Anyone who brews beer at home has probably heard that is important to keep everything clean. I want to take a minute and elaborate on ‘keeping everything clean’ because it can definitely impact the outcome of your next batch of homebrew. Did you know that there is a difference between “Sanitizing” and “Cleansing?” The easy way to put it is that cleansing (2 minute contact time with whatever your cleaning) is used to get rid of the things you can see, and sanitizing (also 2 minute contact time) is important to get rid of the things you can’t see.

On a few occasions I have seen some people throw a couple tablespoons of 1 step cleanser in some water, throw a couple glasses of it inside their fermenter, shake it around for a few minutes and call it sanitized. This is a great first step, but it doesn’t mean that the carboy is ‘sanitized.’ At this point, the ‘things you can see’ have been properly cleansed.

After the cleansing step, it is important to get rid of the ‘things you can’t see’ with some sort of sanitizer. Most homebrew stores will carry some sort of iodine such as Iodophor which works great. Just add a few cap-fulls of iodine to whatever water you are using until the water turns a light tan/brown and use this to sanitize your equipment. You also can’t just throw some iodine in/on your equipment without cleansing first, because otherwise you just end up with sanitized dirt. It’s a two step process. The downside to iodine is that you also must rinse after you have sanitized, but now you can rest easy that no microorganisms will sabotage your wonderfully crafted beer.

If you stop at cleansing (and don’t sanitize), is it possible your beer will still turn out ok? Yes, sure it’s possible. Maybe you got away with no microorganisms on your equipment. However, if you’re trying to consistently brew great beer, it is important to make sure you sanitize as well; There are plenty of other chances to contaminate the brew along the way, so you might as well take this step to avoid butt-tasting beer. Good luck brewin’!

Wort up!