Re: [CH] Re: Cleaning/Sanitization

Cameron Begg (PheasantPlucker@pop-server.columbus.rr.com)
Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:00:37 -0500 

Hi C-H's and Jim G,

At 8:25 AM -0600 2/20/08, Jim Graham wrote:
>By "problems" Cameron means,
>for example, bye-bye aluminum pot (you'll see it fizzing very
>quickly...I speak from experience, here...

And the gas you produce is hydrogen. Very spectacular results are possible!

>This also applies to KOH-based caustic, if I remember correctly.

Both sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and KOH (potassium hydroxide) are very caustic and very corrosive. Weight for weight the sodium salt has more bang, but in practice I doubt you will notice the difference. (For you soap makers out there, KOH makes the potassium salts of fatty acids and the soaps that result are what companies like "Safer's" sell for aphid sprays.)

>Or Iodophor,

The halogen column in the periodic table is: fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine and astatine. Of these chlorine, bromine and iodine are useful for sterilizing. Do not put chlorine containing chemicals like sodium hypochlorite (bleach) into stainless steel or aluminum. Same for bromine and iodine containing solutions unless you have some idea what you are doing! Iodine is the least reactive but should only be used at the recommended concentrations. They work well in glass.

>As long as you remember that, unless you're boiling at 250 deg. F or
>higher, for a minimum of 15 minutes (per De Clerck and Brewing Techniques
>articles mentioned earlier), you are still leaving a few of the nasties
>alive.  Whether or not there will be enough to reproduce to the point of
>being an infection is another story.

For brewing beer it won't matter. (De Clerk in the "Textbook of Brewing" was probably talking about sterilizing equipment and culture media for yeast propagation.) You actually need oxygen to ferment beer and this means that anaerobic bacteria will not survive. In the case of bottled hot sauces that would be a problem if the pH was higher than about 4, but I cannot think of a sterilized hot sauce, which makes perfect sense since it would start to spoil after opening.

One other class of sterilizing chemicals comes to mind - the quaternary ammonium compounds. They have names that often contain "benzalkylammonium chloride" or something similar. Very powerful and effective. Used in everything from baby feeding bottle sterilizers to "tub n' tile" spray for your shower. Problem is they are often hard to obtain without obnoxious added smells and colors.

Other methods, for example UV sterilization are a bit beyond the scope of home kitchens and breweries!
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                     Regards,               Cameron.