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Thursday 13 February 2014

A List Of Brewery Sanitizer

By Marcie Goodman


The brewing fraternity always subscribe to the notion that good brewing is seventy per cent cleaning. This implies that a beer batch is only as good as the cleaning agent. Therefore, after cleaning the brewing equipments the next important activity is sanitization. This is achieved by use of an agent called a brewery sanitizer. Most are chemical in nature and they do ensure that no foreign organism exists in the wort.

It is clear that sanitization requires much attention for the whole process to be successful. Any chance that other microorganism can dwell in the wort together with yeast should be eradicated. The wort solution is a good environment for bacteria to live and reproduce. They therefore end up spoiling the beer batch by giving it off flavors. Bacteria will not only be hidden in the fermentor but also in other brewing equipments like the funnel and siphon. Therefore, making it necessary to sanitize all items.

An easily available sanitizer is industrial alcohol. It kills microorganisms by interfering with their cell structure. Alcohol best achieves this by mixing it with water in a ratio of two to one. It kills bacteria in less than ten minutes. The brewing equipments are soaked in it for more than one hour. Its major drawback is that it is highly flammable even when mixed with water in the above ratio. The most effective alcohol sanitizer is Isopropyl.

Iodophor adds up the list as a very effective disinfectant.Iodophor is iodine based and just a few grams of it mixed with five gallons of water can successfully sanitize equipments with a ten minute soak. The solution usually has a faint brown color that can be used as measure of its effectiveness. If this color fades then it indicates that iodine levels have dropped. It is important to use the correct amount of iodophor because using excess amounts will leads to unwanted beer flavoring.

The least expensive and widely used sanitizer is chlorine bleach. Its recommended use is two ounces of bleach per five gallons of water. This solution will have two hundred parts per million of chlorine to act as the sanitizing agent. Use of chlorine bleach requires that the equipments be thoroughly rinsed in order to minimize cases of flavoring the beer.

Another effective sanitizer is moist heat that is generated inside pressure cookers or autoclaves. These apparatus employ the use of steam under pressure to exterminate all microorganisms in less than twenty minutes.

The most effective chemical disinfectant is hydrogen peroxide. It exterminates bacteria in ten minutes by changing their cell composition. In the case where chlorine bleach is used, it is used to rinse the surfaces in order to get rid of the destructive properties of chlorine.

The most experienced home brewers know what brewery sanitizer to pick. They also know how to interchange it severally depending on how often they use a certain equipment to produce batches. Therefore, a case of producing off taste beer is not a problem they encounter.




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