I hate sanitizing

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After I've bottled or racked, I take the dirty carboys and rinse/scrub them out with hot soapy water and wait until the next batch to actually sanitize them.

Me too, as long as they dry properly it's all good, although in cases where I couldn't dry them, a rinse with sanitizer and then being stoppered up wet also will keep them from getting fuzzy. I've got a bottle blaster tap attachment and half the time I don't even bother scrubbing them, the blaster gets them pretty clean!

The step I hate is cleaning bottles - I think I've come up with a good system, but it's still pretty tedious. Also can be icky if I've gotten bottles from a non-brewer (ie, bottles that were never rinsed, ew!)

Ugh, also my least favourite task. Actually, no. De-labelling them is the hateful part. Cleaning them's a snap, and I keep telling people who save them for me not to rinse, just put the cork back in, that keeps 'em less likely to go fuzzy than improperly-drained rinse-water.
 
UV is used to sanitize potable water supplies in various places, and small units are now routinely sold as water sterilization systems for home aquariums. However, the effectiveness of UV light as a sanitizer is directly related to the degree of transmission that you get in the medium that you are trying to sanitize. UV light penetrates fairly well over relatively short distances in clear water, but turbid water is a totally different story. Also, some glass formulations effectively block most UV, especially the short wavelength UV that is the most effective at killing microorganisms. Shortwave UV is also hazardous to humans, causing everything from skin cancers to cataracts and other causes of blindness. So I don't think that UV light is the best possible choice for sanitizing a meadmaking facility, or equipment.

Wayne, what I had in mind was air, if air is aseptic the biohazard is lower.

Another method is ozonized water. Ozone is good, probably the best, but my pocket still small and I can't buy that toy ... yet.

Saludos,
 
UV will certainly work in air, although in order to provide enough intensity to be antimicrobial, again you will need to take care to limit human exposure. That much UV is not good for you.

It was just an idea, a crazy dream like others I have, so ... I better continue paying my aide, and while he does all the sanitize thing I'll keep busy myself with other more interesting tasks.

Saludos,
 
Well, I'm lazy. REALLY lazy.

What I do is make about 2 gallons of star san solution in a bucket and toss everything I'm going to use in it, along with a small plastic cup. I use the cup to drench everything that isn't covered by the solution, filling all the hoses, tubes, etc. I pour that solution back and forth into the various containers I will be using, fermentation bucket, bottling bucket, carboy, whatever.I splash the walls, outsides, lids, whatever might conceivably come into contact with the mead. I do that several times. If I had a spray bottle (I have been meaning to do so for years, but as I said...I'm really lazy. :rolleyes:) I'd use that to spray everything, too.

So far, so good.
 
Ugh, also my least favourite task. Actually, no. De-labelling them is the hateful part. Cleaning them's a snap, and I keep telling people who save them for me not to rinse, just put the cork back in, that keeps 'em less likely to go fuzzy than improperly-drained rinse-water.

That assumes you get to them right away after getting them, which for me is not a given. :)

A friend of mine just brought over SIX boxes of clean, dry, wine bottles. Score!

I usually ask folks to turn the bottles upside down in the box until they're dry, works pretty well.
 
That assumes you get to them right away after getting them, which for me is not a given. :)

Actually, no... I'm pretty lazy too and I've left 'em for months and months just corked, no fuzzies. Nobody seems to be able to empty rinsed bottles completely though...
 
I'm a lazy bum. I mix up a gallon of 1-step when I'm putting together a batch, swish it around my fermenter and dip my utensils in it. My siphons and racking tubes I run some sanitizer through periodically, but otherwise I just rinse them with hot water before and after use.

When bottling, I do mix up a fresh batch of 1-step to use in my bottle sanitizer pump.
 
I'm a lazy bum. I mix up a gallon of 1-step when I'm putting together a batch, swish it around my fermenter and dip my utensils in it. My siphons and racking tubes I run some sanitizer through periodically, but otherwise I just rinse them with hot water before and after use.

When bottling, I do mix up a fresh batch of 1-step to use in my bottle sanitizer pump.

1 Step is technically a cleanser and not a sanitizer. It uses Oxygen (just like Oxi-clean) to dislodge gunk from carboys, etc but has no ingredient that actually sanitizes. Some LHBS repackage it and put One-Step Sanitizer on the labels, but the actual containers say Cleanser as you can see by clicking the image below.