How long does sanatized items stay sanatized?

[atxf4i]

I'm doing my second batch, and would like to sanatize everything the night before, then brew in the am, but don't want anything to become contaminated.

Is there any general guidelines?

Thanks,
Dale

[blzrfn]

My general rule of thumb is that if it is still wet with sanitizer than it is good to go. If the sanitizer has evaporated and the items have been open to contamination then you should start over.

[b3s]

what sanitizer are you using?

i use iodophor...get everything soaked for 2 minutes, then in the drying rack...start getting my water and ingredients out and ready...

about 10 minutes later i'm good to go.

i, too, would feel leery if the stuff was bone dry for hours.

[paul84043]

Whenever I do anything, I fill a 5 gallon bucket with water, either full if I'm doing alot, or just halfway if I'm doing something small like taking Hydro readings.
I use Star San, a no rinse, 30 second contact time sanitizer. It works beautifully... regardless, I sanitize everything right before I use it and it goes back in the bucket right after use, unless it's dirty, then it gets rinsed first.
Everything gets rinsed with water before going back on the shelf (or wherever it goes..) so the sanitizer doesn't sit on it, since the Star San is basically Phosphoric acid, I don't want it to damage my equipment.

[atxf4i]

Thanks for the advise. On my first batch, I washed, sanitized and used within minutes. Wasn't sure if that was the norm, or just a noobie thing.

Thanks!

Dale

[paul84043]

You can't be too clean, it's not possible!

I would rather err on the side of caution than risk losing a batch.

[yonkersbrewer]

If you want to save some time on bottling day you can do this. Up to a week before soak the bottles in your bleach sanitizer and then empty them but do not rinse. Cap them with a topper of clean aluminum foil dipped into the bleach. Put them in their box. When you are ready to bottle take the foil off, rinse the bottle and you are good to go. It lets you split some of the tasks up and be less harried.

[Hazardous1966]

Sanitizing is something that must be taken seriously. I always wash, rinse, sanitize then air dry right before brewing or bottling. Only caution would be if you use bleach (chlorine) for sanitizing. The bleach sloution needs to be completely dry or it will kill any yeast that is present. Not good for fermentation or bottling.

For bottling if you have a dish washer try the following. Soak your bottles, clean and rinse. Then sanitize the bottles. Place into the dish washer rack and put the dish washer on the 'sani cycle' and drying cycle. This way the bottles are clean and dry prior to any bottling and this can be done the day before bottling and left in the washer.