Is all this sterilising really necessary

[Richardb22]

Is all this sterilising necessary?

Many years ago my family made wine. Weeks before the barrels would be filled with water so the wood expanded and they were watertight and yes a few days before brew day I remember some sterilising solution. In went the grapes straight out of their boxes (along with stems leaves and gnats) through a mangle or crusher washed with water. A week or so later in a barrel with simple wooden lid, mainly to keep the bees out) in it went to the demijohns. Now I do not remember them being sterilised though we always boiled the corks and months later it went into bottles, again with boiled corks. We washed the carboys and bottles well with the god old garden hose. Everything except the barrel was just washed in water.

I never made wine but have started kit beers sterilising everything by the book.

I see the sense and necessity in sterilising my bucket or carboy they are plastic and they get gungy/yeasty/dried frothy during a brew and to lose 23 lt if it got “infected “ would be annoying

When I have finished a beer I rinse out the bottle (twice) and put it in my cupboard. Before I bottle my beer I sterilise and rinse again.

Can I cut out the sterilise bit?

What could possibly be lurking in my glass beer bottles that I need to sterilise them all? I would have no qualm about grabbing an empty beer bottle from my cupboard filling it with water and drinking it with no fear of poisoning. Why should filling it with beer carbonating and drinking be different?

Living in a small flat it is time consuming and a real pain to sterilise 23lt of bottles.

What do you think?

Richard

 

[DrewschBag]

First, the greater alcohol content of wine makes it less susceptible to baddies. Many nasty things can live in a 4-8% abv beer.

Is all this sterilising necessary?

I would have no qualm about grabbing an empty beer bottle from my cupboard filling it with water and drinking it with no fear of poisoning. Why should filling it with beer carbonating and drinking be different?


Richard

With this, you're drinking the water right away. Instead, put the water in the basement for two weeks. Then drink it.

 

[CBMbrewer]

The sugar in beer and wine provide food for spoilage bacteria and yeast. *Sanitation* is paramount for brewing! Sterilizing is pretty impractical though. But, if you do get an infection, there is nothing pathogenic (can make you sick) that can survive in beer or wine.

 

[glick]

My personal opinion... If it wasn't necessary then there wouldn't be so many "Is my beer infected" threads. Sanitization is necessary.

 

[Pratzie]

Problem is what about any germies in the water. Might not be harmful to us when we drink it but could cause the beer to spoil.

U might want to look into oven sterilizing. Rinse the beer bottles like u have been and then put a small piece of foil over the top. When u get a decent numbe of them (It'll depend on the size of ur oven), put them on a rack in the oven and slowly raise the temp. Here's a link to info from Palmer's book that someone posted here awhile ago.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/have-you-sanitized-sterilized-using-your-oven-152563/

Let them cool down slowly and then u can put them in the cupboard or in an empty case. As long as u keep that piece of foil on top the entire time, they will remain sterile until bottling day.

I like this method and mention it because its simple and saves time. After rinsing the empties i put a piece of foil over and put them in an empty case i have. Once the case is full, i'll throw them in for 3 hours or so, shut it off and go to bed. When i get up or get home from work the following day, they are already cooled, i take them out, put them back in the case and leave it in a closet in the hallway til I bottle. Don't have to worry about bottle tree, mixing small batches of star san or whatever. I just take the star san i keep in a spray bottle, dump it in a bowl and throw the bottlecaps in. When im done, the star san goes back in the spray bottle and thats it.

 

[fosaisu]

I notice that your family was using a "god old garden hose". I think that was the key to your success.

Seriously though, when I bottle I do the following:

1. rinse well immediately after drinking so the yeast doesn't dry up and mold doesn't form
2. sanitize the bottles using StarSan in a vinator (love this thing, makes sanitizing much, much faster)
3. DON'T rinse bottles with water after sanitizing (kind of defeats purpose of sanitizing).
4. Instead, just dump residual StarSan from bottle immediately before filling, or if you're really anal about getting even tiny amounts of StarSan in your brew, allow to drip dry upside down before you bottle

It's a bit of a pain but since a) I'm not confident that even a thorough rinse gets every bit of yeast out of the bottles and b) my bottles often sit around for a month or three between uses, giving opportunity for who-knows-what to fall into them, it seems worth the effort to minimize the chance of something other than my intended yeast going to work on my carefully crafted beer and the priming sugar.

 

[Dawai]

HEY, my damp Barley grain I pulled out of my wort spoiled in two hours, picked up a real nasty taste. Just as I was learning it tastes like Malted milk.. I got a bite for the wife and me, we both spit it out quick.

Yes, you want the yeast you bought working producing the fermenting flavor in the recipe, not the Fungus from under your fingernails where you was scratching the cat's back. OR the dog, or the flying maggot, or.....

(I too am learning as I go)

AND>. might I add, even boiling temperatures does not kill some things.. As a retired tattoo artist, the health department would come into the mobile shop, stick a culture into my autoclave and tell me to run a normal cycle.. checking that my "dry steam" killed everything under a microscope.. Most tattoo artists hated them things, they ruined a lot of good needles warping the ends with heat. Even a new needle was not sterile back then, someone built it, packing the end even with a finger.. how clean was that "pecker-y handling" finger? you tell me?

I can't be clean enough.. Paranoid is the word. At least I am not sitting in a motel room eating nothing but Campbells soup like HH did..?? yet..

 

[duboman]

I notice that your family was using a "god old garden hose". I think that was the key to your success.

Seriously though, when I bottle I do the following:

1. rinse well immediately after drinking so the yeast doesn't dry up and mold doesn't form
2. sanitize the bottles using StarSan in a vinator (love this thing, makes sanitizing much, much faster)
3. DON'T rinse bottles with water after sanitizing (kind of defeats purpose of sanitizing).
4. Instead, just dump residual StarSan from bottle immediately before filling, or if you're really anal about getting even tiny amounts of StarSan in your brew, allow to drip dry upside down before you bottle

It's a bit of a pain but since a) I'm not confident that even a thorough rinse gets every bit of yeast out of the bottles and b) my bottles often sit around for a month or three between uses, giving opportunity for who-knows-what to fall into them, it seems worth the effort to minimize the chance of something other than my intended yeast going to work on my carefully crafted beer and the priming sugar.

This process is pretty spot on and describes how things need to be done, the only thing I will add/correct is the drip dry thing. Star San is only effective wet so allowing it to dry is counter-productive Don't fear the foam!

 

[BigFloyd]

I seem to recall as a kid in the 60's and 70's that almost all of the home-brewed beer and wine of that day tasted like ca-ca. Could it be that "all this sterilising" helps make that the exception these days rather than the rule?

But Richard, if you find all of this cleaning and sanitizing to be a bit of a burden, don't worry about it. Just brew the way you want and enjoy whatever comes out the other end.

 

[day_trippr]

Better to over-do than not. Bottom line, you'd be an idiot to short cut a solid sanitation regimen and end up with a dumper. Brewing ingredients aren't cheap...

Cheers!

 

[Richardb22]

I get the point no shortcuts thanks all

 

[Dawai]

Your reply sounds hurt, or offended, please don't be. Friend, I don't think anyone is picking on you. What I have noticed here is Addicts, people trying to produce the Best there is of "whatever" they are brewing.

Ever notice how some wine "from some places" is better than others? is that the "yeast growing between the Lovely virgins toes" as they stomp it? (this is some of that American humor)

Wish ya was here, I got some great Columbian coffee this morning, biscuits and sausage. It's going to be a great day.

My wife brought home cheap fruit juice for jelly.. makes a lovely amber jelly, but you must add pectin, as the OLD UGLY jelly right off the tree, peels cores and all has it's own in the peels.. I was thinking.. now, some wine, perhaps ten or fifteen gallons perhaps.. If I could only find some "virgins" with the proper yeast between their toes.

 

[Richardb22]

Thanks mate one of these days I am going to go to town on the best brews . Trying my hand with the basics to start . Richard