Sanitation

The whole purpose of brewing is to create the perfect food for micro-organisms. The only way to make good-tasting beer is to make sure that brewerâs yeast is the only organism that gets a significant chance to eat that food. (By the way, there are no known human pathogens that can survive in beer, so you donât have to worry about poisoning yourself or your friends.)

To make sure that yeast has the upper hand, you need to clean and sanitize everything that will come in contact with the beer.

On brewing day, this includes the following items:

Fermenter
Fermenter lid
Air lock parts and stopper
Thermometer
Hydrometer
Funnel -- if applicable
Cup or bowl used for mixing the yeast

On bottling day, this includes:

Racking or bottling bucket
Racking cane and transfer tubing
Bottle filler
Measuring cup used for priming sugar
Hydrometer
Bottles and bottle caps

Before each item is used, it should first be cleaned of all visible soil or residue and then soaked in sanitizing solution for at least ten minutes.

Cleaning is best done with a normal dish cleaning sponge or pad and plenty of hot water. Then, when all of the items are clean, fill the fermenter or racking bucket with your hottest tap water and mix in the appropriate amount of sanitizer. (Two ounces in five gallons is the normal rate if you are using household bleach.) Then put all the other items that need to be sanitized into that bucket to soak. These items should soak for at least ten minutes and longer soaking periods will generally not hurt them.

When you are ready to use an item, take it out of the solution and rinse it once with very hot tap water. If you will not be using the item immediately, set it on a clean paper towel or back into a smaller container of sanitizer.

While you are doing all of this, think like a bug. Think about where you could hang out to avoid the sanitizer and still get into the beer. When you find those places, clean 'em!

Please, donât suck!

OK, so youâre ready to use the racking tube to move your beer from the fermenter to the racking bucket. First thing you have to do is get the racking tube and cane full of beer so that it will flow by siphon action.

Your natural inclination is to stick the racking cane into the beer and then suck on the other end to draw the beer into the tube. Bad idea. The human mouth is full of nasty bacteria - even after treatment with some noxious mouthwash. Instead, youâll want to fill the tube with water before you start so that the flow will begin as soon as you open the clamp. The little bit of water from the hose can either be run into the racking bucket with the beer or caught in a cup and discarded.

Hereâs one approach. At the beginning of the day, fill the whole racking tube and cane assembly with water. You can suck on it here if you want, but better yet, hold the open end of the tubing up against the faucet and let the pressure of the water fill the device. Then drop the cane end into your racking bucket when it is filled with sanitizer. Open the clamp on the end of the tubing and use a measuring cup or other small container to run solution through the racking cane and tubing until they are full of sanitizer. Close the clamp and throw the clamp end into the bucket of sanitizing solution along with the cane end so that both can soak.

When the soaking is done, you will have a sanitized racking cane and tube that are full of sanitizing solution. For the rest of the day, youâll want to keep that tube and cane full of liquid - that way youâll always be ready to start the flow of beer and youâll never have to suck on the end.

Before the first use, you can fill a small sanitized container with water and simply siphon that water into the cane and tube. Now you are ready to begin racking your beer by simply inserting the cane into the beer and the open end of the tube into the racking bucket and then opening the clamp. Voila!

-- Ray Daniels