H

Sanitation
omebrew
Sanitation:
An Essential for Good Beer

B eer is created when brewer’s yeast con-

verts malt sugar into alcohol and car-
bon dioxide. Thus, the whole purpose
of brewing is to create the perfect food for
micro-organisms.
Unfortunately, what is perfect food for
brewers yeast is also attractive to other organ-
isms commonly found in foods such as the
bacteria that make vinegar and yogurt. Obvi-
ously, you want your beer to taste like beer
and not old milk or spoiled wine. Thus, the
only way to make good-tasting beer is to make
sure that brewer’s yeast is the only organism
that gets a significant chance to eat the food
that you prepare for it. That’s where sanita-
tion comes in. To make sure that yeast has the
upper hand, you need to clean and sanitize
everything that will come in contact with the
beer. (See sidebar for a list of these items.)
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 (no scratchy pads
please!) 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 fluid ounces in five gallons, or 59 mL in
19 L is the normal rate if you are using house-
hold bleach. For other sanitizers, follow the
package directions.) Then put all the other
items that need to be sanitized into that buck-
et 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 bleach solution and rinse it once
with very hot tap water. Other sanitizers may
not require a rinse—again, follow the manu-
facturer’s directions.
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!
By the way, if you fail to clean effectively,
the worst that can happen is bad-tasting beer.
There are no known human pathogens (i.e.
bugs that cause disease) that can survive in
beer, so you don’t have to worry about poi-
soning yourself or your friends.

Items to Clean
and Sanitize
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 and hydrometer jar or tube
• Bottles and bottle caps
• Any other object that comes into
contact with the beer

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THE AMERICAN HOMEBREWERS ASSOCIATION IS AT WWW.BEERTOWN.ORG ZYMURGY FOR BEGINNERS