Well, that’s not what I wanted to hear. Have you tried chlorine dioxide?
I also got back into brewing last year. I completely agree with Denny’s site for batch sparging tips http://dennybrew.com/ and checking Don O’s batch sparge videos on YouTube.
Though I have a glass carboy for my secondary, I cringe every time I pick it up. I’ve seen some nasty wounds inflicted by an angry glass carboy. I think the Bigmouth plastic is safer and easier to clean if you are adverse to using plastic buckets. However, Speidel’s are VERY nice.
However, I have to admit, I thought it was really cool to see the turbulence of my Cali Common goin at it in the fermenter even by shining a light momentarily against the plastic bucket. Made me want to get some Bigmouth plastic fermenters.
As far as equipment, I am always seeing folks on Homebrewtalk posting equip for sale. I bought new but I imagine with some serious cleaning and replacement of expendable parts, used would be the way to go.
So Jon, what strength are you using the bleach solution at? I’ve been brewing for about 1.5 years and have not switched up sanitizer sat all. Have bleach at home, just curious
Just a dilute solution similar to what S. Cere mentioned - a couple or three tablespoons of UNSCENTED bleach/5 gallons, mixed well and soaked for a couple hours. I rinse with a ton of hot water, then give it starsan. Looking back I’ve done it once or twice/year for a few years. Cheap easy insurance.
The problem with Star San is not resistance. It’s the way that Star San sanitizes. Star San is not a true anti-microbial. It’s more accurately an anti-bacterial. The main active ingredient in Star San is the same chemical that is used to acid wash yeast; namely, phosphoric acid. Like acid washing, Star San works by lowering the pH below that at which most bacteria can survive. Wild yeast, mold, and acid-resistant bacteria are not killed by lowering the pH to below 3.0, which is why a yeast culture that becomes infected with wild yeast, mold, or acid-resistant bacteria has to be discarded or plated.
Bleach (sodium hypochlorite) sanitizes via a different mechanism. Sodium hypochlorite is a salt form of hypochlorous acid. Hypochlorous acid is a strong oxidant that kills a microbe by breaching its cell wall. Once inside of a cell it wreaks havoc by denaturing proteins. Hypochlorous acid can perform this feat because it carries a neutral charge; hence, it is not repelled by the cell membrane’s negative charge.
Science!
There’s always Iodophor.
I learn something every time I come here.
If you haven’t listened to them before, the Brewing Radio podcasts with the manufacturers of the various sanitizers are pretty informative.
There are clear plastic fermenters available, of course. See the big mouth bubbler from online brewing equipment suppliers as an example or Jim can show you his acrylic (I think) fermenters. But at the end of the day I love my 60 liter Spiedels for my ten gallon lager batches.
I had a persistent bug a while back that gave me clove (and I am sensitive to clove perception). I used PBW on everything at pretty high concentrations, even on buckets (I didn’t have the problem in the better bottles thankfully) and retired a few buckets to sour use/ household maintenance-only just to be sure that wild yeast left my brewery. It can be tough to isolate and banish, for sure.
Polycarbonate. They are made by Cambro, they have a web site. They are awesome but I have since gone to 30L Spiedels and love the extra head space, durability, ease of cleaning, and they are supposed to be high density plastic that has O2 barrier nearly like glass. Plus made in Germany so great beer is a given.