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Author Topic: The way you use your yeast...  (Read 12817 times)

Offline denny

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #75 on: September 29, 2015, 12:49:15 pm »
Well, has it been covered?  If so, does anyone have a link?  In my early brewing days I used Iodophor as my sanitizer and switched to Starsan at some point.  I have been brewing for 16 years and it's probably been at least 12 years that I've been using Starsan.

If you have not encountered any problems in 12 years, then you do not have anything to worry about.  I had a run in with a wild yeast strain, which is how I discovered StarSan's Achilles heel. In a nutshell, StarSan is an acid-anionic sanitizer.  Due to their mode of operation (attraction to cells with a positive charge), acid-anionic sanitizers are not effective yeast and mold killers.

I had the opposite situation.  I was a die hard iodophor user for many years.  I picked up a low level house infection and starSan knocked it out when iodophor wouldn't.  I've been a StarSan user ever since....with the exception of sanitizing my yeast starter equipment.  I still use iodophor for that, but only because I feel it's easier to measure small amounts of that than StarSan.
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Offline Joe Sr.

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #76 on: September 29, 2015, 01:04:31 pm »
I alternate between Starsan and iodophor on an irregular basis.  Started doing because I had both and wanted to use them up.  Still doing it because it seems like a good idea to change it up now and then.
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Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #77 on: September 29, 2015, 01:13:40 pm »
I alternate between Starsan and iodophor on an irregular basis.  Started doing because I had both and wanted to use them up.  Still doing it because it seems like a good idea to change it up now and then.

+1.  Same thing I do. I don't know if there's any credence to microbes that get resistant to sanitizer, but since I started switching now and then I've had no infections - been a few years since the last one.
Jon H.

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #78 on: September 29, 2015, 02:15:37 pm »
I had the opposite situation.  I was a die hard iodophor user for many years.  I picked up a low level house infection and starSan knocked it out when iodophor wouldn't.  I've been a StarSan user ever since....with the exception of sanitizing my yeast starter equipment.  I still use iodophor for that, but only because I feel it's easier to measure small amounts of that than StarSan.

I have never encountered any microbe that iodophor would not kill, but there is always a first.  I cannot imagine any piece of equipment being more challenging to sanitize than the utters on a cow, and iodophor makes short work of it. 

Offline Village Taphouse

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #79 on: September 29, 2015, 04:17:31 pm »
When I was a new brewer our kitchen counters were off-white laminate and the iodophor would stain them along with any household containers I used and sanitized.  When I watched a thread where someone was asking for the best sanitizer, like 99% of the respondents said Starsan which I had never used.  At first I did not care for the foaming but you get used to it.  I also like the fact that when brewday is done I can dump some of the leftover solution into the kettle to effectively get rid of beerstone.  I always keep information like this in the back of my brain so you never know... one day I'll hit the LHBS and pick up iodophor!  Cheers gang.
Ken from Chicago. 
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Offline klickitat jim

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #80 on: September 29, 2015, 05:07:44 pm »
I iodaphor everything once a year. I dont know why

Offline Phil_M

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #81 on: September 29, 2015, 07:28:17 pm »
I'll have to pick some up and try it then, if only for occasional use till I finish my giant bottle of star san.
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Offline ynotbrusum

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #82 on: September 29, 2015, 08:15:02 pm »
I use both, but any more I use PBW for a reasonable soak for most of my vessels (not aluminum) then rinse well and immediately use alternating batches of Iodophor and Star San (not both on one sanitizing pass) to try to stay a step ahead of any bugs.  I have become much more conscious about covering "sanitized" vessels with lids, caps, or even a paper towel, foil or plastic wrap while waiting to rack or while racking.  The alternating approach seems to give exposure to the simplest, yet widest reach of commercially available, "just add to water" sanitizers.
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Offline leejoreilly

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #83 on: September 30, 2015, 06:51:52 am »
Mark, I disagree. The AVERAGE guitarist has no clue what you just said.

You can blame it on Nikola Tesla. :)

Wasn't he one of the guys in Milli Vanilli?

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #84 on: September 30, 2015, 08:26:52 am »
When I was a new brewer our kitchen counters were off-white laminate and the iodophor would stain them along with any household containers I used and sanitized.

I hear you on that concern.  It is the reason why I too quit using iodophor for a number of years.  I grew tired of repainting the wall area near our laundry sink.  I used to use the 25ppm solution, and iodophor stains anything porous fairly quickly at that concentration.  I have switched to using the 12.5ppm solution this time around, so far, so good. The 12.5ppm solution does not stain anywhere near as quickly as the 25ppm solution.

Only time will tell if I go back to the equivalent of 1 fl. oz. of 5% bleach (scale this quantity by multiplying 1 by 5 divided by the actual percentage of sodium hypochlorite printed on the container) and 1 fl. oz of vinegar mixed into 5 gallons of water.   It's so darn cheap and convenient. I am also thinking about toying around with home-brewed paracetic acid, which is made by mixing hydrogen peroxide with vinegar. 
« Last Edit: September 30, 2015, 01:38:38 pm by S. cerevisiae »

Offline dilluh98

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #85 on: September 30, 2015, 09:34:35 am »
I am also thinking about toying around with home-brewed paracetic acid, which is made by mixing hydrogen peroxide with vinegar. 

Sounds like you're toying with a poor man's piranha solution. As a research chemist, I can attest to the cleansing/carbon breakdown action of such a solution, as long as it's organic in nature. Please be careful with this and keep it away from any pure organic solvent - particularly halogenated organic solvents. Adding a highly oxidizing acid to a halogenated organic solvent is called the duck reaction as you better duck under the lab bench if the two come in contact. This might not be such a concern with peracetic acid though since acetic acid is a fairly weak acid compared to sulfuric which is used with hydrogen peroxide in true piranha solution. Interestingly, piranha solution really doesn't do much for inorganics. For that we use aqua regia (1:3 by volume conc. nitric acid : conc. hydrochloric acid) which will dissolve a gold ring quite quickly if you left it for a soak.  ;)

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #86 on: September 30, 2015, 09:54:57 am »
A compound with the formula H2O2 has to be respected.  :)

Offline Village Taphouse

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #87 on: September 30, 2015, 09:56:14 am »
Sheesh!  Careful out there folks.  We're just trying to make beer here!  :P  Sincerely, "don't try this at home" has never been truer!  :D
Ken from Chicago. 
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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #88 on: September 30, 2015, 10:07:40 am »
Yes, none of us wants to be the star of an episode of "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: The way you use your yeast...
« Reply #89 on: September 30, 2015, 10:12:06 am »
Sheesh!  Careful out there folks.  We're just trying to make beer here!  :P  Sincerely, "don't try this at home" has never been truer!  :D

+1
Jon H.