Let's face it. We love brewing beer. Some say brewing your own beer at home is a rewarding and enjoyable hobby. Yeah, it's that - and when you're done, you have beer! How great is that? When we put in the time brewing a batch of beer, we look forward to a tasty success, yet sloppy cleaning and sanitizing can lead to less-than-desirable results. That's why it's important to understand the difference between cleaning and sanitizing. Both steps are essential, but they serve different purposes and are not interchangeable. Let’s examine what each involves and why they are both integral to our success in brewing the best tasting beers.
Cleaning: The First Step
Cleaning refers to the process of removing visible dirt, residue, organic matter, invisible biofilms, crud, schmutz or whatever you want to call it from your brewing equipment. This step is essential because any leftover residue can harbor bacteria and wild yeast, which can spoil your beer.
Key Points:
- Purpose: To remove both visible and invisible dirt, grime, organic material, fermentation residue - all of it gone. Goodbye, good riddance.
- Tools and Chemicals: Use brushes, scrubbers, and specific cleaning agents designed for brewing equipment, such as PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash), B-Brite, One Step or any unscented brewery grade detergent.
- How to: Thoroughly soak or scrub all equipment that comes into contact with your beer, including fermenters, brewing kettles, and siphons. Some common sense applies here. Never scratch plastic equipment like buckets or siphons.
- How Often: Clean immediately after use to prevent residue and invisible biofilms from hardening and becoming more difficult to remove.
Example: After fermentation has completed and you've transferred your beer to your bottles or keg, you'll notice "krausen" fermentation residue encircling the inside of the fermenter, like your bucket or carboy. Using a dedicated brewing cleaner and a soft brush (for a carboy), you scrub all surfaces to ensure they're free from any visible contaminants. Never scratch a bucket. Use a clean paper towel to wipe away residue.
Sanitizing: The Critical Second Step
Sanitizing is the process of applying a sanitizing solution to kill any remaining microorganisms after cleaning. This step ensures that any bacteria, wild yeast, or other microbes that could potentially spoil your beer are eliminated. What is "Sanitization" you ask? Check out a thorough discussion of the concept here.
Key Points:
- Purpose: Cold-heartedly kill or eliminate the presence of bacteria, wild yeast, or anything else that's not supposed to be there.
- Tools and Agents: Use no-rinse sanitizers such as Star San or iodophor. These are designed by the master overlord chemists to be effective and safe for brewing.
- How to: Apply the sanitizer to all surfaces that will come into contact with your beer. This can include soaking, spraying, or rinsing with the sanitizing solution. They say "revenge is a dish best served cold", but room temperature sanitizer works fine, too:)
- How Often: Sanitize immediately before using the equipment and use it right now. If you're brewing tomorrow, the equipment will no longer be sanitized.
Example: Before you siphon your beer into bottles or kegs for carbonation, you soak your bottles, kegs and siphoning equipment in a Star San solution, thus ruthlessly eliminating from the gene pool such microbial pests that risk introducing unwanted off-flavors into your beer.
Why Both Steps are Crucial
Skipping either cleaning or sanitizing can lead to contaminated beer, which in brewers' speak translates to "unpleasant to drink". Here’s why each step is necessary:
- Cleaning removes the bulk of the physical crud that can harbor bacteria and spoil your beer. (Yes, we said crud. We like using official brewing terms like this.)
- Sanitizing is our favorite microbiological mass-murder that ensures any microorganisms that survived the cleaning process are cold-heartedly killed, preventing infection (read "off flavors) in your beer.
Think of cleaning and sanitizing as complementary steps in your brewing process. Cleaning removes both the visible and invisible contaminants, while sanitizing acts as the final safeguard against microscopic assholes. (Yes, "microscopic asshole" is an official beermaking term).
Tips for Effective Cleaning and Sanitizing
- Consistency: Make cleaning and sanitizing a regular part of your brewing routine. Don't be lazy. Just do it.
- Quality Products: Invest in high-quality cleaners and sanitizers specifically designed for brewing. In the immortal words of the movie "Zombieland", "Now is not the time to get greedy with your cleaners and sanitizers." (Yeah, they actually said that in the movie.)
- Attention to Detail: Be thorough (read "don't be a lazy ass"). Even small amounts of residual crud or un-sanitized surfaces can cause problems.
- Proper Rinsing: After cleaning, ensure all detergent residues are rinsed off before sanitizing.
Wrapping It Up
Learning is a good thing, and it's important for home beer makers to understand the difference between cleaning and sanitizing. They're not the same thing and they shouldn't be treated as such. Proper cleaning and sanitization techniques lead to the best tasting beer. And let's face it: we're here for the beer!