When it comes to sterilising your fermenting bucket can you use Milton or do you have to use proper sterilising stuff that’s intended for the purpose? Not got a kit yet (it’s the Christmas present off Mrs Matt) so just wondering. We’ve got Milton left from when mini me was small and if I can use it it’ll save me a few quid.

You can use it but rinse well after use i.e. multiple times, you don’t want any trace of the milton present when the wort goes in it.

Get a bottle of Star San, it’s a US product but a few online uk homebrew shops have it.

It’s a no rinse steriliser, just mix it up in a spray bottle, spray, leave a couple of mins then away you go.

A bottle lasts ages as well as you only need 1.5ml per litre of water. (If you live in a hard water area use some cheapo softer bottled water from tesco or somewhere). Have a search on some of the homebrew forums e.g. thehomebrewforum or jimsbeerkit forum for more advice.

I swapped to it when I started brewing again a few months ago and its a revelation compared to traditional stuff like Milton or chempro solutions.

Star San is good, it’s what I use 🙂

StarSan is your friend – much easier to work with in the long term

if you can’t get StarSan, try ProKleen purple beer line cleaner. I switched from VWP to this after several lost batches – phenols due to some chlorine still in the FV from cleaning, mixing with the yeast. nasty. about £12 for 5L and you only need 25ml per gallon for cleaning

Not had a problem since I switched to the purple stuff (and bought some new FVs – can’t be sure which of the old ones are contaminated with chlorine & which ones are not.)

Still needs rinsing, but you can tell when it’s rinsed…

I’ve been a bit OCD about sterilising. I’ve been using some sterilising power from the brewing shop but I use more than it says, leave it longer and then rinse a lot. Probably far too much.

Both batches have turned out nice though.

If your sterilising powder is branded VWP, please make sure you REALLY rinse well.
it’s chlorine based, same as bleach, but if you grind the powder around in the FV, especially with one of those sponges that have a scouring section, you could in theory grind some of it INTO the plastic. You’d NEVER get it out and every brew in that FV would turn to phenol (TCP/Germolene). Not a good result, ever.
Of course, I’ve never done that, oh no, not me. 👿

No rinse steriliser every time.

Worth pointing out, Star San is a sanitiser, NOT a steriliser. Big difference (but for HB purposes, sanitising will generally do, doubt we’d ever really be able to properly sterilise anyway)

I use PBW for a deep clean, followed by Star San before use.

Pretty much everything I use gets sprayed with Star San.

Oh, and in relation to a post above, get a microfibre cloth for cleaning the FV. Don’t use anything with an abrasive part to it, even the foam scrubbies. You’ll make scratches in the plastic which are a potential bug-trap. Loads of places sell microfibre cloths dirt cheap these days.