Best no rinse brewing sanitizers for beer and wine brewing

Every brewer wants to make good beer or wine. There are many ways to achieve a good brew but there is one thing you must do to 'make it so' and that is to sanitize your beer brewing equipment.

If you don't, you run the real risk of infected beer or cider which turns out to be undrinkable.

And where's the fun in that?

So using so-called 'no rinse' brewing sanitisers is an excellent way to keep your beer free of unwanted microorganisms in your beer or wine.

So what is a 'no rinse' brewing sanitizer?

It's a solution that once you have sanitized your brewing equipment and beer bottles, you do not need to rinse off. 

In contrast, if you've used caustic soda or bleach, you will need to rinse your equipment and that just takes precious time that not many brewers have. I have read that some people consider bleach a no-rinse sanitizer but I think it can leave a smell behind which most people would want to remove by rinsing so we can discount it as an option.

So 'no rinse' sanitizer it is then.

So what are the best ones to use? Are they all the same or do some do a better job than others?

There's a couple of schools of thought on how to go about choosing the best brewing sanitizer. You can go with commercially oriented solutions like Star San and my personal favourite, home-based options from your laundry like sodium percarbonate.

Let's start with Star San as it is a well-known option within the brewing and wine making communities for cleaning and sanitizing brewing equipment.


This proven bug killer that will lay waste to all the microorganisms that could screw up your beer.

It is described by its maker as being a "self-foaming acid sanitizer ideal for brewing, dairy and other food and beverage equipment." The key ingredients of it are a mix of phosphoric acid and dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid.

We say it is a very effective bactericide and fungicide!

So about this no rinsing business? It can be used without rinsing under the proper concentrations. This means following the amount per litre instructions! Star San should be used at a ratio of one ounce to 5 gallons of water.

This means Star San is perfect for sanitizing your empty beer bottles or the carboy.

The beauty of Star San is that it can be used both for the 'spray on' method or for soaking equipment and beer bottles in a tub or bath.

It is probably the most well known and well recommended sanitizing product known for home brewers. Check out the price on Amazon.

Using Iodophor as a no rinse sanitizer

Iodophor is very popular one rinse sanitiser used by many a home brewer. Iodophor is well established in the food and beverage industry as a go-to sanitizer and it works just fine on your brewing gear.

The key active ingredient is iodine, an element that's been found to be wonderfully good at killing germs and preventing contamination.

It's so good, hospitals and doctors use it during surgery to keep the human body free of bugs. Home users often use it with cotton buds for simple first aid hygiene.

So you know it's safe to use on your children, it will work pretty well on your beer kit!

It doesn't work well as a spray solution - it's best to soak your gear with Idophor for at least 10 minutes to sanitize your equipment properly. When it is used at the recommended concentration level with water, it is a no rinse brewing solution.

While Idophor is odourless, tasteless, and easy on your hands it's very colour fast and will stain your clothes so be careful when mixing up your solution!

Why don't you One-Step into my office?

With One Step powdered wash you can lean your beer and wine making equipment quickly and easily with this non-toxic, oxygen-based cleaner. 

Your mixing directions are to use 1 tablespoon with your water and wait 2 minutes of contact time (so it's a bit faster working than iodine based sanitizers). Once your gear has been soaked long enough, it is ready to use.

The main ingredient of One Step is 'sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate' aka sodium percarbonate. How it works is quite clever. The powder obviously dissolves when combined with water, which in turn releases the oxygen from the carbonate to form hydrogen peroxide – a chemical which is well known for its sanitizing and disinfectant abilities. '

And that's a point we should make - this product is marketed mainly as a cleaner, however the hydrogen peroxide does double duty as a sanitizer.

This product a one step, no rinse because once hydrogen peroxide completes its work and it breaks down simply into oxygen and water which is safe as houses. Check out the price on Amazon.

Speaking of oxygen based cleaners, here's my personal favourite:

Sodium Percarbonate - as a no rinse solution found in your laundry

Go and have a look in your laundry room right now. 

Go on.

I'm waiting...

Did you find a laundry soaker?

Some Oxi-Clean, Tide or Napisan or any other Oxi-named cleaner perhaps? If you did, chances are you've got a cleaner that does double duty as a sanitizer in the form of sodium hydroxide. We've have raved and raved for years about how good sodium percarbonate is as a sanitizer. 

If it's safe enough to use on your clothes, it's safe enough to use on your beer gear. 

If you are a bit nervous about using laundry powder, you can buy sodium percarbonate in a pure powdered form quite cheaply and easily on Amazon.

So there you have it, a few suggestions on some easy to use, cost effective no rinse sanitizers for brewing. There are plenty of other options out there  - you can use other cleaners like PBW to the same effect. Whichever way you choose to sanitizer your beer, do it well, do it properly and just do it.

If you don't, you will genuinely increase the odds of getting an infected beer, and frankly, if you've had it happen to you, you'll know what a stink and unpleasant experience that is!

Many brewers are trying out Craftmeister's Alkaline Brewery Wash as they consider it performs quite well.

2 comments cleaning your equipment, equipment, idophor, no rinse, sanitization, sodium percarbonate, star san

⇒ What equipment do I need to start home brewing?

What equipment do I need to start home brewing?

If you’ve decided to brew beer, you’re in great company.

Einstein, Churchill, the mighty Thor himself and every man with a shed, has at one point or another, brewed some tasty beverages.

But they all had to start somewhere, and so here’s a list of what equipment you might need to get started brewing beer.

We’re talking about brewing using a beer kit here, the kind of brewing where your ‘beer wort’ basically comes in a can.

You get to choose what hops or sugar you add (jelly beans maybe?) and the rest is simply following some good brewing instructions.

But what do you need to brew some good home made beer?

This list is just the basics, you could probably actually get away with using less but at the very least, this guide should help you decide what you need to get that golden ale flowing down your gullet. 

What equipment you might use on Brew day

Here's a handy checklist for your set up. Not everything is a 'must have' but you must have clean and sanitized gear, no matter what you do.

Ingredients

• A beer kit – source a handy starter kit brew from an online store like Amazon, or your local brew supplier. Some supermarkets stock them 
• A brew enhancer, DME or dextrose – 1Kg 
• Hops – an optional addition but good for getting some good aromatic flavours and it's easy to add hops to the beer *

Equipment for brewing

• Sanitizer - To sanitize all of your equipment. It’s a must. If you don’t your beer might die. 
• 6 gallon / 23 litre fermenter (drum or bottle). You will use this for making your beer in 
• Thermometer - To monitor the temperature of the wort – this is so you can add the yeast at the correct temperature and avoid killing it. *
• Hydrometer - Used test the original gravity of your batch *
• Paddle or spoon - Something to stir the boil with, maybe not your wife’s best spoon. A long handle is what you need. Try not to drop it in your batch....
• Gloves – making beer can get a little messy * Do not use your dad's chainsaw gloves! Nor, White Ox Gloves, use the plastic / rubber kind you use to wash dishes with. 
• Can opener – to open the beer kit 
• Water - Access to both boiling and cold water 
• Bubble Airlock – to allow the release of CO2 and to assist with the observation of fermentation
• This is totally optionally and really only for seasoned beer makers, a pH testing kit can be pretty handy.
• Ph Meter for checking the water as being suitable for use. Even if you're making kombucha, check the pH level.
• A good gas Burner for boiling water. 
• A multi key chain tool for opening up packets, and opening caps.

Bottling day - what you need

• Bottles! – cleaned and free of dirt and spiders or slugs or bird shit (trust us on this, it’s happened) 
• Sanitizer – Yes, once again you need sanitize all equipment and bottles and caps 
• Bottle caps - Make sure they are not twist-off bottles 
• Bottle capper – speaks for itself, helps you place the caps on bottles 
• Hydrometer - To measure the final gravity *
• Best oil for a chainsaw?
• Priming sugar – Sucrose which is to carbonate the beer while in the bottle (called beer conditioning) 
• Bottling wand - This allows you to easily control the flow while bottling and means less spillage will occur. *
• Patience. Just a little patience. Shit will go wrong, learn from the experience and move on. 

* denotes an optional item of equipment

Also, I'm just gonna randomly add that if you like Mortal Engines, check out the behind the scenes work that goes into the movie.

Leave a Comment beer brewing, dextrose, equipment, how to brew that first beer, sterilization, sugar

How to accurately use a refractometer to check specific gravity

What is a refractometer?

A refractometer is a tool used for measuring concentrations of aqueous solutions. It has many applications across food, agricultural, chemical, and manufacturing industries. A refractometer can be used to measure things like the total plasma protein in a blood sample, the salinity of water and even the amount of water content in honey.

They work by measuring the angle of refraction as light shines through the solution. Don’t ask me to explain the actual science behind it, I just work here man.

What I do know is the Brix scale is used as the means by which the measurement taken is assessed. Given we are talking measurements here, it should be no surprise that the Brix scale measures the sugar content of an aqueous solution.

This is when you might exclaim “Ha! I got you mate, wort is mostly malt sugars (maltose) and not sucrose so how does the Brix scale apply to beer?”

And I’d say you’d be right and you can account for this learning how to apply a wort ‘correction factor’. Frankly, this can be a bit of pain and is one of the reasons why some brewers prefer to use a hydrometer to calculate ABV.

Refractometers also only use a very small beer sample, especially less than a hydrometer which is why some brewers prefer them - especially if they are only brewing small batches of beer.

How is a refractometer used in homebrewing?

In terms of homebrewing, a refractometer used to measure the specific gravity of the wort before fermentation commences.

You probably already know what specific gravity is. If you don’t, a quick lesson from Wikipedia.

“Specific gravity is the ratio of the density of a substance to the density of a reference substance; equivalently, it is the ratio of the mass of a substance to the mass of a reference substance for the same given volume.”

Simple right?

In terms of brewing, one uses a refractometer to determine the amount of fermentable sugars which will be converted to alcohol.

What is the best refractometer to use when brewing beer?

There are many kinds of refractometers, and they serve different functions. As a brewer, you want one that is designed to measure sugar. Most brewers use is kind that fruit growers use to measure the sugar concentrations of their fruit to assess ripeness. This way you get a close approximation to wort, but it’s not exact and this needs to be factored when using the Brix scale as mentioned above.

Check out some options on Amazon.

How to properly calibrate a refractometer for testing beer

Just like when you use a pH meter, refractometers need to be calibrated.  There’s no way out of this.

Add distilled water (if you have it) close the plate. Ensuring the liquid to spreads completely across the prism without any dry spots. Allow 30 seconds so that the water can reach the same temperature as the refractometer.

This is important as the readings are temperature dependent.

You simply then aim the refractometer toward a natural light source. Look into the eyepiece and adjust it so that the scale is in focus.

Then adjust the unit’s calibration screw so that the refractometer reads exactly zero.

Now you are ready to sample your wort.

Testing wort with the refractometer

It’s fairly easy to use a refractometer, it’s largely the same process as setting up for calibration.

Once the unit has been properly cleaned of residue and correctly calibrated, place a small sample of wort on the glass. 

Shut the cover and take note that the glass is fully wet and has no stuck air bubbles. Give time for the same to warm to the same temperature as the unit.

Turn the refractometer to a natural light source. The refractometer should be held level with the window pointed at the light source. You can take the reading by checking via the eyepiece. Bob’s your uncle.

I should not have to advise you do look at the sun directly but as some of you drink and brew...

Check out some options on Amazon.

Bonus fact!

The first refractometer was invented by Enst Abbe. It was a complex device that included built-in thermometers and required a circulated water mechanism to keep the instrument cold. 

While the devices have been refined and digitised in the hundred years since Abbe’s invention, the principle of how they work remains the same.

Leave a Comment brix scale, equipment, refractometer