Iodophor and cross contamination

I sanitize brewing equipment with iodophore, bleach and one step (if you consider that a sanitizer). I have never had a beer finish too dry though. Before using a carboy for beer, I do sanitize that (usually with iodophor) and let it drip dry.

Meads (and cider) I make like I would wine, only I do not add sulfite until after primary has completed and I use beer yeast for them. I use nottingham which finishes dry anyway....so I guess I would not know if they had cross contaminated. I do pitch a very large starter for them. This year I made my 20 gallons of mead on a yeast cake from a 15 gallon batch of cider.

In the future I am going tro expand my experiments on spointaneous fermentations with wine. I already do lambics in a pseudo spontaneous way adn I think I could manage that with wine as well.

Droopy wrote "In the future I am going tro expand my experiments on spointaneous

The fellows next door make wine as follows; Buy bushels of Concord grapes, destem and crush with a machine rented from the local HBS, add many pounds of sugar (this is done to taste) and let the mixture ferment with what ever yeast came with the grapes or is floating around in their garage. Nothing else. I can't convince them to at least use a wine yeast. But, their wine is actually pretty good for a Concord wine with residule sweetness. They have been making wine like this for decades and they like it. I'm going to go watch next year and then try a small batch of "spontaneous" wine using Baco Noir grapes from my vineyard. The high acid in Baco grapes will benefit from some residule sugar.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA

The high acid in Baco may be a benefit for "spontaneous" wine as it should inhibit the nasty organisms that like a higher pH environment and can produce off flavors. I wonder if one could add tartaric to other must that have a pH around or above 3.5 and try the "spontaneous" method.

I do not do the natural yeast thing but I do lower the pH of must to slightly below 3.5 before using the cultured yeast and keep the pH below

3.5. I have read that a lot of Australian winemakers do the same thing. It make sense to me as a 3.5 pH must will typically end up at 3.7 or above because of "spontaneous" Malo Lactic fermentation and at this higher pH the nasty organisms that produce off taste are happy doing their thing. There are ML cultures out there now that are quite happy below 3.5 so I see no reason to let the "wild" ones take over with the possible results of off flavor when it is a simple matter to keep the pH in check starting at the crush. The only disadvantage might be that there is probably less color extraction at the lower pHs.

I too make beer and wine (and mead and cider once in a while). My sanitizer is almost exclusively a strong sulfite solution. I figure it's the only true "no rinse" since it's something that I would normally add anyway to the wine, mead and cider. If I little gets into the beer, no big deal. It may even aid in preventing oxidation.

Once in a while I use Idophor just to change things up a bit (maybe twice a year) but then give a rinse in sulfites to make sure the iodine is gone.

I'm paranoid about chlorine bleach. I keep it as far away from my hobby as possible. IMHO, nothing good can come from using it and the down side is just too big.

Andy

I like bleach in certain situations becasue it cleans as well as sanitizes (better than one step on the sanitation side). If I have a nasty residue in a bottle or carboy it gets a strong chlorine solution to dissolve or soften whatever it is and then a quick rinse to push any residue out.

All the used wine bottles I get get a chlorine treatment too. Also anything that is going to have a large volume of sanitizer will get chlorine, because it is so much cheaper. I have largly switched to iodophor for brewing though, except bottles whcih still use chlorine.

Sometimes all it takes is a little stirring of the pot. Thank you Trevor for your role in this spurt of livenliness in r.c.w.

And thank you TomW, Bob, Droopy, Bill and Paul for stepping up to the plate to show r.c.w. is alive and well on this topic. And thank you Lum for your, as always, kind and sage guidance.

Gene

Paul E. Lehmann wrote:

I like PBW for tough work and I use Starsan or Idophor for sanitization. Both are more than adequate for winemaking purposes. Most winemakers just clean the equipment and use sulphites in the wine.

Chlorine is nasty in one large respect. If any gets into the fermenting beverage, the yeast will convert it to phenols and you will taste its effects with even minute quantities of chlorine.

I am aware of that, but I have never had a problem. I know some people are more sensitive to chlorophenols than others and I may not be.

One thing with winemaking, that if you do use chlorine, following chlorine treatment with sulfite will remove the active chlorine from solution.

I do not know the kinetics of the chlorine/phenol reaction, but the chlorine/sulfite reaction is very very fast. And it MAY be that if you added untreated water with some chlorine in it (say tap water with chloramines or chlorine) to wine or must with sufficinet sulfite in it the sulfite may react with the chlorine faster than the chlorine can react with the phenols.

But that is mere speculation on my part without knowing the realitive kinetics. But that may be why I have never experienced chlorophenols in wine. With beer, I do use a no-rinse strength solution and let things completely dry before use.