As you guys know, I have upgraded from using bleach to do my sanitizing to using Iodophor. Well, I actually wanted to use Star San which every brewer was raving about but my supplier gave me Iodophor instead. So I am currently using Iodophor to do my sanitizing, but I have to say, it is great as a sanitizer. And it is much cheaper too (compared to Star San). It cost about S$4 for a 70ml bottle. You need to mix just 1ml of Iodophor to 500ml of water for it to be effective. Anyway, you don’t have to be so exact. Just ensure that the solution is amber in colour and your sanitizier is still effective. Plus, the Iodophor just needs about 2 minutes of contact time with the surface to get rid of the nasties. I normally just use a spray bottle which I got from my local hardware store and spray the entire solution on my brewing equipment. Let it stay on for 5 minutes and then attempt to dry it.

At first I was worried about the smell and how it will affect the taste of my beer. But surprisingly, it didn’t smell as bad as I expected and it (as the solution) didn’t have any taste at all. My brew tasted fine even when I didn’t rinse off the sanitizer afterwards. Not too sure what they did, but Iodine (the main sanitizing ingredient in Iodophor) usually smells damn bad and probably taste even worse. And, yes, there was no infection for the brew I just did. For that, I am glad.

I am surprised that a lot of brewers prefer Star San to Iodophor. Perhaps it is because Iodophor might stain their equipment. But if the correct concentration is used or if you don’t soak it for an excessive period of time, I don’t think there will be any staining. Well, from what I can see my equipment seems stain-free and the only smell is the beer smell. I can’t get rid of the beer smell from my brewing equipment, especially the fermenter.