Where do you keep your inactive brewing equipment during brew day/racking activity?

[peoplesbrewing]

As a new brewer, I have been bombarded by articles on sanitation and the importance of keeping EVERYTHING that comes into contact with your wort as sanitary as possible, and of course for good reason.

With that said, I am wondering where you keep your inactive equipment while you are brewing? For example, I want to lay my thermometer, auto-siphon, etc. on a towel or on the counter until I need it again, but neither location has been sanitized. I guess I could wipe down a table surface with sanitizing solution but generally I just wanted to get your input as to where you keep your equipment. When possible, I keep the equipment in an unused bucket with a few gallons of solution that I made in the beginning, but when racking and such, I don't always have a free container, or anything else large enough to hold everything.

Am I over-thinking it? What do you do?

 

[edds5p0]

As a new brewer, I have been bombarded by articles on sanitation and the importance of keeping EVERYTHING that comes into contact with your wort as sanitary as possible, and of course for good reason.

With that said, I am wondering where you keep your inactive equipment while you are brewing? For example, I want to lay my thermometer, auto-siphon, etc. on a towel or on the counter until I need it again, but neither location has been sanitized. I guess I could wipe down a table surface with sanitizing solution but generally I just wanted to get your input as to where you keep your equipment. When possible, I keep the equipment in an unused bucket with a few gallons of solution that I made in the beginning, but when racking and such, I don't always have a free container, or anything else large enough to hold everything.

Am I over-thinking it? What do you do?

My stuff sits in a pot of iodophor next the spray bottle of iodophor.

 

[krackin]

Just wet a towel or two with sanitizer to place whatever on. I keep a couple of old socks with iodine solution handy for wiping anything down that may need it unexpectedly. Socks are better than sponges for this.

 

[mpcluever]

I keep Star San in a spray bottle. Any equipment can just sit on a clean table and gets sprayed down right before it gets used. On brew day, the only time you need to worry about sanitizing is going to the fermenter. If you stick the thermometer in the last few minutes of the boil, there's no need to sanitize it.

 

[peoplesbrewing]

Ok that's exactly what I needed to hear. Sometimes when you focus too hard on one thing, common sense goes out the window lol. Thanks for the advice.

 

[cbrown9064]

I used a big, flat storage box. Not quite as big as a under-bed box, but about 28" L X 10" H X 14" W. This also holds most of the misc parts for storage after brew day.

Throw 5 gallons of water in with your choice of sanitzer. When mashing, I throw everything in, strainer, airlock, scissors (for Wyeast packets) kettle drain tubing, spoons, paddles, thermometer, etc...

Everything can lay in the sanitizer and pull out when needed. Also during draining of the boil kettle into my fermenting bucket, I toss the bucket lid in to the sanitizer tub.

Learned all this from a buddy who taught me about home brewing.

 

[abledsoe]

I keep one bucket full of StarSan mixture which holds everything until I need it, and one bucket of Oxyclean and water so I can easily toss dirty stuff in until I can thoroughly clean it (wort is sticky and can gum things up quickly). I also have a spray bottle of StarSan handy. I have a digital thermometer with about a 6" probe so I keep a coffee mug of StarSan that I can set that in without getting it wet (this comes in most handy while chilling, I can dip it in for a reading, then put it back in the mug for a few minutes before the next reading).

 

[Travestian]

About 45 minutes into my boil I will get a 5 gallon batch of starsan going in a 10 gallon rubbermaid tub. All my stuff I intend on using after the boil is already in the tub so I never have to worry about things not being sanitary. I have a second tub for all my dirty equipment after it has been used.

 

[jCOSbrew]

Put 1-2 gallons of sanitizer in the fermenter bucket.
Put airlock, hydrometer, and other cold side parts in the bucket.

If you put distilled water w/ starsan in the spray bottle, it will last for months.