SteriPen for starter sanitation?

[Phunhog]

I use a SteriPen for sanitizing drinking water in the backcountry. It is basically a UV light that is dipped into your water bottle for a specified period of time....60 seconds will purify 1L of water to something like 99.85% bacteria free. It intended to take the place of treating your water via boiling or manual filtration.
It dawned on me that maybe this could be of use in making starters? Add some DME to water, stir to mix, sanitize with a SteriPen for a minute, and then add yeast. Obviously it would be a time saver over boiling/cooling starter wort. Any opinions?

 

[MrSnacks]

It won't work. Steripens don't work in cloudy mediums, the UV light is blocked by the crud.

And FWIW I ditched my Steripen for backpacking years ago. Sawyer's filters are simply a better choice. I don't trust anything with batteries or a mechanical switch in the backcountry, especially not for water.

 

[Phunhog]

It won't work. Steripens don't work in cloudy mediums, the UV light is blocked by the crud.

And FWIW I ditched my Steripen for backpacking years ago. Sawyer's filters are simply a better choice. I don't trust anything with batteries or a mechanical switch in the backcountry, especially not for water.

That is what I was afraid of. Of course if I did repeated treatments (3-4x) while it was on a stir plate it "might" work since all the starter wort would have a better chance of being exposed to the UV? Might have to experiment with this.
I agree it does make me nervous using a battery device like that....a lot can go wrong. That is why I always carry extra batteries AND some chlorine dioxide tabs just in case.

 

[Minbari]

interesting read. it would seem with a long enough exposure, it would work.

http://phc.amedd.army.mil/PHC Resou... of Individual Water Purification Devices.pdf