Bleach as a cleaner/sterilizer

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spudbasher

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How much bleach should i put in 5 gall. water? I was guessing on about 1/4 of a coffee mug.
To much /little? I,m refering to cheap non sticky budget bleach.
 
Can cheap bleach be used in place of expensive steraliser?

my LHBS sold me ritchies steraliser. Seems to do the job, but seems damn expensive for what it is.

Was thinking about using bleach as a alternative, but what are the drawbacks?

Cheers
 
I use cheepo supermarket bleach, it removes the ring of crud from fermenters etc in 24 hrs.
Rinse until the chlorine smell has gone, then rinse 1 more time.
I also use beer line cleaner, got a friendly landlord!
 
Cheap bleach or Milton-type sterilisers can be used if your equipment / bottles are physically clean. Products such as that Ritchie's cleaner/steriliser are ideal for things like soiled DJs.

Bleach and Milton can be quite ‘clingy’ and need thorough rinsing, especially with plastics.
 
Until recently I have used Tesco thin bleach at roughly 10ml/gallon for sanitising.
As everyone has said, rinse it like mad. I have lost more brews than I'd care to mention to chlorine contamination :evil: you'll know when you do, tastes like TCP.

I've recently obtained some 5% peracetic acid from 'the malt miller' and will be using that (diluted 1:50) in future as its what they use at the brewery I know.
 
These threads always seem to come back to this, but I recently invested in a 500ml bottle of Videne Antiseptic Solution. Cost me £6 and makes up to 400 litres of "no rinse" solution at 1.25ml per litre, which just makes it a piece of cake to use. Come bottling time, all I do is soak the bottles for a while in oxyclean, shake, rinse and then dump some videne solution in each bottle, shake and by the time all the bottles are treated you just tip it out and you're ready to bottle. No rinsing each bottle 3 times :thumb:
 
evanvine said:
pjbiker said:
I've recently obtained some 5% peracetic acid from 'the malt miller' and will be using that (diluted 1:50) in future as its what they use at the brewery I know.
That's a new one on me PJ, does it also remove the "crud" ring from fermenters?
Peracetic acid is a sanitiser not a cleanser, it only sanitises . . . very very effectively, but will only do so if the item being sanitised is already clean . . .enter bleach or Percarbonate cleansers like PBW, Oxyclean, Whizz.

I use a strong solution of hot washing soda to clean anything that has an organic residue (Caustic Soda if the soiling is extreme), on a sponge or Pumped though a spray head to remove contamination, followed by a rinse of hot water, and then Videne, Peracetic, Hypochlorous Acid, or Starsan to sanitise.
 
Just out of interest AM, what kind of dilution do you mix oxyclean to? I've just been throwing in a couple of "scoops" into about 5 litres....It worked, but it'd be good to get a feel for how much is actually required for "general brewhouse cleaning"
 
What would you suggest for a cheap way to sterilise plastic bottles, for my last and only brew i used Tesco liquid baby sterilise but it smells bleach and required around 4 rinsed per bottle to get rid of the smell which was a pain in the ****
 
HLA91 said:
What would you suggest for a cheap way to sterilise plastic bottles, for my last and only brew i used Tesco liquid baby sterilise but it smells bleach and required around 4 rinsed per bottle to get rid of the smell which was a pain in the ****

Videne :thumb:
 
I will enquire at my local pharmacy see if they can get it for me and at what,price.
 
Ceejay said:
What kind of dilution do you mix oxyclean to? I've just been throwing in a couple of "scoops" into about 5 litres...
I use a couple of scoops in 20L to clean cornelii . . . and around a scoop in 2.5L for heavy duty cleaning . . . Whatever works really
 
I've been looking to avoid anything containing chlorine (to prevent TCP contamination) and I've always tried to avoid nonionic surfactants as they can reduce head retention if not removed :?: .

I got some peracetic acid which Aleman mentions is an effective sanitiser, and washing soda for cleaning.
Looking up oxyclean (which contains other detergents) and 'sodium percarbonate' I've discovered there is a product which is 100% sodium percarbonate so am looking to get some.
Ecover Laundry Bleach
 
pjbiker said:
Looking up oxyclean (which contains other detergents) and 'sodium percarbonate' I've discovered there is a product which is 100% sodium percarbonate so am looking to get some.
Ecover Laundry Bleach
Yep I also use that one . . .good cleanser . .. as is Whizz OxiAction and Astonish Oxyclean (Although they also contain Sodium metasilicate/bicarbonate)
 
Goody goody, don't have to worry about TCP taste.
Thankyou :thumb:
 
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