Friday, October 17, 2014

How To Choose The Best Brewery Sanitizer

By Dominique Martin


Sanitized equipment are the only way to produce clean, tasty and quality beer. This is a fact even when you are using grains, malt or combining several ingredients. Equipment that are not sanitized will introduce a foreign taste, odor and reduce the quality. The right choice on brewery sanitizer must be made if high quality is to be achieved and maintained.

Bleach is a common option in many homes because of the ease with which you find it and the cost. The amount required to sanitize all your equipment is very small. Its strength makes it ideal for cleaning different types of equipment. It, however, requires thorough rinsing which means the use of water. This is likely to restore the impurities you were trying to eliminate.

Bleaches will require sterile water to rinse off containers. This is an added expense in your brewing process. The strength of bleaches makes them harmful to the skin, cloths and the eyes. The presence of bleach in your beer will significantly alter its taste. It requires a lot of work to completely sanitize your equipment.

One-Step- this sanitizer is oxygen based and accompanies many starter kits. It does not require rinsing and is therefore regarded as good cleaner. The problem is that it is no longer among the sanitizers approved by FDA. One-Step is generally considered a strong sanitizer and therefore disregarded by many brewers.

Iodophor- it rates high among sanitizers because of its effectiveness. You can buy it from online shops or brewery stores in your neighborhood. Its contact time is short since it is based on iodine. The strength means that it will stain your cloths and plastic bottles after several years of use. The odor left behind in cloths and equipment after use is very strong.

Star-Sun- its foaming characteristic pushes it into cracks and crevices which makes it a thorough sanitizer. Star Sun is a very strong agent and is only used in small quantities. It has colorless and odorless properties that make it desirable. It allows reuse as long as its pH remains below 3.

The effect Star Sun has on the hands includes making the skin feel and appear very dry. Many brewers are also very afraid of dealing with the foam. Some complains that it leaves a slippery surface, but this might be as a result of failure to rinse thoroughly. It is considered one of the best there is in the industry.

Star Sun gives incredible results when used in a squirt bottle. It makes it easy to control the amount and therefore clean more equipment. Mixing with reverse osmosis or distilled water helps to raise the quality of results and enable you to reuse it. This translates into reduction in expenditure during the brewing process.

Sanitizing aims at reducing bacterial concentration on your equipment. This allows the beneficial organisms in yeast to take full charge of fermentation. Yeast has the power to dominate the process once fermentation begins. The equipment called autoclave is used for complete sterilization. The autoclave is mainly found in laboratories. The other home based option is boiling your equipment for around twenty minutes.




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