How to Sterilise Homebrew Equipment

Fermenting liquids are an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. Unwanted bacteria will spoil your brew - one bottle of it if the bottle isn't clean, or the whole batch if the equipment isn't clean.

So whatever you are making, everything that comes into contact with your drink needs sterilising.

That means buckets, mixing paddles, bottles, corks, the lot. This even applies when making a wild ferment, like ‘wild’ cider, where you may rely on natural yeasts for fermentation. This is because bacteria on equipment may be very different to naturally occurring bacteria and yeasts on the fruit.

There are a variety of cleaner/sterilisers available, all of which are easy to use, work in a similar way and will have instructions on the label. Sterilising may sound like a lot of work but in reality it's easy, and you will quickly become used to doing it every time.

Sterilise as you go along. So first sterilise the equipment needed to get your drink fermenting. You don’t need to sterilise the bottles until you’re ready to use them.

If you’re fermenting in a large bucket, you can use that to sterilise the airlock, spoon and so on at the beginning of the process at the same time as you sterilise the bucket, so they are all ready together. Even when the instructions say to rinse off the sterilising liquid, I quickly rinse equipment thoroughly in fresh, cold water after sterilising and just before use to avoid any off taste.

You may have a particularly dirty glass demijohn that has sat in a garage for 30 years and wasn’t cleaned out very thoroughly the first time. Modern sterilisers work very well for situations like this. 

I find the industry standard in the UK, VWP, gets rid of everything. It usually works in about 20 minutes. If you leave a heavily soiled demijohn with a solution of VWP in it overnight, when you awake the next day most or all of the muck will be loose and ready to pour away. A cranked demijohn brush (which is a brush with a kink in it) works well for scrubbing the hard-to-get-to parts.

Whenever you stir your must at each stage of your brewing process, that spoon needs to be sterile. There are a couple of ways you can do this. One is to boil a kettle and pour it over the spoon before you use it, as boiling water kills most things. Another way is to keep cleaner/steriliser made up in a spray bottle and spray the spoon when you need it. 

This is a reader-supported site and I am an Amazon affiliate. That means that if you purchase a product or service using my one of my links, the company compensates me at no cost to you. I only recommend books, products and services I personally use. And this is Milton. Great for baby's bottles, but also great for sterilising homebrew equipment.

If you already have Milton around the house for baby bottles, this works well for sterilising equipment too.

Finally, in homebrewing the same basic hygiene rules apply as for any food and drink preparation. So wash your hands before you start and repeat at regular intervals through the process.