What do you use for sterizling your eqipment and bottles?

[photoken]

Hi

As per the subject heading - The reason I asked as I have beeen using the sterlizing pots of crystels from wilcos at about £1.60 a pot but was in Tescos and noticed that they had Miltons baby sterzlering tabs (50) on sale for £1.30.

Is miltons any worst or better the dedicated sterilzer solutions? if so whats the best to use?

regards

Ken

 

[Rolfster]

I know that some people on here use miltons.
I use VWP for kit and sanstar for bottles. I like the ease of use of a non rinse sanitier for bottles.

 

[anthonyUK]

If you are using a chlorine based sanitiser you may as well use thin bleach as it is as effective and costs less.
Rinse any chlorine based sanitiser with a campden solution to remove any residue that may taint your brews though :thumb: .

You could also try Starsan which is a no rinse sanitiser. It looks expensive but a bottle should last you at least a year.

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

On this theme I would like to enquire how/if people keep utensils clean, or if they sterilise them before each use?

I'm thinking about long plastic spoons that are useful for pushing a pulp cap back down into a must when fermenting on the pulp.

At the moment I use a smoothie blender jug, which tall and thin and put half a teaspoon of VWP in it with hot water to clean the spoon before each use. It doesn't use much VWP but it does use *some* twice a day, so I was wondering if people just have a bucket of solution mixed up that they leave equipment soaking in?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I used to use VWP but now only use milton tablets for all my sterling, its a no rinse steriliser so it makes the job a lot faster, it also lasts 24 hours.

To answer your second question I sterelise all equipment just before I make a brew, I would not risk using something I had sterilised days before.

 

[graysalchemy]

its a no rinse steriliser so it makes the job a lot faster, it also lasts 24 hours.

It may be for use on baby's bottles but it is still clorine based and needs to be rinsed before you put beer anywhere near it unless you want TCP in your beer

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I only make wine and have never tasted the cleaner in any of my wine, I use two tablets to a sink full of water and have never had a problem.
The packaging says no need to rinse.

 

[PD]

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=33843

 

[graysalchemy]

I only make wine and have never tasted the cleaner in any of my wine, I use two tablets to a sink full of water and have never had a problem.
The packaging says no need to rinse.

Sorry I didn't read that this was in wine and cider.

Any chlorine based products need to be rinsed if you are using in beer as the chlorine reacts with the hops to produce TCp like compounds.

 

[goodolpete]

On this theme I would like to enquire how/if people keep utensils clean, or if they sterilise them before each use?

I'm thinking about long plastic spoons that are useful for pushing a pulp cap back down into a must when fermenting on the pulp.

For years I have boiled a full kettle of water, poured it over the handle then held the handle and poured
the boiling water over the front, the back and the sides of the spoon till all the water is used.
Never had a batch infected yet.

 

[Boatbrewer]

Tesco value thin bleach 29p for 2 litres, diluted aprox 20:1

Rinse well!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

For years I have boiled a full kettle of water, poured it over the handle then held the handle and poured
the boiling water over the front, the back and the sides of the spoon till all the water is used.
Never had a batch infected yet.

I use this method when stabilising and finishing my kits in the bucket, as the only thing that is going to touch the wine is my degassing wand its easier and faster to boil a kettle than use steriliser.

 

[kRooGa]

Quality Save sterilising tabs. 64 tabs for 99p. 1 tab per 4 litres of cold water. It actually has dosing instructions on the pack for home brewing. Rinse well though :

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

Where can you get those from, Krooga?

 

[kRooGa]

I get em in my local Quality Save shop. Never had an infection. They're fine but your stuff needs to soak for 30 mins and must be rinsed. For bottles just one fill and empty with clean cold water is fine :

 

[Crastney]

I don't bother sterilising the spoon for pushing down the cap, or stiring the liquid. i do wash it fully afterwards though, so there's no residue on it.

It only takes on lapse, and an infection to turn you a bit OCD about cleanliness and sterility. Look at the threads on how they make cider from apples stored in bulk, going mushy, etc, and you'll see that at certain points in the process you probably don't need to be clean or sterile, but at other points it essential. you can be clean and sterile the whole time just to take out the guesswork though.

 

[Goat Boy]

I started with VWP but when it ran out switched to Milton tablets seeing as we we had some in for the mini-me.
Seemed odd you can supposedly give your child a dummy dripping with what i thought was chlorine solution so did a bit of reading and found some Milton bumph saying...

"The amount of chlorine that could possibly be left in a baby's bottle after sterilising with Milton is around 40 times less than the levels in normal tap water"

 

[Paulie Sk.]

Hi

I've used Wilko's thin bleach for years & it seems to do the job. It's only about 28p for a big litre bottle.

 

[beermaker]

Never come across Quality Save - guess they haven't made it to my part of the world yet! Looks a bit like Home Bargains though, purveyors of inexpensive stuff!

As for my sanitation, I use Antiformin S to sterilise pretty much everything as the stuff is brutal and although its a little pricey, the dilution rate means a bottle lasts a good while and having had to bin several brews through infection I'd rather spend more on sanitation than throw money away putting infected grog down the drain. As it's very much a "rinse thoroughly" sanitiser, I then rinse thoroughly, using fresh water from the tap to remove all traces of Antiformin. After that, I make up a no-rinse iodine solution (either Brupaks Idophor or Aqueous Betadine, depending on whats to hand!) at a rate of 2.5ml per litre. Good sluice with that to kill off any nasties which may be in the tap water, then drain down thoroughly and on with the job. With stuff that's difficult to clean such as tubes and hoses and the like, I use Antiformin and a good rinse, aided by a pump, and then fill with Brupaks Stayclean to prevent any nasties. This stays in the tubes until the next brew, when it's flushed out with fresh water and, depending on the purpose of the tube, a no-rinse sanitiser such as diluted iodine.