Using Bleach (Clorox) as a Cleaner and Sanitizer
Any home brewer knows the importance of proper cleaning and sanitation, but do you really know the impact those chemicals have on your equipment and beer. When we began our brewing adventures, we were using standard dish washing soap and Easy Clean for sanitizing from LD Carlson. Once we blew through the small container we began using unscented bleach to sanitize. Bleach is cheap and convenient (sitting next to my laundry machine which is next to where we brew).
Most sources in home brew lit (including Palmer & Papizan) make mention of unscented bleach as a good sanitizer as long as it is diluted one tablespoon of bleach to one gallon of water. There are 2 key things to be aware of:
1. The chemical agents in bleach (chlorine, chlorides, hydrochloride) will cause blackening and excessive corrosion to brass, copper, and aluminum. So all you copper mash tuners, beware. For example, the picture to the left is our brass Pipe Hex Bushing adapter that sits in the inside wall of our mash tun. After only two bleach soakings of 30 minutes each, you can already see the noticeable blackening and corrosion. To clean brass soak it in two parts white vinegar to one part hydrogen peroxide and soak for 15 minutes to remove tarnish.
2. Using too much bleach or not rinsing bleach properly can lead to off flavors in your beer or poor head retention. I know that I am too liberal with the bleach and hypothesize this could have contributed to the non-existent head in our last Irish Stout.
Moving forward we will begin cleaning with the percarbonate cleaner PBW from Five Star Chemicals. It will not corrode brass & copper and is recommended for cleaning plastic (fermentation vessels) and copper (Wort chiller we are about to build). More importantly, just purchased Star San for sanitizing – also from Five Star Chemicals. This is a no rinse sanitizer that home brew author John Palmer is a pretty big fan of – click here for more info. In searching online for Star San, I haven’t seen it much cheaper than what Northern Brewer offers it for.
In summary, don’t blame the bleach, blame the brewer. But since I have little trust in the brewer at times, I am going away from bleach.
about 5 months ago
Be aware, too, that Clorox has small amounts of optical brighteners in it. Probably not a concern, but you should know, if you’re going to use it to disinfect.
about 5 months ago
You guys should put some social media tools on here, like a Digg button or something. You might get some traction on some of these articles. I would also recommend putting some affiliate links to home brew supply places to generate some $$.
about 5 months ago
Thanks for the tip, Rustic39, re: optical brighteners in Clorox. I did a brief search on the topic and came up with little to no information relative to brewing. Can you describe how this might affect the fermentation or final product? I’m not aiming for 100% organic, green, shade-grown home brew, but certainly don’t want nasty chemicals in my brew.
-Brett
about 4 months ago
I’m a StarSan fan. I’ve used Sodium Metabisulfate as well as Citrox for sanitising but StarSan’s been my favourite so far. Expensive for the size of the bottle you get but a little goes a looooong way and so I’m guessing that it may even be cheaper in the long run.