Betadine discontinued: UK replacement for sanitizing brewing equipment?

[Adam Funk]

Sorry for the crossposting --- feel free to reply to any one of the 3 groups, as I read them all.

I'm about to start back on some winemaking & homebrewing after a gap of several years, & my bottle of Betadine Antiseptic Solution (aqueous, povidone-iodine USP 10% w/v) is almost empty & has expired. I asked for a replacement at the local pharmacy & was told that it's been discontinued (searching the WWW agrees). I'm looking for something identical or similar under another name to use as a no-rinse sanitizer.

The closest things I've found are Vetadine & Vetasept, both sold for veterinary use. They look like the same thing as Betadine, but Vetadine is only sold in small bottles at a much higher price.

Comments?

[Tim Watts]

What's wrong with sodium metabisulphite?

[newshound]

I'm pretty sure I used to nick the Milton, in the days of nappy buckets.

[Adam Funk]

You have to rinse it off thoroughly. OTOH, you can soak clean equipment in the right dilution of Betadine for a few minutes, let it drip for a few minutes, & use it that way --- it's a lot easier.

[Jethro_uk]

Try "StarSan", it's a US product. I can't recall where I got mine, but GIYF.

I did try an iodine-based one, but it left a taste behind - ruined 45 bottles of beer :(

I only use it for bottling. For sanitising demijohns, fermenting buckets etc, I use the powder chlorine stuff (WPP IIRC).

[Jethro_uk]

It's not "no rinse". Because I bottle my beer, trying to sanitise 45 bottles, and then rinse them is a PITA. Then I read in a forum about no- rinsing, and a bottle-washing pump. You fill the pumps bowl with 500ml of no-rinse sanitiser (StarSan), and press the bottle down onto a spout which sprays the inside. Leave to dry, bottle. Been doing this for over a year now, and it's perfect.

[Jethro_uk]

Ah, here's the badger ...

[Jethro_uk]

[Adam Funk]

Same here.

I happen to have a drawer from an older freezer whose holes are perfectly suited to holding upside-down beer bottles without touching the inside or the lip. For rinsing, I brought one of these from the US, then had to make my own adapter to fit it on a British garden tap.

But after using no-rinse Betadine solutions, I don't want to go back to rinsing even the other equipment, never mind the bottles. I'll look up StarSan --- thanks for the tip!

[Fredxxx]

What's wrong with using a dishwasher? Surely a non-eco one will get up the temperatures required for sterilising?

[Jethro_uk]

Technically, it's not sterilising, it's "sanitising".

Fitting 45 500ml bottles in a dishwasher in one go ....

[Adam Funk]

...& the shortest programme on mine takes 45 minutes.

[Fredxxx]

And I thought that brewing was a slow process!

I think mine might just take 45 x 500ml bottles, certainly in 2 batches!

[Tim Streater]

I take it you put them in upside down? Each on one of the tines, f'rinstance?

How can you be sure that will get enough water in through the narrow opening to wash them out properly?

[Tim Watts]

A trace of sod.meta. is surely fairly harmless though - it's a permitted food preservative, aka E223. Granted you don't want to nuke the yeast, but the same must apply to betadine.

[Tim Watts]

Oven bake at a bit over 100C? Slow heat and slow cool to avoid cracking the glass.

OK it's not fast, but it's low hassle.

[Bart Goddard]

Tim Watts wrote in news:318v3b-bo3.ln1 @squidward.local.dionic.net:

I have heard that repeated baking will stress the glass. It's low hassle until all your bottles explode under low pressure.

Back to the original question: StarSan is a good, no rinse sanitizer. I don't know how hard it is to get in the UK.

[Tim Watts]

I would not have thought that slow cycling to 100+bit C would have done a lot (the emphasis being on slow) - but fair enough. Works for jam jars, but I guess they are not under pressure in use.

So what about the various products that come up if you google "no rinse sanitiser brewing"? There seem to be a number of different compounds.

[polygonum]

I wonder how much iodine is left behind?

A typical recommended intake is 150 micrograms a day. Significantly greater intake is controversial.

[Adam Funk]

The instructions I have (C&P'd from the uk-homebrew mailing list in

2000) say:

You want a 500ml bottle of Standardised Betadine Antiseptic Solution Aqueous (not the alcoholic one) made by Seton Healthcare Group PLC.

Iodophor and Betadine are the same thing. It is available in UK chemists, although they may have to look it up in their big book and therefore may take a few days to come in. You need to ask for Standardised Betadine Antiseptic Solution (Aqueous)

Use it at 12.5 - 25 ppm total iodine, or 1.25 to 2.5 ml/l of the standard solution of 10% Povidone-iodine containing 1% iodine.

It works out at 6.5ml per gallon (ish), slosh it around for a couple of minutes then let it drip dry. Apparently at 12.5 ppm its a 30 second contact time, and no rinse.

If I mix the stuff at the strong end of that range, 25 ppm iodine (I'm assuming that's w/v), I figure 150 microgrammes corresponds to 6 litres of solution. I reckon that a brief period of dripping is going to leave at most 10 ml of solution in a bottle. Of course, there's also the amount left in the fermenter & on other bits of equipment, but there's no way that amounts to 6 litres of sanitizing solution in

25 litres of beer, never mind a daily dose of beer.