

Live and learn!! I've been reading a book on home brewing in Australia whose author states that simply mixing sodium met with water is ineffective as a sanitiser. He promotes the method used universally by the American Home Brewers Assn: a tablespoon of ordinary household bleach diluted in 22l of water. Think I'll give it a go.
bb

Bottlebomber, that's what I've been doing, never had a problem.

General,

Do you use this on your bottles?

How long do you soak for?

Cheers,
jay.

Jay,

Sorry for the delay in reply, I've been away from internet access for a while.

My research on the net has produced a few developments when it comes to sanitising equipment.

I have found that household bleach when mixed at a ratio of 4ml Unscented Chlorine based bleach: 1 Litre tap water, is an effective contact santiser, and complys with government standard in the US.

I know we live in Australia, but I'm happy to comply to any standards (Aussie Gov didn't post their standard for bleach based sanitiser).

I spray this through a hand operated gardening spray bottle (the kind you pump for air pressure).

The contact time when spraying is 2 minutes. Apparently though, and I don't understand why, when soaking (little bottler only in my process) contact time is 5 minutes.

This has greatly reduced my waste water output bringing it down from about 60L for the fermenter, equipment and bottles each time, to about 3L. (no rinsing is required, air drying is suggested, but as the chlorine is used to sanitise our drinking water....)

As a side note the government standard states 200 parts per million is effective, however I figure 4ml (as stated in the article I read) to be more along the lines of 4000 parts per million.

I'll stick with the MSB sanitation powder

General,
I think the free chorine level required to kill nasties in a swimming pool is around 5 parts per million. Swimming pool owners might know more about this.
So.....
4000 parts per million should really do the job!

Cheers
Steve

G'day Steve,

I figured it's overkill, but if I'm not getting infections, I'm happy to keep it up at the same level. Plus at $1 for a two litre a bottle of bleach, it means that you can make a hell of a lot of sanitiser, real cheap (around 500 batches).

Just to throw my to bobs in, I use the bleach mix for my bottles and never had a problem. Cheap, easy & effective!

I still use the Sodium Met on the fermenter cause I read on the site (I think Oliver said it) that the smell of the bleach may be difficult to rinse from the plastic.

Cheers,
Bob

Anyone know how many 'teaspoons' of SMB to mix per litre of water to make it effective?
My packet says 25gms - but I am not sure what that is in teaspoons, 2.5?
Cheers,
Grabbie

Measure 25 ml with a teaspoon.

I use ...um...dessert? spoons (like what you'd eat your wheaties with).
1 of them when using the bottle rinser
4 of them in the bottom of fermenter mixed with 5-7 L water, airlock & siphon hose.
1 of them in a saucepan with an airlock, some water and a bung for the top of an erlenmeyer flask

I'm sure it's not the most economical - and you wanna stay away from the fumes...but I've never had an infection yet. My beer is much healther than me & the kids!

It's just what I know, I guess...

Oh Yeah, with my method, a quick rinse with hot water through one of those hairdressing shower hoses, minus the head, and there's no chlorine smell at all.

Never infected, and costs me about 2c each time I sanitise.