Sanitation

Sanitation is by far the most important part of Home Brewing process. And yes you need to sanitize everything will come in contact, might come in contact or is in the vicinity of where you are making your beer. Wow sounds like a lot of work you say? It's a lot easier than it sounds.

Sanitizing the area and your equipment is as simple as wiping everything down with a simple sanitizing solution. Assuming you have washed everything first. You did wash everything didn't you? A very simple Sanitizing solution can be made from Chlorine (household bleach). To do this simply take 1/2 to 1 1/4 tsp bleach and add to 5 gallons of water, mix well and you have sanitizer. The easier way is to go down to your local home brew supply store (your going there for ingredients aren't you?) and pick up some sanitizing solution. The cost is inexpensive and it will last quite some time.

Now your probably wondering why you need to sanitize everything aren't you? It's to keep out all of those unwanted......things, like bacteria and airborne microorganisms. If these get invited into your beer it can cause a host of problems like over carbonation, off flavors, surface mold or sour beer. Don't be afraid it's nothing that will kill you, you just have to survive the fact you just made a no-so-great 5 gallon batch of beer.

If this does happen you have a couple of options. First you can drink it anyway, it is still beer after all or you can toss the whole thing down the drain. Either way don't give up learn from it and make your next batch. Who knows you could have the next prize winning recipe. If so save me a bottle, I'd love to try it.


Till next time,
Keep Brewing
Kyle