[ynotbrusum]

The low pH should inhibit bacteria, but won't necessarily prevent it from taking hold.  Also, mold can be an issue - this year is particularly wet in my area (Northern Illinois), so the mold counts are way high.  We don't brew in totally aseptic conditions, especially in the summer when airborne contaminants are rampant.  Try your best to limit contact of the wort and beer to air exposure in the transfer processes.  Bacteria and many other nasties love oxygen and at the point of packaging, oxygen is not your friend.  Kegging works great in this regard, because you can start with a keg that has been CO2 charged for a blanket of CO2 and then rack to the bottom of the keg to protect the transferring beer somewhat.  If bottling - try bottling off the keg and purging each bottle with CO2 before filling with beer.  Coupled with meticulous sanitation, you will likely avoid significant problems.  Last thought - were you re pitching yeast from a prior batch?  The same issues are present relative to re-using yeast and limiting exposure to the airborne contaminants when harvesting, storing and re-pitching.

[brewinhard]

Yeah, I'll definitely scrub these. Might even let them soak in a bleach solution for a while.

Slightly off topic for a moment- isn't Star San better than bleach?  I thought I heard or read that Star San needs a minute of contact time to sanitize and bleach needed 20 minutes.

Bleach is more of a diverse sanitizer and can destroy a variety of cells (mold spores, bacteria, yeast) while Star San cannot tackle all the microbial invasion that bleach can.  Star san is easier to work with for most of the general public since bleach can lead to off-flavors if not properly rinsed unlike star san.  Bleach is a good thing to use occasionally if you are trying to knock off a stubborn contamination issue that Star san isn't touching.

[S. cerevisiae]

Slightly off topic for a moment- isn't Star San better than bleach?  I thought I heard or read that Star San needs a minute of contact time to sanitize and bleach needed 20 minutes.

Star San's effectiveness has been over-hyped for years. Star San belongs to a class of sanitizers known as acid-anionic sanitizers.  Acid-anionic sanitizers are fine when it comes to food preparation; however, they are in the kindergarten class when it comes to brewing because they do not kill yeast or mold.  Most home brewers erroneously believe that the phosphoric acid in Star San is what kills bugs, but the actual killing agent is the surfactant dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid.  Phosphoric acid lowers the pH of the solution, increasing the effectiveness of the surfactant.  Dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid enters the cell wall and wreaks havoc on cellular activity.

Paragraph 2, Page 9-6 of http://jifsan.umd.edu/pdf/gaqps_en/Section9.Effective_Cleaning_and_Sanitizing_Procedures.pdf :

"Acid-anionic sanitizers are broad spectrum against bacteria and viruses, but not very effective against yeasts and molds."

That's why friends don't let friends use Star San as their primary brewery sanitizer.

[Phil_M]

Mark, you've mentioned another sanitizer before...what was it? It it a no-rinse sanitizer?

So far I haven't had issues with star san, and I've still got a huge bottle of the concentrate. But I like having options, especially if I need to clean something that sat out/got soured.

[chumley]

Several years ago (actually, more like 10) I got a nasty infection in my brewery that I couldn't seem to get rid of.  I finally got rid of it with quaternary ammonium.  Since then, I do a quat sanitization once a year, and so far(knock on wood) have been successful in staying infection-free.

[narcout]

Iodophor is a nice alternative to Star San and is also no-rinse if used at the proper concentration. 

[johnnyb]

How difficult is it to get bleach rinsed off properly so that off tastes can be avoided?

I'm thinking about occasionally doing a two step process where I would use bleach, then rinse with tap water, and then use Star San.

[Phil_M]

I've heard differing stories on how easy it is to rinse bleach. Back when my dad home brewed in the mid 90's he did all his sanitizing with bleach and didn't have any issues.

My reason for not considering bleach for regular use is my plate chiller...stainless steel and bleach don't get along.

[HoosierBrew]

How difficult is it to get bleach rinsed off properly so that off tastes can be avoided?

I'm thinking about occasionally doing a two step process where I would use bleach, then rinse with tap water, and then use Star San.

That's what I do a couple times a year - soak buckets and other plastic in bleach solution, rinse like hell with hot water, let dry, then use starsan as a quick spot sanitizer on brew day. The rest of the time, just starsan. It seems to have gotten rid of what I felt was a low level resistant infection in a couple of beers. I wouldn't ever use bleach solution as a no rinse obviously, but done like this (ie., bleach solution + lots of rinsing) I get no infection and also no chlorophenols. Works for me.

[S. cerevisiae]

Mark, you've mentioned another sanitizer before...what was it? It it a no-rinse sanitizer?

A simple no-rinse sanitizer can be made by combining 1oz of household bleach with 1oz vinegar and 5 gallons of water.  The beauty of bleach is that it is unaffected by water hardness.  Vinegar (acetic acid, CH₃COOH) catalyzes the reaction that converts sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) to hypochlorous acid (HOCl).  HOCl is a powerful antimicrobial.

Chlorine bleach and iodohor belong to a class of sanitizers known as oxidizing halogens. Oxidizing halogens are broad spectrum microbicides.  They are to microbicides what glyphosate (a.k.a. Roundup) is to herbicides (i.e., non-selective killers).

In my humble opinion, the best cleaner/sanitizer for stainless is chlorinated trisodium phosphate (CTSP).

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