Probably the most important part
of brewing is making sure your equipment is as free from bacteria as is
practically possible because no matter how good your ingredients and brewing
technique are, if wild yeast or bacteria get into your wort it can quickly develop
unpleasant of flavours or even turn to vinegar.
Bacteria and wild yeast are
everywhere including on your brewing equipment so it is important to sanitise
your equipment thoroughly before use. Its worth noting though, sanitising is not
the same as sterilising as sterilising refers to the removal of all bacteria
from equipment which in most cases isn't practical. Sanitising refers to
reducing bacteria down to an acceptable level and is easily achievable using
readily available products from the homebrew shop or supermarket.
Propriety homebrew cleaner/sanitizers
are generally a chlorinated caustic formulation in powder form which are made up
by mixing with hot water. The equipment is allowed to soak for 10-20 mins then
rinsed thoroughly. This can be a little tricky though as the solution tends to stubbornly
cling to your equipment and takes a fair amount of rinsing, if the solution
isn't rinsed properly however it will spoil a beer instantly. Another problem
with these cleaners are that they can get pretty expensive, especially when
making up 5 gallons at a time, and if you don't have a homebrew shop in your
town, they aren't readily available either.
Cleaning
Soda
Crystals. Luckily
there are readily available products in the supermarket which will clean and
sanitise your equipment perfectly well and the whole process works out a lot
cheaper too. Firstly the equipment needs to be cleaned so there are no visible
deposits of dirt which can harbour bacteria and render any sanitising process
ineffective. This can be done using a sodium carbonate based cleaner,
also known as good old fashioned Soda Crystals, available at most supermarkets
but often hidden away on a bottom shelf somewhere. These come in powder form and
can be made up to any strength you require. (For normal use, I use 1 heaped
tablespoon per litre of hot water and make up a 5L batch). For fermenters use a
soft cloth and work away at the visible grime until it has all gone, then work
away at the whole fermenter and the rest of the equipment to ensure there are no
greasy or oily deposits. For barrels, particularly the cheaper barrels with the
2" neck, as long as they are rinsed out with cold water straight after use
a standard 5L soda crystals soluion will also suffice. Pour it in the barrel and give it a good
shake, do this periodically over a 10 min period so the solution can dissolve
any greasy deposits. For stubborn marks and grime a full soak may be required
although this is rarely the case.
Oxi
Cleaners For
really stubborn stains and odours, particularly on equipment that has been
neglected or salvaged, sodium per-carbonate cleaners come in handy. They
take the form of the Oxygen cleaners that are available now. I prefer cleaners
that don't have a strong fragrance or any 'blue' whitening
crystals like some brands do (which can attach themselves to surfaces if left to
soak for hours and can be tricky to remove). Both these products rinse readily
but must be rinsed well with cold water. Don't use either of these products on
aluminium.
Bleach.
Another good cleaner is household bleach. This should be the thin unscented
variety, usually the cheapest stuff on the supermarket shelves, thick bleach has
agents that make it cling to surfaces and is really difficult to rinse away,
avoid it. For cleaning, a 5% solution or 1 ml bleach to 19ml of cold water of
water can be used, (2 1/2 cups of bleach to 12L of cold water in a
fermenter is close enough). Equipment can be scrubbed with soft cloths or left to soak depending on
how bad the dirt is. Once the equipment is clean, it should be rinsed thoroughly
in cold water, especially barrel caps which will corrode it left in contact with
chlorinated products such as powdered proprietary homebrew cleaners or bleach
for too long. It's also not advisable to let strong dilutions of bleach come
into contact with stainless steel or copper for prolonged periods either.
Sanitising
Once equipment has been
thoroughly cleaned and rinsed it must be sanitised and one of the cheapest
methods is to soak equipment for 20 mins in a bleach solution, this uses chlorine
as the sanitising agent, just as proprietary homebrew cleaners do. Only a surprisingly
small quantity is required to sanitise though, 3ml per litre of cold water.
Adding half a cup of bleach to a 5 gallon fermenter is more than enough to
do the job and at this dilution it is still fairly easy to rinse but it must be
rinsed well none the less.
A tip for cleaning bottles is to
rinse all traces of yeast deposit away, immediately after use and before
storage, shake out as much water as possible and allow to drip dry before
putting away. When it comes to using them again, fill a 5 gallon fermenter with
cold water, add 1/2-1 cup bleach and submerse as many bottles as possible
making sure they fill completely. Allow to sit for 20 mins before removing and
starting on the next batch. Triple rinse each bottle before use.
Sodium
Metabisulphite. The
main draw back with bleach is that is if any trace of the chlorine remains
behind, it can react with phenols in malt to create a medicinal taste in the
beer. Rinsing in a sodium metabisulphite solution will neutralise the chlorine
and sodium metabisulphite itself doesn't need rinsing, infact it's a common
preservative in allsorts of foods and even beer. Sodium metabisulphite is also a
reasonable sanitizer (although not effective on all types of bacteria) so the
residue left behind after rinsing with it will help keep bacteria and wild yeast
at bay after equipment has been prepared for use. Using sodium metaisulphite is
no substitution for rinsing well with clean water after using chlorine sanitizers though. It
should also be noted that sodium metabisulphite can trigger asthma attacks in
sufferers and the fumes can be quite choking even in non sufferers if not used
in a well ventilated room. Sodium metabisulphite is available from homebrew
shops and a solution can be made up by adding 1 teaspoon to1 pint of hot water.
A 500ml soda bottle filled with a sodium metabisulphite solution is handy for
storing a hydrometer in while beer is fermenting, the hydrometer can be used
straight from the bottle, rinsed and returned after use.
If you have any questions or
comments about this article, or just want to have a chat with other homebrewers
go to... Jim's Homebrew Forum
This Site is
continually being updated
Some pages maybe incomplete, but pages are regularly added and updated.
Don't forget to hit the refresh button on your browser to check for page
updates.
Soda
Crystals. Luckily
there are readily available products in the supermarket which will clean and
sanitise your equipment perfectly well and the whole process works out a lot
cheaper too. Firstly the equipment needs to be cleaned so there are no visible
deposits of dirt which can harbour bacteria and render any sanitising process
ineffective. This can be done using a sodium carbonate based cleaner,
also known as good old fashioned Soda Crystals, available at most supermarkets
but often hidden away on a bottom shelf somewhere. These come in powder form and
can be made up to any strength you require. (For normal use, I use 1 heaped
tablespoon per litre of hot water and make up a 5L batch). For fermenters use a
soft cloth and work away at the visible grime until it has all gone, then work
away at the whole fermenter and the rest of the equipment to ensure there are no
greasy or oily deposits. For barrels, particularly the cheaper barrels with the
2" neck, as long as they are rinsed out with cold water straight after use
a standard 5L soda crystals soluion will also suffice. Pour it in the barrel and give it a good
shake, do this periodically over a 10 min period so the solution can dissolve
any greasy deposits. For stubborn marks and grime a full soak may be required
although this is rarely the case. 
