Rinsing with metabisulphite

[nifta]

i'm still a complete novice and tend to obsess over things that i really shouldn't, but...

while i'm brewing i have a bucket of bruclean/bleach solution nearby where i keep odds and ends (jug to rehydrate the yeast, scissors, paddle etc) which i take out and rinse under the tap when i need to use them. lately i've been wondering about chlorine - would it better to sanitise these things in bruclean/bleach before hand, then keep them in a bucket of metabisulphite solution? or would this not do enough to prevent contamination? OR is there any point in doing this at all?

with metabisulphite, is rinsing with water required afterwards?

and here's a dumb question: when people say that things need to be rinsed "5 times" after soaking in a bleach solution, what does this mean? for a fermenter, does this mean filling it right up with water and draining 5 times, or filling part way and sloshing water 'round 5 times?

[edit1now]

No questions regarded as "dumb" round here - just ask them!

Having lost two batches of beer to TCP this year I'm now a bit paranoid about chlorine in bleach and tapwater, so I've stopped using bleach to sanitise things.

If you feel a need to use bleach-based cleaning agents, do two or three changes of water then apply metabisulphite solution which is supposed to eat the remaining chlorine - e.g. spray thoroughly using a sprinkly thing on the garden hose, empty out, spray again, empty out, spray again for the third time, then rinse with metabisulphite.

You don't need to rinse after using metabisulphite, as yeast is very tolerant to it.

I've started using Videne which is a bit more fiddly to make up but I don't cough with the fumes as I do with metabisulphite. At 1.2ml per litre of water Videne is supposed to be no-rinse.

[nifta]

thanks! that's a great help.

at the moment i only have campden tablets - i'm guessing these are interchangeable with metabisuphite powder? (in the appropriate dilution)

[edit1now]

One Campden tablet is equal to 0.44g of sodium metabisulphite, according to Wikipedia.

[nifta]

ok, that's good to know - thanks!