William Frazier wrote:
> I make beer as well as wine. Both are made in my basement brewery/wine
> cellar with a lot of the same equipment. Regardless of the beverage all
> equipment is washed immediately after it's use. This goes for bottles and
> kegs also. For wine I let the equipment and bottles drip dry and take no
> further action. For beer I clean as above but before I use carboys, pumps,
> tubing or bottles I treat with Iodophor. I add some citric acid to the
> Iodophor solution to lower the pH. I understand Iodophor is more effective
> in an acid pH. I keep some pre boiled water handy to run through my pumps
> and tubing after Iodophor treatment because some solution pools in those
> items. Carboys are drained and inverted, then covered with aluminum foil
> until they are filled. Bottles are emptied, allowed to drip and are
> immediately filled with primed beer. I don't let the Iodophor dry in
> containers. In the past I noticed a film that formed on the inside of beer
> bottles when they were treated with Iodophor and allowed to dry before
> filling.
>
> Since I make beer and wine in the same place, and since beer and wine yeasts
> are floating around in the air, I have to be especially careful with beer
> wort. I've had some batches of beer ferment much lower in final gravity
> than I expected and think they may have been contaminated with wine yeast.
> So, for me I'm pretty lax when sanitizing for wine but over cautious when
> sanitizing for beer.
>
> Bill Frazier
> Olathe, Kansas USA



I sanitize brewing equipment with iodophore, bleach and one step (if
you consider that a sanitizer). I have never had a beer finish too dry
though. Before using a carboy for beer, I do sanitize that (usually
with iodophor) and let it drip dry.

Meads (and cider) I make like I would wine, only I do not add sulfite
until after primary has completed and I use beer yeast for them. I use
nottingham which finishes dry anyway....so I guess I would not know if
they had cross contaminated. I do pitch a very large starter for them.
This year I made my 20 gallons of mead on a yeast cake from a 15
gallon batch of cider.

In the future I am going tro expand my experiments on spointaneous
fermentations with wine. I already do lambics in a pseudo spontaneous
way adn I think I could manage that with wine as well.