As long as everything is clan to begin with, sound like you have a good method. Anything touching the cooled wort that doesn’t first contact boiling wort, should be sanitized.
Sounds like you are being very deliberate, and that is good. Personally, all that extra siphoning would drive me nuts. I have a big ass funnel and just pour between vessels and stick everything that needs to be sanitized into one.
[quote=“alanzo”]What you’ve done sounds find, you’ll also want to add PBW to your regime to clean used equipment.
Proper santiziation is two steps, always. Clean, then sanitize. PBW cleans, StarSan sanitizes.[/quote]
I learned this lesson from the board quickly. The other piece I learned was lighten on the sanitizer. I could do just an effective job with 2 gallons of sanitizer that I could do with the 6 gallons I was making to fill the carboy to the top. Cutting down also cut down on the nagging from wife as I would store it for a week or two until I bottled what was on deck.
I use three gallons of Star San at a time because I happen to have a three gallon bucket laying around which I can store it and reuse it in the future. I second getting a funnel and passing on all that siphoning right off the bat. Mixing through a funnel will actually aerate your wort a bit too (which you definitely should do and search for if you’re not familiar). Now once it’s fermented, definitely siphon to avoid oxidation.
Also; I clean and sanitize my airlocks, fill them with the sanitizer and then cap them over the carboy. Just a thought so you can bypass the plastic baggies too.
PBW is an awesome cleaner. My favorite thing about it (other than the fact that it works wonders) is that after brew day you can just dump a bunch of stuff in your boil kettle with the PBW and let it work for a day. Let’s you be lazy until tomorrow.
Wish I had the room in my house to just let things soak. Now that I have gotten the smell of brewing out of the house with my new outdoor burner. The only thing I get nagged about is the fact that I take over the kitchen with brewing equipment.
Your sanitation procedure sounds good to me. Welcome to brewing.
I know I don’t “need” to do it, but I use a big 18 gallon plastic tub (the kind that are shaped sort of like a bushel basket) from walmart. I fill it with 10 gallons of water and appropriate starsan. I know I could just swish some around, but I just find it really handy to throw stuff in the tub - tubing, airlocks, bucket, disassembled spigots, chiller, jugs for yeast starter, etc. I just leave them there til I need them, pull them out and they are ready to go. Also nice for dunking bottle rack and throwing in enough bottles to do an entire batch. I use the same starsan solution for a couple months usually, and then make up some new stuff. Just a really convenient way to do it, even thought things don’t necessarily need that type of a soak.
I fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 way with water and use 1/2oz of starsan. Everything that will touch the wort just gets thrown in and soaks until needed (including airlocks, etc). When I’m close to racking the wort into a fermentor I just pour or siphon about a gallon or so of the starsan solution into my bucket/carboy. Slosh it around a few times and good to go.
So agreeing with others… there’s no need to mix up a full 5 gallons. I do 2-1/2 at a time and will use the same batch for several brew days.
I’ve never found it necessary to use more than a gallon of sanitizer. I have iodophor and mix 3 mL into a gallon jug and that gets me through whatever I’m doing-transferring to fermenter, kegging, etc. I usually mix it up, dump it into whatever vessel I’m using, siphon back into the jug, and use the auto siphon in the jug as a pump to sanitize the outside of the autosiphon since its not fully submerged. I won a bottle of iodophor in a contest about three years ago and I have only used half of it.
I’ve done side-by-side tests and got the same results as Denny. That said, I tend to use Oxiclean because it still did a great job and it’s a lot cheaper.
I’ve done side-by-side tests and got the same results as Denny. That said, I tend to use Oxiclean because it still did a great job and it’s a lot cheaper.[/quote]
I use Oxi for a lot of stuff, but fermenters and tubing get PBW.
I bought a big thing of PWB but ended thinking i didnt need it. i just cleaned kettle with dish soap looked brand new. I rinsed everything else (tubing etc) clean and put back in sanitizer before packing up. should i have used the PWB instead?
At the time i wasnt aware that you could reuse star san so i dumped it, ill be getting ph strips and sealed bucket for next time. How long can you usually keeep before its not effictive?
[quote=“beerme11”]I bought a big thing of PWB but ended thinking i didnt need it. i just cleaned kettle with dish soap looked brand new. I rinsed everything else (tubing etc) clean and put back in sanitizer before packing up. should i have used the PWB instead?
At the time i wasnt aware that you could reuse star san so i dumped it, ill be getting ph strips and sealed bucket for next time. How long can you usually keeep before its not effictive?[/quote]
I don’t bother with PBW or Oxyclean for items I can easily scrub, like kettles. I use them for hard to scrub areas (inside carboys, kegs, etc…).
[quote=“TheTooth”][quote=“beerme11”]I bought a big thing of PWB but ended thinking i didnt need it. i just cleaned kettle with dish soap looked brand new. I rinsed everything else (tubing etc) clean and put back in sanitizer before packing up. should i have used the PWB instead?
At the time i wasnt aware that you could reuse star san so i dumped it, ill be getting ph strips and sealed bucket for next time. How long can you usually keeep before its not effictive?[/quote]
I don’t bother with PBW or Oxyclean for items I can easily scrub, like kettles. I use them for hard to scrub areas (inside carboys, kegs, etc…).[/quote]
If I can time it right I like to use PBW on a carboy or keg, leave it sit overnight, brew the next day and then dump it in my boil kettle for a while.
PBW is better, but oxyclean is damn good and cheaper. I swear by the stuff. No infections due to gross contaminants.
The OP’s procedure is fine in itself. But he failed to mention his most important brewing tools. His hands. Get them cleansed and sanitized too. Cut your nails short too! Think about where those fingers have been, especially if you’ve been ummm, very, ummm, fortunate…
[quote=“barneygumble”]PBW is better, but oxyclean is damn good and cheaper. I swear by the stuff. No infections due to gross contaminants.
The OP’s procedure is fine in itself. But he failed to mention his most important brewing tools. His hands. Get them cleansed and sanitized too. Cut your nails short too! Think about where those fingers have been, especially if you’ve been ummm, very, ummm, fortunate…
Or in the morning.
Or if your nose is kinda plugged.
Or if you are a plumber.[/quote]
Tried spraying star san into my gf. Didnt go over well…
