Homebrewing sanitizers are a crucial ingredient to brewing great beer. But with so many on the market, which one do you buy? I’ve done the research for you and will explain the pros and cons of each, and give my recommendation for the best sanitizer.
Bleach
Very common household chemical and super cheap. Only a small amount will make a strong sanitizing solution.
Pros:
- Easy to find
- Cheap
- Powerful
Cons:
- Must rinse it out thoroughly. While rinsing you risk contaminating the equipment if your rinse water is not sterile. Rinsing also takes a lot of time and water, which costs money.
- Harmful to skin, eyes, and clothes.
- If any amount gets into your beer it will ruin the taste.
Overall: Bleach has a lot of uses around the house but sanitizing homebrew equipment shouldn’t be one of them. The rinsing is a time and water waster, and unless you use sterilized water you risk contamination. Also, if you’re like me, you tend to make a wet mess – not good with bleach. Go with a sanitizer that is made specifically for homebrewing.
One-Step
Common oxygen based sanitizer that comes with many starter homebrewing kits.
Pros:
Cons:
- No longer classified as a sanitizer by the FDA.
- Many homebrewers treat it as a strong cleaner, and will not sanitize with it.
Overall: From what I’ve read, it sounds like One-Step isn’t classified as a sanitizer by the FDA because they don’t want to go through the approval process, so they may get a pass there. Still, if there is doubt, why risk it when there are better alternatives? You’re probably OK using One-Step, but I’d recommend you buy Iodophor or Star-San when it runs out.
Iodophor
Very effective iodine based sanitizer that can be found at any homebrew store or bought online.
Pros:
- No rinse
- Short contact time
- Cheap
Cons:
- Will stain plastic equipment over time. Will also stain skin and clothing.
- If too much is used (easy to do), it will leave a funny odor and stain badly.
Overall: A great sanitizer and one that I used for years. It’s used by a ton of homebrewers and if Star-San didn’t exist, I would easily rank it #1.
Star-San
A very effective acid rinse sanitizer. Find it at any homebrew store or buy online.
Pros:
- Foaming helps get in cracks and crevices
- No rinse
- Colorless and odorless
- A little goes a long ways
- Can be reused as long as pH is below 3
Cons:
- Will make your hands very dry
- The foam scares people, which is silly
Overall: Don’t fear the foam! Star-San is my #1 pick for the best sanitizer. Put it in a squirt bottle and you will use much less, and make it easier to sanitize your equipment. Mix it with distilled or reverse osmosis water and it can be reused many times.
What do you use to sanitize? Is it one of the ones I didn’t mention?
Click Here to Read the Transcript
Hey everyone I’m Billy Broas from BillyBrew.com and I’m going to talk about sanitizers.
Now, every homebrewer knows that sanitization is key to making a good clean beer like this one. If you screw that up your beer is not going to be clean it is going to be infected, it’s going to have bacteria, it’s going to taste nasty, and your most likely going to have to dump it out. But, which sanitizer is the best one, because there are so many out there? So I’m going to go through the most common sanitizers, tell you the pros and cons, and give you my opinion about the best ones out there.
So the first one up is bleach, and a lot of homebrewers use this and you probably have it in your house right now. That’s really the benefit of it. It’s really common, and really cheap. this giant jug was seven or eight bucks at Wal-Mart. It’s powerful stuff. It’s going to do the job and sanitize, but the thing about it is, it’s not no rinse. Meaning you have to rinse off your equipment after you use it. That raises two problems. One, it takes more time. And two, you might contaminate your equipment when your rinsing it out, undoing everything you just did with the bleach. On top of that, it’s pretty dangerous, you don’t wanna get it on your eyes or your skin. And if you get it on your clothes you know what’s going to happen. You’re going to have a tie dyed shirt. So bleach is great, it has a lot of good uses, but sanitization is not one of them to me and I wouldn’t recommend it with all these other good ones. So, don’t recommend the bleach.
Next up is One-Step, and if you bought an equipment kit at one point it probably came with this, that’s fairly common. And unlike bleach this is no rinse, so that’s good it saves you time. This bag is very cheap, it’s three or four bucks, but you go through a lot of it, so these bags and the cost really add up. But the biggest drawback about One-Step is that many brewers don’t consider it a sanitizer. It’s really considered more of a strong cleaner. And you know that’s kind of up in the air, but there are better and more effective sanitizers out there. So my thing is, if there’s better options, why not go with those? You’re probably OK with the One-Step while you have it, but once you use it up I would move on to one of these next two that I’m gonna talk about.
Now we’re on to Iodophor and this stuff is great. It’s a no rinse, iodine based sanitizer. It needs a short contact time, only about a minute. It’s pretty cheap. This bottle was about twelve dollars and it lasts a long long time. It’s really effective. You don’t have to worry about anything if you use it right. It’s gonna sanitize all your equipment really well. Drawbacks of it – you can see it’s a dark brown color, and over time it will stain your equipment. In fact it stains everything. If you get it on your clothes, your hands, your kitchen counter. It’s only cosmetic on your equipment, but that might matter to you. It matters to me. Especially on you vinyl tubing on your siphons, it will definitely stain that. So Iodophor, I recommend it, a lot of homebrewers use it. I used it for years, but it’s not my favorite, but I will show you my favorite right now. So this is Star San and in my opinion it’s the best homebrewing sanitizer out there. It’s really effective stuff. It’s no rinse. It needs a short contact time – only about a minute. It seems expensive because this little bottle is about eight dollars, but here’s the thing, you can use it over and over again if you use distilled or RO water. So this little bottle ends up lasting a long, long time. Now, a lot of new brewers are afraid of using Star San because it creates a lot of foam, and they don’t want to mix the beer with the foam. But as we say, “Don’t fear the foam”. It’s not bad for it. I rack on to the foam all the time when I’m transferring my beer and it’s never been a problem. In fact, the foam is a nutrient for the yeast. It’s a yeast food. So it’s actually good for it.
So to wrap up here I’m going to show you a little trick with the Star San. It will make your life a whole lot easier. You can actually it into a spray bottle and sanitize your equipment that way. So for example if I’m transferring from my carboy and I want to sanitize the neck of it, which is a good idea, I just give it a little sprits and it makes it super simple to sanitize it. Plus you use a whole lot less and it will last a long, long time. So this is a handy thing to have around.
So those are my picks for the two best sanitizers. The two I really recommend are Iodophor and Star San. One-Step is OK but I would get off of it, and I don’t recommend bleach.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll talk to you down in the comments. Cheers.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
You know anything about B-Brite? The lady at the homebrew shop was really trying to sell me on it, but I had not heard of it. I used bleach now, though, so shows what I know.
My only issue with Star San (besides occasional fear of the foam) is that it leaves stuff slippery. I like to put my airlocks in a sanitizing solution until I pitch my yeast. Once when using a Star San solution I could not get the plug/airlock in the carboy. It would slide right out. I went back to Iodophor, despite it staining all of my gear
@Adam I’ve never personally used B-Brite but from what I’ve heard it is similar to One-Step – more of a cleaner than a sanitizer. There are a lot of accounts of One-Step being pushed on people at homebrew shops b/c they know you’ll go through it fast. Could be the same deal. As for the bleach, you can definitely make great beer using it, and plenty of people do. If it works for you then that’s cool. I just suggest trying the others that you might like better.
@Chris It’s funny, I’ve heard people talk about how slippery it is but I’ve really never noticed or had a problem with it. That would annoy the crap outta me though! Thanks for sharing the experience.
Hey Billy,
Thanks for all your advice, I like the site. I bought my equipment over the weekend and made my first batch. Luckily, the NMA helped me so hopefully it turns out ok.
Pete
@Pete Thanks Pete glad you like the site. Congrats on you’re first brew! The NMA knows what he’s doing so I’m you’re good. Be sure to let us know how it turns out.
Thanks so much for this. I’ve been wondering what to get for my next sanitizer because my kit came with B-Brite and I wanted to switch to something that is a real sanitizer since that is running out. I think I’ll go with your suggestion on Star San.
.-= Mike – MikeLovesBeer.com´s last blog ..Dogfish Head Dinner – Thursday May 6th =-.
When I started brewing I used iodophor – loved it! Less expensive, easy to use, no problem. It stained my hoses and tubing if I didn’t rinse right away, but they’re cheap and easy to replace. Last summer I ran out so gave Star San a try. I really like it! It’s a bit more expensive, but if you brew frequently it’s the best deal for your money because you can reuse it for quite a long time (just keep an eye on the pH & keep it covered). I haven’t been brewing as often so I tend to make a new batch each brew day, which is expensive and kind of a waste. I’m thinking about going back to iodophor next time I need to buy. And yes – I’ve had the same problem of the airlock not staying put, annoying but harmless.
Cheers!
How long will the Star San be effective once you’ve made it up with RO water? Love the site!
@Brad I’ve gone a few months and that’s only because my stash ran out. It’s still effective if the pH is under 3. You can test it with those pool test strips. Most homebrew stores carry them.
Hey Billy,
Any harm in letting things soak in Star San as you complete various tasks during the brewing process?
-D
@Dan Not at all, I do that all the time. On brew day I typically make the sanitizer batch during the boil and then throw in everything to soak until the wort is cooled. I’d say it’s a smart idea so you don’t forget and have to make a batch at the last minute.
Billy,
Saw a guy on youtube using Sodium Metabisulfite. Any opinions on this stuff. I know you have to rinse it.
Hey Randy, I’ve never used sodium metabisulfite so I can’t comment on its effectiveness. I know it’s used a lot in the wine industry. The HBT wiki doesn’t think too much of it: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Cleaning_and_Sanitation
It seems like with all the advantages of StarSan and Iodophor there’s no reason to use SM in place of them. If do choose to use it, let me know what you think.
How do you store your equipment?
I store everything in my basement.
If you mix the Star-San with water in the spray bottle, doesn’t it raise the pH and neutralize it? Water is a weak buffer. I am asking because you said the pH needs to stay below 3.
Hey Brennan. If you mix the Star-San at the recommended ratio then the pH will be in the target range. If you added additional water then you would go above 3 and that certainly wouldn’t be good. Good question.