Sanitizing your equipment is the single most important step when making beer. There are a lot of products and techniques out there. When it comes to selecting sanitation products it really comes down to personal preference and experience. Here are a few options you can use:
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Unscented Household Bleach- The advantage to this is the cost.
Household bleach is inexpensive and usually readily available in the
home. I have used this option a few times when I am in a pinch. The
big and obvious disadvantage is the time it takes rinsing the bleach
off your equipment. Any leftover bleach residue can severely impact
your beer. If you use bleach and have a hard time retaining a good
head on your beer, you need to make sure you are rinsing the bleach
from your equipment better. |
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Coopers Sanitizer: Sodium Percarbonate- An environmentally
friendly cleaner/sanitizer. Advantages are that it is as effective as
chlorine bleach, without the problematic residue and smell of bleach.
Sodium Percarbonate devolves into water, oxygen and natural soda ash
and requires no rinsing; although we usually rinse this anyways. |
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Five Star Star San- Star San is an acid sanitizer that is very
popular in home brew circles. It requires only 30 seconds of contact
time and does not require rinsing. Star San will not contribute
off-flavors at higher than recommended concentrations. Although more
expensive than other sanitation options this is highly preferred method
because of the time saving characteristics.
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High Heat Method- Here in the office (and at home!) we use our
dishwasher for sanitizing our bottles and other equipment that
fits. If your bottles are dirty or moldy on the inside make sure you
soak them using one of the methods above before running them through
the dishwasher to ensure the insides get clean. Do not use any dish
soap and make sure your Heat Dry option is turned off as to not melt or
warp your PET bottles. Glass bottles can be sterilized using the Heat
Dry method just make sure they are cooled before bottling.
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How do you sterilize your equipment? Do you have any products you like or don't like? Share below!