To sanitize, or not?

[Guest]

How important is actually sanitizing your equipment (fermented, siphon hose, still, etc.)? I know it all must be cleaned (removing sludge, and bringing out sparkle), but how important is it to be sanitized? After all, won’t the distilling process “kill” any bacteria in the mix?

Thanks…

[Rocky_Creek]

The answers you will get depend on the background of the person. Wine makers need to be very clean. Beer makers need to be near steril. Beer makers get anal about this and carry it ofer into distilling. Distillers only need to be clean if they are smart. If you make a weak mash like beer then it can easily become contaminated and give off flavors. I find with making about 15% mash using mostly sugar that if I give the yeast a head start before adding grain I don't have a problem.

[Grayson_Stewart]

It pays to keep everything clean as possible before and during the fermentation, but sterilizing a hose to syphon/transfer mash to the boiler for a run within several hours is not necessary.

[Fourway]

How important is actually sanitizing your equipment (fermented, siphon hose, still, etc.)? I know it all must be cleaned (removing sludge, and bringing out sparkle), but how important is it to be sanitized? After all, won’t the distilling process “kill” any bacteria in the mix?

Thanks…

Most of what I'm interesed in... low alcohol unfortified (no sugar) mashes and washes that go from pitching to boiling within 48-96 hours want things clean but sterility isn't really an issue.
What I do is rinse my fermentation vessels with extremely hot water just before filling and overpitch yeast by a pretty large factor. sometimes 4x 6x.
this starts fermentation very fast and allows the yeast to get a big leg up on other critters.

[The Chemist]

Sound science, Fourway. I just make beer, and WAS pretty anal to begin with. But I've never had a problem. Just a weak bleach solution for about half an hour. Relax, have a homebrew.