Sanitizers

[brewmar]

New brewer gearing up to get brewery up and running. Got questions on sanitation.

Can anyone provide input on the use of Hydrogen Peroxide or Peroxyacetic Acid for sanitizing tanks? Pros and Cons?

Thoughts on other sanitizers that may be better/worse for circulating applications?

Also, any help on a typical volume (gallons sanitizer per bbl tank size) used for sanitizing tanks would be much appreciated.

thanks in advance for your help.

John

[Woolsocks]

I use PPA on tanks. Advantages: it's a great sanitizer - very killy. It's cheap. You don't have to rinse. Disadvantages: it's stinky. It's dangerous. I've splashed myself with it and it turns your skin white for a while.

All else being equal, I'd prefer to use chlorine dioxide. It's very effective, safer than PPA (IF you know what you're doing when activating it), and breaks down completely into NaCl+H20. However, it's too expensive for me to justify switching, so I'm still on PPA.

Just my $0.02. I haven't done any trials to determine kill rates of various sanitizers --- I'm going off what I've heard and read.

[gitchegumee]

Sanitizers, like almost everything else, have proper and improper applications; pros and cons; followers and detractors. That's why there are so many in use. I like to use two sanitizers in my brewery. Helps to keep one bug from exploiting the shortcomings of any one sanitizer. Pick two sanitizers you think you might want experience with. Use them according to manufacturer's instructions and gain experience with them. This way you'll develop your own preference and cost-benefits. As for how much to mix up--use only as much as it takes for your CIP pump to keep running full. As long as you're circulating sanitizer, it's enough. Any more is a waste.

[beauxman]

Yummy, PAA brings me back to my photo processing career before digital cameras forced me into brewing. Is that a faint hint of black and white fixer? Maybe E6 or C41 bleach/bleach-fix? Or is it my bag of salt and vinegar chips? I have heard that switching your bug killing routine every year is good in order to keep them guessing. I am a fan of the PAA but maybe thats my affinity for fixer....damn those digital cameras!