Alternatives for sanitizing

[marshbrewer]

I'm using VWP at the moment, but appear to get through quite a lot of it (well, I am brewing a lot!). I understand you can use unscented bleach, but is bleach the same the world over? Wilko's had basics thin bleach for about 30p a bottle, would that do? What about baby bottle sanitizer, would that work?

 

[nuggitmv]

1-2 tea spoons of thin unsented bleach per gallon.I dont use this but is a cheep way off doing things

 

[aneray]

Videne is all the rage at the moment. I have started using it at the advised dosage rate of 1.25ml per litre of water. As long as your equipment is clean, give it a quick spray and hey presto job done. No rinsing involved and it had cut my bottling time down to less than half an hour.

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=13654

Bottling is the best bit. A couple of inches in the bottom of a bottle, a quick swill around and then empty it into the next one.

I wish I used this stuff years ago.

 

[timbim]

Baby bottle sanitiser is just slightly diluted bleach, so no benefits there, just more expensive for the same thing.

The problem with bleach is that it takes 15-30 mins to work, which can be a pain when bottling etc. You can also get contact sterilisers which work immediately. They are more aggressive towards you by their nature, so require a little more care.

The two most commonly used are videne and star-san (or something similar). Videne is available from decent chemists, but they'll need to order it specially. I'm not sure with star-san. Both need to be acidified to work properly, some come mixed with acid already, others will need to be mixed with ideally phosphoric or hydrochloric acid, but citric acid will do otherwise. Vinegar would be no good at all for this.

Aleman uses peracetic acid, but that's horrible stuff and unless you know exactly what you're doing is best avoided.

For other general cleaning, a non-scented oxidising laundry bleach (usually called something like oxy-action or the like) is very useful, contains hydrogen peroxide, a strong oxidising agent, and some surfactants. Very good for lifting stains and killing anything hanging on.

Tim

 

[Moley]

1-2 tea spoons of thin unsented bleach per gallon. I don't use this but is a cheap way of doing things

:nono: Nowhere near enough, 20ml to the litre and 20-30 minutes contact time.

 

[Sean_Mc]

Depends what I'm doing. FV's and tubing get a few hours soak with a weak thin bleach solution. Bottles and other bit are put in the dishwasher and liberal amounts of videne used