I wouldn’t use really hot water with plastic carboys. There’s some what has had them shrivel.
I’ve not had that happen, but I try to keep the water at a reasonable temperature.
Although I generally don’t any more, I’ve done the same with no negative consequences. The this day, when I rack I sanitize the racking cane and tubing, then fill them with tap water from my well to get the siphon going. Nothing I’d recommend to anyone, but also never a problems doing that hundreds of times.
I would think you would need some pretty poor water quality for it to make a difference, no?
Jeeze, I share some of my best stuff with yous guys - and you ignore it. :
Sanitize:
(săn’ĭ-tīz’) pronunciation
tr.v., -tized, -tiz·ing, -tiz·es. 1. To make sanitary, as by cleaning or disinfecting.
+1. I brewed for years (back in the day) rinsing with hot city tap water and never had a problem. I use Starsan now, but I think the risks of rinsing were a bit overstated.
Considering the number of partial boil extract brews I’ve done where at least half of what goes into the fermenter is water straight from the tap. . .
Really poor water indeed. If it made a difference to your beer the water would be non-potable anyway.
However, I’d question anything heavily chlorinated or smelling of chlorine. That could mess the beer up bad. And at certain times of the year I smell chlorine in our water. Added by the city of course.
You run the tap water filled in the tubes into the keg? I’ll usually run it out till the tube is filled with beer, then cap with my thumb, then run that into the keg.
As far as cleaning goes, using anything other than water on your kettles and mashtuns is overkill. I just rinse those buggers out make sure they look clean. Fermenters, however, they get the sh*t cleaned out of them. I make my own PBW with 70% Oxyclean and 30% TSP90.
I’m thinking the tap water is probably cleaner than your thumb though, even if you ‘sanitize’ your thumb with vodka.
With the places my thumb has been you can take that to the bank.
I have one of those little plastic clamp things on my lines to shut off the flow. Keeps the concern of thumb sanitation out of the equation.
Measured by weight or volume?
I sanitize my hands in the starsan usually. I don’t dunk them, but I spray the outside of the tubing while the tube is filled with the sanitizer. So, I’m thinking my thumb is sanitized enough.
Sorry, totally missed beersk’s post a few above this one when I posted the recipe below. Same thing. I usually measure it by volume. It’s not an exact science. You can play with the ratio a bit to find something that works well for you.
My original post:
If you want to make some homemade PBW, use 3 parts Oxyclean (no dyes) or a generic subsitute like Sun Oxygen Cleaner (Sodium percarbonate) with 1 part Red Devil TSP-90 (Sodium Metasilicate) available at most hardware stores. Mix well and you can have almost 9 lbs of homemade PBW for less than $10.
This recipe is derived from the description of the make up of PBW given by Charlie Talley (owner of 5 Star) on the Brewing Network. I have used it for several years with great success.
Not to hijack the thread, but have not seen any mention of Super Pro-Zyme. Anyone use that?
Measured by weight. Not sure how it works out, but like 2.8lbs of oxiclean and 1.2lbs of TSP90, or something like that to make up 4lbs. It’s somewhere around there.
I cleaned lab equipment in high school with Enzyte. If it works the same way, it’s amazing.
AND it cleans lab equipment too!!
Now that’s funny! No need to read in to that one…
D’oh
A no-rinse cleaner ( as in you wouldn’t want to rinse it and have it transfer to your beer ;D )