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Spigot Sanitation
I noticed that no one seems to be worried about sanatizing the spigot on a fermenter bucket prior to racking into secondary... is is just me? Think about it, you pour in the wort, pitch the yeast and stick the thing in the closet for a couple of weeks... Then you sanitize your secondary, another bubbler, hoses etc and carefully transfer your beer through the spigot which has been sitting in the open air for about 14 days... ample time for bacteria to get on it.
Anyhow, since I am obsessive about this I thought I'd share a tip... When I mix up a 5 gal batch of sanitizer, I pour some of it into a clean spray bottle (you can get empty, food grade plastic spray bottles in about a jillion different stores.)
After I haul the fermenter onto the counter, I turn the spigot upwards and spray bottle it full of sanitizer. Just before I attach the tubing, I turn it back towards the floor and let the sanitizer run out. I don't know if this is strictly necessary, but it makes me feel better....
A side note, that little spray bottle full of StarSan (my sanitizer of choice since I am on a septic system) is handy. You can spray it on the tip of the hydrometer where you touched it, or the outside of your tubing or a thousand other places. I read the spec sheet on StarSan's site and it says that you can use it straight on a surface to sanitize without soaking...
Ditto....I also use it on my boil kettle spigots and conical valves......and about anything else that may need it......
Ummm....
I don't use a spigoted fermentation bucket. What's wrong with siphoning from the bucket especially if you are worried about it being a dirty port.
As for using a conical, the valves should have been cleaned out prior to filling anyway. And a couple sprays of sanitixer will coat the inside of those valves easy. Just like you are doing with your spigot.
I agree a spray bottle of sanitize is always good to have on hand.
I,ve got about 4 or five bottles. I keep a couple in the kitchen where I do my transfers, and a couple in the garage where I brew. Interestingly enough I also keep my olive oil, veg oil, and balsamic vineger in spray bottles as well for cooking. And yes I have sprayed my steaks down w/ sanitizer for the grill and gave my carboy rims a couple shots of extra virgin. Even though they are clearly marked brain farts are commonplace.
brewchez wrote:
Ummm....
I don't use a spigoted fermentation bucket. What's wrong with siphoning from the bucket especially if you are worried about it being a dirty port.
As for using a conical, the valves should have been cleaned out prior to filling anyway. And a couple sprays of sanitixer will coat the inside of those valves easy. Just like you are doing with your spigot.
LOL you bad thing! You take every opportunity to just rub my nose in the conical stainless fermenter, don't you??? <teasing>
Jen wrote:
LOL you bad thing! You take every opportunity to just rub my nose in the conical stainless fermenter, don't you??? <teasing>
Well I don't have a conical yet so I have to take that frustration out somewhere! 
Thanks for all of the advice. I just purchased a conical today. I have also been wondering how to sanitize the spigots, but I just thought I would figure it out when I got there. Now, this puts my mind at rest.
when i first purchased all my gear to begin brewing, i got two 5 gallon buckets and had one tapped with a spigot for transferring. but the hose i picked up for bottling was too small (inner diameter), and i never bought one to use for the prupose as i liked racking better.
i usually use 5 gallon glass carboys for my fermentations, both primary and secondary, so my procedure for sanitizing has been to fill the tapped bucket with sanitizer and all my gear (spoon, funnel, filter, hop bags, turkey baster, airlocks, etc) and when that is sanitized i set the bucket up over the carboy and open the spigot and let it fill the carboy.
now i am no actually using the bucket for fermentation, but if one was, by running that 5 gallons of sanitizer through the spigot at half-open, that takes about 15 minutes (the target sanitation time for idophor solution). just a thought.
in my case, when i am done sanitizing the carboy, i dump the solution back into the bucket to have on hand during brewing, i case i need to sanitize somethign i forgot to do initially (this happens more often than not). and if i am brewing again any time soon, i just cap the bucket and save my solution to re-use.
Brew&I wrote:
I have also been wondering how to sanitize the spigots, but I just thought I would figure it out when I got there.
Just be sure you figure it out before you have been in the conical and are wondering how to get it to pass through a valve you forgot to sanitize prior to filling.
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