How sterile are you with your home-brewing?

[Berry454]

People talk about being ridiculously sterile with the brewing process and I was just curious to see how sterile you guys take things when brewing?

Personally, I sterilise my fermenter and bottles. That's basically it.

I've never bothered to sterilise my spoon, airlocks, hydrometer, trial cylinder or syphons. I just wash these under warm water.

So far after many of batches I've never had a contaminated brew. My thoughts are that the fermentation process naturally kills just about any bacteria that could be in the brew anyways. And after the fermentation we add a fairly heft dose of a stabilizer which would in theory obliterate just about anything!

 

[Agentgonzo]

With brewing, it's not sterilising anything. It's sanitising. The idea is that you kill off most of the nasty bugs so that the yeast can outcompete them. Once the alcohol is produced, that kills of most of the other ones. You never get rid of all the bad bugs, just enough that they're not a problem.

Sanitisation is like insurance and reducing the risk of spoiled beer. The more you sanitise, the lower the risk. It's for you to decide what the risk Vs effort is.

The boil will kill off almost everything, so there's no need to sanitise anything before the boil.

Personally, I sanitise anything that touches the wort after the boil. That it's the fermenter, the bottles and caps and any racking siphon and spoon. For me, is easy with a squirt of starsan and is just that insurance against a spoilt batch

I don't bother sanitising the hydrometer, measuring cylinder etc because the beer that goes into that goes down the drain (or I drink it straight away).

I too think people go overboard with sanitisation, but that's their decision to make

 

[Agentgonzo]

I've been tempted to make a batch with a much more lax approach to sanitisation just to see if it turns out fine (in sure it probably would).

I've had some problematic batches where I've forgotten to sanitise the siphon or spoon, realised after bottling that there was crud still in the bottles and even had a stuck kettle where I literally had to blow back into tap with the cooled sanitised wort to unblock the hop filter when it got dislodged and clogged. All brews turned out fine!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I sa

People talk about being ridiculously sterile with the brewing process and I was just curious to see how sterile you guys take things when brewing

I sanitise everything that comes into contact with my wine and always have I don't see the point in taking shortcuts which could ruin a 30 bottle kit.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

The boil will kill off almost everything, so there's no need to sanitise anything before the boil.

This is the wine forum we don't boil anything.

 

[Agentgonzo]

sorry, my bad. I didn't see the section! Feel free to ignore most of what I said then!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

sorry, my bad. I didn't see the section! Feel free to ignore most of what I said then!

I thought you made a very good point when you said this, for me the rule applies to wine and beer making.

Personally, I sanitise anything that touches the wort after the boil. That it's the fermenter, the bottles and caps and any racking siphon and spoon. For me, is easy with a squirt of starsan and is just that insurance against a spoilt

 

[DavidDetroit]

I saw "brewing" and "brew" and was thrown off thinking it was beer being discussed.
I try to keep a pretty tight ship.

 

[Berry454]

sorry, my bad. I didn't see the section! Feel free to ignore most of what I said then!

No most of what you said was perfectly relevant to wine production. People who produce wine "not from kits" very often boil at least a portion of the fermentation.

For example, to prepare raisins or sultanas for a wine you definitely want to boil them.

If you want to make wine from actual fruit and want a fast fermentation without stirring twice a day. Then you would make a fruit concentrate from say peaches before using them in a wine. The easiest way to make a concentrate is via boiling. So boiling is most definitely relevant to wine making.

I've been tempted to make a batch with a much more lax approach to sanitisation just to see if it turns out fine (in sure it probably would).

I've had some problematic batches where I've forgotten to sanitise the siphon or spoon, realised after bottling that there was crud still in the bottles and even had a stuck kettle where I literally had to blow back into tap with the cooled sanitised wort to unblock the hop filter when it got dislodged and clogged. All brews turned out fine!

I would be very interested to see what happens with your experiment. So id definitely consider it.

Honestly the only reason I sterilize my bottles and Caps is because I'm more concerned about what possible contaminants could be in them. I never reuse my bottles if I did then I probably wouldn't bother sterilizing them.

Honestly my reasoning for my lax attitude towards sterilizing is this, If you look at old school wine recipes. People used to ferment in a bucket covered by a cloth. It worked for them.

If you read any traditional moonshiner books. They used to ferment in everything from buckets covered with cloth all the way to open top swimming pools.

Open top fermentations work with over 1800 forms of bacteria in the air. I just dont see much use in sanitising my spoons and airlocks.

I completely respect anyone who does. It's just not my method. I'm definitely curious to see how many of you take sterilisation seriously!

In fact, many moonshiners who follow traditional methods still believe in open top fermentations for the sugar wash they produce.

 

[moto748]

I suppose it comes down to percentages at the end of the day, I clean/sanitise all my vessels, but I don't worry about air-locks too much, unless froth builds up into them, in which I obviously have to take action. Likewise, I don't fret over lifting a bucket lid and sticking a clean finger in, neither do I throw away the contests of a trial jar I've tested the gravity of, I just chuck in back in with the rest.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Honestly the only reason I sterilize my bottles and Caps is because I'm more concerned about what possible contaminants could be in them. I never reuse my bottles if I did then I probably wouldn't bother sterilizing them.

I am not normally the forum pedant but I cannot help myself in this thread, it's sanitising not sterilising they are not the same.

 

[itry]

People talk about being ridiculously sterile with the brewing process and I was just curious to see how sterile you guys take things when brewing?

Personally, I sterilise my fermenter and bottles. That's basically it.

I've never bothered to sterilise my spoon, airlocks, hydrometer, trial cylinder or syphons. I just wash these under warm water.

So far after many of batches I've never had a contaminated brew. My thoughts are that the fermentation process naturally kills just about any bacteria that could be in the brew anyways. And after the fermentation we add a fairly heft dose of a stabilizer which would in theory obliterate just about anything!

If this works great. As a man who went through an 8 month patch of constant infections loosing 100s of liters and pounds of money. I can not be sterile enough

 

[Stevieboy]

I'm pretty lax with my wine gear - but more stringent with my beer gear.

 

[The Baron]

I am not normally the forum pedant but I cannot help mtself in this thread, it's sanitising not sterilising they are not the same.

It certainly isn't after 2 children I was definitely sterilised and not sanitised

 

[marshbrewer]

Whatever I'm brewing, I sanitize everything that might come into contact with the wort or must and / or beer or wine.

No rinse sanitizers such as Videne are just so cheap used in the required dilutions that it doesn't make any sense not to, in my opinion. And the no rinse element makes is fairly hastle free.

 

[JohnBoy27]

I have to admit as a newbie I like to keep everything as clean as possible. The thought of an infection in the brew doesn't sound very fun at all. I usually have the sink full of a no rinse sanitiser when I'm making a batch.It might be a little bit over the top but its worked for me so far!

 

[ColinF]

More recently ive not been fermenting in my 5 gallon bucket, so I've been storing all my items in sanitising solution in the big bucket ☺

 

[AJA]

Is it just me that is sensitive to the taste of no rinse sanitiser? I swear I can taste it if I don't rinse it. I presume tap water is sterile enough to rinse with though.

Like others on here I sanitise everything on the cold side (fermenter, spoon, airlock, wine thief etc), as the highest risk period is that in the first few hours after cooling the wort, and before the yeast is established.
After that I'm not too anal about it. I'll dip my bottling equipment but won't go overboard. Anecdotally I've never had any infected beer, or know anyone irl that has infected beer. Once that happens, I'll probably be more careful!

 

[Agentgonzo]

I presume tap water is sterile enough to rinse with though.

Before I started using starsan as a no-rinse sanitiser, I used VWP and rinsed it with tap water. I never had any problems with it.

 

[Bernie]

Speaking as a kit brewer I wonder how much there is to sterilise/sanitise. I put a teaspoonful of metabisulphite and water in the closed fermenter for a day or two. The rest (spoons, etc) get poured over with a splash of boiling water.
Much more important is good housekeeping after using the fermenter, bottles, stirrer, bottle wand etc. These get washed making sure any old yeast has been removed, rinsed thoroughly and dried before storage using dust caps etc. I do rinse the bottles with Oxyclean and leave them to dry on a bottle tree before use.
Sometimes, excessive care can lead to unintended consequences.