Topic: Sterilising

[Mojo_77]

I've just started making wine, and have got some orange on the go and I'm about to start some elderberry after discovering a load of them in the garden. I've been stirring it everyday with a plastic paddle stirrer, sterilising it each time, but I've gone though nearly half a tub of steriliser in about 3 days! Do I need to sterilise it each time, or just give it a good wash? Would swilling the liquid around the bucket work just as well? It doesn't seem to have any lumps or sediment in it.

[Biscombe]

I'd say a good clean is enough, let me know how your wine turns out  :)

[Mojo_77]

Cheers, I'll do that then. Just realised I dropped a clanger with the elderberry by adding the sugar withough letting the berries "infuse" for a few days first, but I thought I've spent all afternoon picking them and separating them from the stalks so I may as well let it be and see how it turns out. I've still got a good few hundred weight ripening on the trees so I can do it properly next time!

[GrannieAnnie]

I make up a gal. of the sanitizer ( one tablespoon powder per gal water) which I usually try to keep covered with a lid and that stays good for perhaps months.

You might get away with using unsanitized equipment...but you might not and think of all that work down the tubes to only make vinegar. 

Well, that is how I look at it anyway.

[Ishard]

Like Grannie I make up some steralizer and keep it for a while but I make it in a 5 gallon plastic bin and EVERYTHING goes in it.  ;D

[GrannieAnnie]

Like Grannie I make up some steralizer and keep it for a while but I make it in a 5 gallon plastic bin and EVERYTHING goes in it.  ;D

That makes a lot of sense using a 5 gal bin, Ishard.  Have to scrounge one somewhere.

[Mojo_77]

Cheers, I was thinking of doing that but wasn't sure how long the solution kept for. I'm using VWP steriliser.

[DAVIESFOZZIE]

 ::)what are you using to sterilise your utensils i have been making my own beer for over 20 years and you should be using sodium metabisulphite and citric acid you should not use anything else to sterilise any equipment in wine or beer making and this will require only a fraction of this mixture to sterilise your euipment i also worked for a brewery for 18 years and this is what they use and they cannot be wrong

[Dadnlad]

If it's only to give the daily stir (with a clean spoon), surely just a rinse with boiling water from the kettle is ok ?

[Mojo_77]

Thanks for the replies, I've taken to leaving everything in a 2gal bucket and changing the solution weekly.