How important is sanitation beyond buckets/bottles/hoses?

[piojo]

Employees of some mushroom farms take serious precautions. Shower. Long sleeves. Face masks. Gloves. Long sleeves. No singing. Stationary, sanitized or sterile air.

We don't need to use that abundance of care, since yeast can fight. Most of us carefully sanitize containers, bottles, and hoses. But humans are the dirtiest thing that comes near the must. what's the chance of getting infections or off flavors from the following?:

• Talking while aerating the must
• Opening the fermenter bucket while not wearing a shirt
• Adding Fermaid O without boiling it
  
• Aerating after the lag phase with a whisk that isn't sanitized

Does this sort of sloppiness risk off-flavors, or is that a RAHAHB problem? And if you were brewing hundred gallon batches, would you take sanitation more seriously than you do?

Edit: sanitation will have different consequences for mead, beer, or wine, but if this is more appropriate in the other sub-forum, a moderator can move it.

 

[RPh_Guy]

what's the chance of getting infections or off flavors from the following?:

You won't be able to get scientific figures.
The obvious truth is that wild microbes are everywhere and the more chances you give them to take hold in your beer, the more likely they will do so.
We simply try to find a comfortable balance between precaution and practicality, knowing that one day we will get a contaminated batch.

From what I can tell, overall risk is pretty low unless you do one or more of the following

• Repeatedly repitch yeast
• Pitch non-hop unsanitized fruit or other plant material
• Don't clean
• Don't boil
• Let insects into your fermenter
• Try to sour wort without pre-acidification and/or pre-boil and no Sacc during the Lacto souring
• Drink a big gulp of Belgian Lambic and then sneeze in the wort

As you mentioned, wine, cider, and mead are totally different and contamination risk is extremely low if standard practices are followed.

I've worked in clean rooms with airflow hoods for pharmaceutical compounding. The amount of things you need to do to significantly reduce microbial presence is way above and beyond anything that could ever be implemented in a brewing setting. RDWHAHB

Hope this helps

 

[Pkrd]

Mushroom workers aren't protecting the mushrooms, they're protecting themselves. Those little guys are vicious.