Overalls, mask, hair net etc?

[Gulpitdarn]

Would you guys consider wearing Overalls, hair/beard net and breathing dust masks a bit over the top in brewing?

I'm a bit paranoid about infection getting into the brew and wonder if all this... health wear might be necessary. I particularly think a dust mask is a good idea, not that one is breathing in anything harmful but certainly breathing out may result in a loose bogey, nose hair or such... (hahaha I'm really wondering if I should post this!) but I think it needs to be thought about. How many times have we seen someone who talks and is spitting or dribbling all over the place, might have a bad cold at the same time.

I'm afraid I do admit to enjoying a good sniff of the fermenting brew, am I alone here? Should I seek help?

Think I should shut up and post this... just to see who dares reply.

 

[Mavroz]

Yes, i wear a white zip up coverall, hair net, snood and gloves.
If it is bad weather, i also use the blue plastic shoe covers.

I also wear these when i am making or bottling a brew. Anything wrong with this?

 

[ACBEV]

I wear a sock on my willy, just in case its dripping.

 

[MyQul]

Knowing the forumites as I do Im afraid you've set yourself up for a bit of piss taking on this, gulpitdarn.

No need for any protective gear, just sanise anything the you're going to put into your wort/beer, such as syphons,stirrers, etc. Beer is remarkably resistant to infection. Once the wort has turned into beer it has a low ph, anti-baterial hops, no food for other microbes, alcohol is poisonous. So everything going for it not to get infected. Even when it's wort and you maybe get something in there, brewers yeast is so well adapted to wort it can out compete everything else so there's nothing left for the nasties. Relax and have a home brew

 

[braziliain]

I dropped a clothes peg in my wort a few brews back and then stuck my hand in to fish it out.

Resultant beer was well received at homebrew club

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Imagine what the environment was like in breweries hundreds of years ago and they still produced beer.

 

[ITMA]

I've thought a couple of time of getting some kind of overalls but only to stop normal clothes getting filthy. I almost certainly won't bother, but then again my "normal" clothes are always filthy these days anyway. I used to be a dapper dresser when young, now I'm the kind to eat beetroot from the bottle whilst lying in bed.

 

[Bigcol49]

I'm the kind to eat beetroot from the bottle whilst lying in bed.

Hi!
Food of the Gods!

 

[stz]

Dude ..

Beer made correctly is pretty resilient. What causes the most problems is making it improperly, infrequently used equipment and long shelf lives. It is pretty much impossible to make things sterile, so you make them as sanitary as you need to meet the anticipated shelf life. Yeah it might have a minor infection - yeah it isn't going to be a problem for 6 months so whatever.

Commercial fermentations are really fast compared to home brewing. We aim to pitch enough yeast to get to half gravity by hour 24. Obviously the final half takes longer as it slows down and if you get all fancy with dry hops, diacetyl rests and so on the time extends out ... but 10+ days in fermenter is just not how it is done. We don't like long lag phases because this is the most dangerous window for infections to get established. Equipment is always in use, if it isn't it is usually sat in sanitiser, it doesn't have time to grow anything significant, but if it wasn't in use every day or so it would be a bigger problem.

Consequently beer is pretty resilient. Rapid pH drop. Rapid alcohol production. Rapid co2 production. You usually get something unwanted in the beer, but under typical conditions it takes so long to develop noticeable off flavours that it isn't really a problem.

Home brewing has the problem of usually poor pitching of yeast, less than optimal fermentation parameters, equipment that is stored slightly dirty, used infrequently and so on. It isn't because you forgot to wear a hair net.

 

[IainM]

Yup, I wear a Dupont Tychem 10000 Commander EX hazmat suit.

 

[IainM]

In all seriousness, though, whatever you do it can't be as bad as the bloke who accidentally dropped a dirty j-cloth in the fv without noticing.

 

[Leon103]

Go and visit a brewery and ask them if they wear hair nets etc

 

[foxbat]

The only clothing precaution I take is that I wear nitrile gloves sprayed with starsan (see ebay) whenever I'm handling anything to do with my yeast starter and throughout bottling/kegging time.

 

[Pavros]

I seem to recall someone's cat jumping into his fv as he was filling it.

And isn't there that guy on YouTube who virtually strips and sprays himself with sanitizer before brewing?

I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make here...(but, in my defence, etc etc)

 

[Sbond10]

I wear nitriles that's about it really some times think maybe a dust mask when pouring grains but haven't bothered yet.
In my my mind as long as you wear correct PPE when handling chemicals, every day wear what ever that is to you is perfectly acceptable.

 

[Gulpitdarn]

... some interesting posts! I expected some ribbing, someone has to ask the daft questions... carry on.

 

[Dode]

I wear no more than a smile!!!

 

[DavidDetroit]

All sorts of particles get in the beer while brewing, inside or outdoors, no matter what you do (without building a multi-million dollar facility).
Then there's what happens to the ingredients even before they're under your control and in your possession. The grain? Are you sure a rat family hasn't already had a pooping party in it or made more rat families?

If you start overthinking it, you're done for. It's a lost battle so take standard measures and pretend that nothing else made it into your beer.

What kind of things do get in your beer if you're not using a "clean room," the kind they make microchips in or the infectious disease control room for lethal viruses?

Skin cells? Yes, they're in your beer. Pet hair? Of course, yes, if you have one, and maybe even if you don't. So, anything that sheds from a body or drips from a body.

Beard guards and such are a nice idea but their real purpose is to make customers more able to fool themselves when they go into a public establishment. Which brings me to restaurants.

Restaurants are also something not to think too closely about. Do you believe the prep cooks work in silence when they prep the food for the day? No, they do not. They are spitting on the food with every hard consonant they utter. We don't even need to talk about hand washing.

The best you can hope for is that the disease or unwanted substance, swarming all over your food or stuck to it, gets cooked to death on the grill or boiled or fried before you get it--so you probably shouldn't order a salad.

 

[Clint]

I have to wear a silly outfit in work as described by the op...and more...I'm not partaking at home...

 

[Bigcol49]

I wear no more than a smile!!!

Hi!
Is that the suit with only one button?