Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The Best Ideas For Selecting A Wine Making Sanitizer

By Young Lindsay


Using contaminated equipment to make wine will result in the greatest disappointment of your life. The exercise should instead be a hobby that is meant to impress your friends and make you feel accomplished. This brings to fore the importance of choosing the right wine making sanitizer for your home winemaker.

Sanitizing takes different approaches but the main aim is to eliminate contaminants. They will introduce a strange odor and taste and therefore alter your desired quality. Do not even contemplate using the same equipment in the next round without sanitizing. There is a clear difference between cleaning and sanitizing. This is important for a successful process.

Thorough cleaning of the equipment is necessary before commencing with sanitizing. Cleaning aims at removing physical and visible contaminants. There are contaminants that cannot be eliminated in this way. Some are found in folds and others in cracks of the same equipment. It is the small and invisible particles that will spoil an entire barrel.

Bleach is a common sanitizing agent but it presents difficult in when getting it off the equipment. Its strength also makes easy to smell on equipment. It can be used depending on the equipment for cleaning if other products are not available. There are special products for winemaking equipment.

Winemaking process requires a high level of purity, but this should not be mistaken for sterilizing. The best way to achieve sterile containers is to use heat treatment. This is a rather difficult process but is unnecessary. Sanitizers are found in departmental stores at reasonable prices.

Chlorine is a common choice for sanitizing with its popularity being boosted by its availability and cheap price. You will have to deal with the fast speed of reaction with organic substances which minimizes its power. Your equipment should be soaked for up to ten minutes and then drained. Drip drying is advised to completely get rid of residue.

Iodophor is a common sanitizing agent but comes with the disadvantage of staining anything it comes into contact with. It comes with instructions on how to dilute it when you need to sanitize. It indicates the right strength when it is faint brown. This means that any other coloration or the lack of it will mean that it has lost its strength.

Potassium metabisulphite and sodium metabisulphite are the other two common sanitizers. They react with water to form a powerful antiseptic based on sulfur dioxide. The sanitizing process requires you to put the solution in the equipment being cleaned and leave it for ten minutes in air-tight condition.

It is important to ensure that the sanitizing solution has touched every corner of the equipment. This can be achieved by swirling around since use of hands is not advisable. Ensure that by the time you are completing this procedure, no odor or taste can be felt. This tells you that your equipment are ready for use.

The formation and size of barrels makes their sanitizing procedures different. They are likely to require different products as well. Your situation will inform you of the best product to use. There are regular updates on sanitizing agents and procedures that can make your winemaking experience better.




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