Sterilizing

[stillvodka]

Hello Distillers,

We all know, when we do our brewing/distilling, all the utensils need to be scrupulously clean.
But can i ask, how Far do we go, i use a outside tap down the side of the house and blast everything with high pressure hose, i try to be as careful as possible, but surely soon as everything is dried out again it all becomes none sterilized.

What methods do everyone on the Forum use,

I do get thinking, how an earth did the old moonshiners keep everything sterilized.

Thanks.

[Bujapat]

Have a look at this :
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... en+tablets

[Longhairedcountryboy]

I installed a hot water tap next to the cold water tap on the side of my house. Comes in handy for clean up. Car washes too.

[stillvodka]

I do use sterilizing solution,

But when you have done with your sterilizing, you have got to put things you are about to use down somewhere on a table or where ever, do this mean that it has picked up bacteria from the surface of the table, or am i just going too far about this, my brewing is done in my garage and it is nowhere near being a sterile environment, or like i said am i taking it too far.

[jim81147]

Actually what you are talking about is sanitizing , not sterilizing. Sterilizing is a feat you will probably never achieve . There are several good sanitizing solutions available . I use star san , a readily available product from any homebrew shop. You can mix up this solution and soak any items you need to sanitize in it , a 2 minute contact time is sufficient and it does not require a rinsing after contact. I also keep a spray bottle full around , and if indoubt a couple spritzes on your mash paddle , spoon , hydrometer or whatever and you are good to go.Sanitation , although important throughout the process, is most important in the early stages , until the mash has fermented IMO.

[golden pond]

Hello Distillers,

We all know, when we do our brewing/distilling, all the utensils need to be scrupulously clean.
But can i ask, how Far do we go, i use a outside tap down the side of the house and blast everything with high pressure hose, i try to be as careful as possible, but surely soon as everything is dried out again it all becomes none sterilized.

What methods do everyone on the Forum use,

I do get thinking, how an earth did the old moonshiners keep everything sterilized.

Thanks.

Well the old moonshiners filtered though a funnel stright into a jug, it was pretty much sterile when it left the still and condenser. Ofcourse there were some that didn't keep their mash real clean either but others did.

[stillvodka]

I think my best would be the stuff what jim81147 uses Star San , i am not lazy honestly, but it seems to me that when I've got to do all my Sanitizing/Sterilizing of utensils, i feel i am going overboard about it all, i think i will get a large water butt with a lid, chuck in a load of sanitizing solution and bung it all in there and when i need to use anything just take it out swill it off, when not in use bung the utensil back in there again.

iam still abit mythed about the old moonshiners though, it's not exactly a clean place, out there in them back woods.

Thanks

[Harry]

What precisely are you trying to achieve? We don't make booze under 'clean room' conditions. Far from it. Most fermentations can even benefit from a little bit of 'contamination'. Lactic acid bacteria in whisk(e)y, and butyric acid bacteria in rums, and even San Francisco Sourdough are cases in point. So long as you do a good 'pitch' of fast acting yeast, it will overcome any bacteria that are present. Also, bacteria can't live at the low pH levels that yeast love.

If you're concerned about possibly mould contamination, use a hand-spray bottle with a 10% bleach/water solution to spritz your benchtops. Bleach will kill anything, including yeasts AND AIDS virus. That's why junkies use it to flush their syringes for re-use.


Slainte!
regards Harry

[Enlikil]

Well, I Sterilize my stuff in Iodine/iodpher from the brew shop. I use 12.5 parts per million 1 cap full per 2 gallons (whatever the label says) it requires a 2 minute kill time. however if there is ANY color at all it is sufficiant to kill anything.
It does not require a rinse.
I use tap water to fill up my carboys, and buckets then put the required amount of solution in.. ( a few cap fulls) let it sit a few minutes. and let them air dry I also soak my utinsils in the same thing. However i don't sanitize my yeast starter cups(2 cup measureing cups) or my pan that i put my hot water in to dissolve my sugar..

a better question for Distilling alcohol would be. how do you know if you get bactieria contamination?
and secondly does it even matter once you start boiling your wash in your still?

[Harry]

a better question for Distilling alcohol would be. how do you know if you get bactieria contamination?
and secondly does it even matter once you start boiling your wash in your still?

"In conclusion, we have shown that the Scotch whisky fermentation involves a changing community of bacteria starting with a diversity of cocci and rods and culminating in lactobacilli that fail to grow in or on standard laboratory media and are probably closely related to L. acidophilus or L. crispatus. The formation of lactic and acetic acids and other metabolites might have an effect on the flavor of the final spirit.

Lactic acid reacts with ethanol during distillation to produce ethyl lactate, and spirits derived from long fermentations (greater than 55 h) in which lactic acid bacteria have flourished tend to have higher ester concentrations (13). It is possible that flavor could be modified by careful attention to the balance of the various bacteria present."

Source:
Evolution of the Lactic Acid Bacterial Community during Malt Whisky Fermentation: a Polyphasic Study

Sylvie van Beek and Fergus G. Priest*
International Centre for Brewing and Distilling, Department of Biological Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, Scotland

Full article here...
http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/68/1/297" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow


.

[Enlikil]

So basicly the bactieria will give you bad flavor... what about make you sick?

[Harry]

The point is, if you're doing grain fermentations, there's really no such thing as a bacteria-free mash. Even in mashes that are traditionally boiled, such as corn, bacteria is invariably re-introduced through the addition of 25% sourmash.

The trick is in limiting the influence of bacteria to just enough to enhance your spirits, but not enough to overpower the end flavour. The only way it'll make you sick is from drinking too much alcohol, not from any bacteria or byproducts. The distilling gets rid of all that. To my knowledge there's no bacteria found in distillation that can survive past 65°C.

.