antibacterial spray?

[FatherChristmas]

CAn you use this as a steriliser? I joust found some "Waitrose essential antibacterial spray" and I was wondering if it would be ok to spray on the inside of my fv then wipe clean and use. VWP is really expensive and a pain to mmix up 5 gallons and rinse.

 

[Dave1970]

We have some Sainsburys own brand of the same sort of thing..it's quite strongly scented, ok for cleanup & sterilising the fermenting fridge but I'd be concerned about using it in an FV for fear of tainting my brew

 

[FatherChristmas]

ok, well i'll see what the scenting is like on it tomorrow. COuld I put a vwp solution in the atomiser bottle and use that to coat everything, to save from mixing up 5 gallons?

 

[blackdouglas]

Good for sterilising the tap on fermentation bucket or just in general? I'm very careful about all this, and my last newly tapped bucket I wrapped it in cling film to prevent any contamination while it was fermenting. But plastic is a playground for bacteria, so before I bottled it I boiled a kettle and ran boiling water over the tap holding a cup underneath to catch the water.

 

[FatherChristmas]

Good for sterilising the tap on fermentation bucket or just in general? I'm very careful about all this, and my last newly tapped bucket I wrapped it in cling film to prevent any contamination while it was fermenting. But plastic is a playground for bacteria, so before I bottled it I boiled a kettle and ran boiling water over the tap holding a cup underneath to catch the water.

The fv in general, it would save a huge amount of time and effort.

 

[Jeltz]

I did a bit of searching about this when I started and the general consensus is that anti-bacterial spray would taint the beer.

Videne antiseptic solution is a great non rinse sanitiser (not cleaner) which works well in an atomiser bottle. Its generally a special order from a chemist and my local independent one got it in for £8.50 for 500ml. Dosage is 1.5ml per litre and I have a 500ml spray bottle, when the colour fades its time to clear its time to make up a new batch. Alas hard water makes that shorter but I have access to purified water and it lasts well, although I've tended to use it up before the colour goes as I've been doing a fair pit of brewing/wine making of late.

 

[ScottM]

ok, well i'll see what the scenting is like on it tomorrow. COuld I put a vwp solution in the atomiser bottle and use that to coat everything, to save from mixing up 5 gallons?

I stopped mixing up 5 gallons ages ago. What I tend to do is mix up 2 gallons in the bottom of the FV and just use my hand to wash it around the inside of the FV.

I can't see any major issues with using VWP in an atomiser as long as your FV is spotless before you start. VWP is a good cleaner, if you have any stubborn stains it's best to make a larger batch than rely on the scoosher. As I understand it the only important thing with VWP is that it makes contact and that it is given 10 minutes to do its thing. After that just rinse it out and allow to dry.

It's worth noting that after it has dried you may still smell VWP. One quick rinse will see that smell gone. I was finding it really difficult to get rid of the smell after sanitising, I could rinse 10 times and still smell it. It seems that it lingers behind while the FV is wet, yet when you let it dry and then rinse it instantly disappears. I can't explain why, I assume it returns to powder form and that the quick rinse takes it away without clinging to the FV.

What I do now is clean/sanitise with a smaller solution of VWP, approx 2 gallons. Syphon the solution into another FV to do the same (recycling) which at the same time cleans & sterilises the syphon. From there I drain and rinse everything out, including syphoning a few gallons from one FV to the other to rinse out the syphon. I then let everything dry before giving 1 more quick rinse. After that I seal everything up and put it out the way until next use. When that time comes I give a quick spray with starsan no-rinse and it's good to go.

Doing the above is saving me literally hours of time, gallons and gallons of water and loads of VWP.

 

[PD]

Keep an eye out for the steriliser used for baby equipment i.e. Miltons its good and can sometimes be picked up quite cheap, great for bulk sterilising of bottles.
Cheapest and one of the best to use is unscented thin Bleach, just needs good rinsing afterwards but its an effective steriliser

 

[zgoda]

Check what's in ingredients, if it's only 70% alcohol (iso-propyl, butyl or ethyl) then it doesn't require rinsing and can be used for general sanitation.

 

[Wendy1971]

+1 with brian milton is great :thumb: