Choice of sanitiser

[Tidyguy]

when im not brewing, i work full time as a professional chef: in the kitchen we use a food grade cleaner-sanitizer for cleaning pretty much eevrything. its called d10, and is made by johnson-diversy. anyone have any experience of using this product for brewing equipment sanitization? or a similiar product?

[maxashton]

I've never heard of anyone using quats to sanitize brewing equipment.

Professional breweries use peracetic for its effect on organic substances, and amateurs tend to use a two-step oxy or bleach clean followed by iodine sanitation.

I suppose you could try it out, but you'll still need something to clean with. D10 is marketed as a sanitizer only, not a cleaner.

[Graham]

Here is something that I wrote about quats elsewhere:

Quaternary Ammonium Compounds
Quaternary Ammonium Compounds, quats, or QACs as they are sometimes known, have made their appearance on the home brew market recently. The first of these products to appear for home brewers is Brupaks Stayclean, although similar stuff has been used in other industries for many years. Despite its Brupaks name, it is not a particularly good cleaner; it is a disinfectant. Items must be pre-cleaned before being disinfected with this type of product. Its major application in home brewing, according to the suppliers, is to keep vessels sweet for up to six weeks by using without rinsing. Thorough rinsing before subsequent use of the equipment is essential though.

Quats fit within my category of "exotic" or "fancy" products, because there are other more effective disinfectants available, and quats are incompatible with just about every other cleaner / disinfectant available to home brewers, particularly the chlorine based ones, which is most of them. The problems with quats are that some bacteria are not killed by them, spores are unaffected and they are incompatible with soap and anionic wetting agents. Quats (being cationic) will kill head retention instantly if any traces remain and are carried across into the beer.

Its major saving grace is that it is stable. That is that it can be made up and stored for later use, in a spray bottle for example, and used for routine cleaning duties. It is important that this stuff comes nowhere near chlorine-based disinfectants such as household bleach. The combination of bleach and ammonia produces a toxic gas.

[maxashton]

I didn't realise that stuff releases available chlorine.
Fantastic stuff.

I also didn't realise Stayclean was a quat, presmed it was bleach or something, but i guess they're too unstable.

Do you have a website there Graham?

[Graham]

I didn't realise that stuff releases available chlorine.
Fantastic stuff.

I also didn't realise Stayclean was a quat, presmed it was bleach or something, but i guess they're too unstable.

Do you have a website there Graham?

Quats do not release chlorine, but most other commonly-used disinfectants do. Chlorine and ammonia produces mustard gas, so mixing quats with bleach is not a good idea.

Bruclean releases chlorine, but Stayclean is a Quat.

I have a web site, but there is nothing on it.

[maxashton]

You misunderstand, i should have used the word liberate. It's presumably the presence of the quats that liberate the available chlorine from the bleach.