Sterilisation
Wednesday, 06 July 2011 13:26 | 
Written by Peter | 
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Hint - never scrub your plastic equipment with scourers or hard plastic brushes or similar cleaning utensils. These leave microscopic scratches behind where bacteria and most importantly foreign yeast strains can take hold.
When I started brewing years ago I used to buy a steriliser that contained Sodium Metabisulphite which has now been replaced by Sodium Percarbonate, an environmentally friendly steriliser. Reading the instructions for the new type I was immediately put off by the suggestion of filling the brew kit completely with the solution and letting it stand for 24 hours. A waste of water and time. I am now using the good old non-perfumed bleach and had no problems so far. I also noticed an improvement of the cleanliness of the bottles. They are squeaky clean even after dozens of cycles. The Sodium Metabisulphite type steriliser did not properly clean the bottles. After a number of brews a brownish residue accumulated on the inside of the bottles and they had to be washed with a proper detergent. The bleach prevents that brown build-up.
In general I only use bleach to sterilise the insides of the plastic fermenter and bottles, crown seals, scraper, bottler and airlock.
Addition:
Seems that just bleach does not do such a good job. Over the last weeks I noticed an increasing number of bottles with residues on the inside. Time to get the bottle brush out and to give them a thorough scrub.
Current procedure:
After the nasty experience with the dirty bottles I had to discard a number of brews. I bought a proper horse hair bottle brush, brewers detergent and also Iodophor Steriliser. I do not use bleach anymore. The brewers detergent really cleanes the bottle. But be aware of it's strength and wear rubber gloves. I didn't when I used it first and suffered some painful chemical burns. The advantage of the brewsers detergent is that you do not have to rinse as much as after the use of bleach.
After cleaning comes sterilising with Iodophor. This stuff is amazing. It has a long shelf-life and sterilises on contact of about 20 to 60 seconds. You need only 1 milliliter per liter of water. Best thing is, you do not have to rinse afterwards - just drain. If you can stand the unique smell that is. I haven't noticed any impact on the flavour of the beer so far.