Comment on Beginner Questions
plactagonic@sopuli.xyz 3 days ago
Just to add something about sanitation, I don’t make mead (can’t get cheap honey).
Somewhere you can get peroxide based disinfectant that is rinse free, it just brakes down to bit of oxygen and harmless byproduct. Widely used in food industry is peroxyacetic acid, but here it is restricted so can’t get my hands on it. Another one that is more available is something that decomposes to baking soda but you need warm water and it dissipates quickly (can’t remember what it is now).
As others said the drinking water in pipes is usually OK and I wouldn’t worry that much about the effect on mead, on the other hand I am always worried about some bad taste from usually chlorine based disinfectant so I rinse everything. So some of my stuff I sanitise in boiling water- doesn’t leave anything.
Thanks for the input! I do have and use oxygen-based sanitizer, which I use on all of my carboys and fermentation vessels (anything that will stay in contact for a while), and I’ll sanitize my other equipment while I’m at it. But there are times when I want to rinse a spoon (that had previously been sanitized) and use it again. Sounding like that’s not an issue as long as the tap water is potable.
For the main water in my mead, I use filtered water from my fridge. Takes out the worst of the chlorine and other off flavors, and has worked great so far. I was just nervous because in other things I’ve read, some people insist on spring or distilled water, which seems over the top when you live in a place with drinkable tap water.
MuteDog@lemmy.world 3 days ago
if you’re in Canada (as your username suggests) I think you should be able to find Star San. It’s a nice no-rinse sanitizer that’s easy to use. It’s phosphoric acid based so basically breaks down to phosphorus and becomes a nutrient for the yeast.