Homebrewing updates...

[Baloonon]

Fortunately, nobody at home is ill, hope that's true for the people still
reading here..

My homebrew shop, which is also a brewery, has switched to curbside pickup,
with ordering online. I've used it once and they seem to have their act
together. I hope they can keep things going. I'm getting emails from mail
order places I've done with business with in the past, and I hope the
industry doesn't suffer -- I have to assume that there has been a
significant uptick in home brewing recently.

Brewing is going to require switching to outside boils sooner than I
expected. With others at home all the time who don't like the smell of
hops, I need to maintain domestic tranquility.

Doing some research, I found that StarSan breaks up coronavirus, although
it is not a preferred method due to a lack of clarity on how long it
remains effective. Since soap and water effectively break apart the shell
of the virus, due to the lipids in the shell being pulled into solution by
soap molecules, there isn't a compelling need to use StarSan in most cases
anyway for antiviral purposes.

Sharing, unfortunately, is down due to very limited interpersonal
interactions. I may decide to drop some bottles off on some neighborhood
friends' doorsteps as a surprise some morning, though.

[DaiTengu]

To: Baloonon
Re: Homebrewing updates...
By: Baloonon to rec.crafts.brewing on Tue Apr 07 2020 01:52 am

Ba> Fortunately, nobody at home is ill, hope that's true for the people still
Ba> reading here..

So far, so good, here!

Ba> My homebrew shop, which is also a brewery, has switched to curbside
Ba> pickup, with ordering online. I've used it once and they seem to have
Ba> their act together. I hope they can keep things going. I'm getting emails
Ba> from mail order places I've done with business with in the past, and I
Ba> hope the industry doesn't suffer -- I have to assume that there has been a
Ba> significant uptick in home brewing recently.

I'm lucky enough to live near Ritebrew. I can order online and they have always had a local pickup option.

Ba> Doing some research, I found that StarSan breaks up coronavirus, although
Ba> it is not a preferred method due to a lack of clarity on how long it
Ba> remains effective. Since soap and water effectively break apart the shell
Ba> of the virus, due to the lipids in the shell being pulled into solution by
Ba> soap molecules, there isn't a compelling need to use StarSan in most cases
Ba> anyway for antiviral purposes.

This is the opposite of what I've found. StarSan, in its recommended concentration, is NOT effective against the coronavirus. StarSan's main sanitizing tool is acidity, and since a virus is barely a living thing, it can survive in highly acidic environments, unlike bacteria.

You're better off with a no-rinse bleach agent, or iodine.

DaiTengu

... Old age is life's parody.
--- Synchronet 3.17c-Linux NewsLink 1.112
* War Ensemble BBS - Appleton, WI - telnet://warensemble.com

[Joerg]

On 2020-04-07 05:20, DaiTengu wrote:
> To: Baloonon Re: Homebrewing updates... By: Baloonon to
> rec.crafts.brewing on Tue Apr 07 2020 01:52 am
>
> Ba> Fortunately, nobody at home is ill, hope that's true for the
> people still Ba> reading here..
>
> So far, so good, here!
>

Same here. Our county (El Dorado County in California) is pretty safe
anyhow, currently 25 infected in about 200,000 people and no deaths. So far.

> Ba> My homebrew shop, which is also a brewery, has switched to
> curbside Ba> pickup, with ordering online. I've used it once and they
> seem to have Ba> their act together. I hope they can keep things
> going. I'm getting emails Ba> from mail order places I've done with
> business with in the past, and I Ba> hope the industry doesn't suffer
> -- I have to assume that there has been a Ba> significant uptick in
> home brewing recently.
>

On the radio someone said the booze consumption in Silicon Valley has
gone up 40% during shelter-in-place, so I assume that also goes for
beer. In our case it hasn't, I actually throttled my beer consumption
months ago in order to lose some weight so I brew a little less often
than before (we don't buy commercial beer).

> I'm lucky enough to live near Ritebrew. I can order online and they
> have always had a local pickup option.
>

I get most of my stuff from Midwest (now tied in with Northern Brew) and
that comes shipped anyhow.

> Ba> Doing some research, I found that StarSan breaks up coronavirus,
> although Ba> it is not a preferred method due to a lack of clarity on
> how long it Ba> remains effective. Since soap and water effectively
> break apart the shell Ba> of the virus, due to the lipids in the
> shell being pulled into solution by Ba> soap molecules, there isn't a
> compelling need to use StarSan in most cases Ba> anyway for antiviral
> purposes.
>
> This is the opposite of what I've found. StarSan, in its recommended
> concentration, is NOT effective against the coronavirus. StarSan's
> main sanitizing tool is acidity, and since a virus is barely a living
> thing, it can survive in highly acidic environments, unlike
> bacteria.
>
> You're better off with a no-rinse bleach agent, or iodine.
>

Iodine can leave nasty discolorations on some surfaces. We mostly use
dishwashing soap. Key is not to touch your face after touching other
stuff and wash the hands frequently and thoroughly using soap.

Some simple rules haven't been published for reasons I'll never
understand. Such as using a "Corona stick" to open the mailbox,
discarding envelopes right away, then washing hands after opening the
mail. Groceries should also be wiped down.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

[Baloonon]

No question that StarSan isn't what you want to be using for a few reasons.
One is that there are things which are effective across a broader swath of
viruses and microorganisms, and right now we want to be extra careful,
since this is not a good time to get infected by anything else.

Another is that StarSan doesn't necessarily have a long effective life, and
it's easy to lose track of it. Better to use something that stays
effective.

In a true emergency, it's something, since while StarSan contains a lot of
acid, it also uses the surfactant alkylbenzene sulfonate which attacks the
lipids in the shell of coronavirus. But since soap and water do the same
thing, it's simply too hard to imagine not having access to some kind of
soap/detergent/shampoo you could use without the downsides of StarSan.

For general usage StarSan doesn't match the cleaning ability of soap and
water, and that's also important because of the need to not only kill
surface virus but remove anything where the virus or other bad guys might
be lurking.

[Baloonon]

Joerg <ne...@analogconsultants.com> wrote

> Iodine can leave nasty discolorations on some surfaces. We mostly use
> dishwashing soap. Key is not to touch your face after touching other
> stuff and wash the hands frequently and thoroughly using soap.

Not touching my face is that hardest one. I fear that when hay fever season
hits I'm going to really struggle. I think I may need to improvise a diving
helmet for my face. Washing hands a lot has been much easier.

> Some simple rules haven't been published for reasons I'll never
> understand. Such as using a "Corona stick" to open the mailbox,
> discarding envelopes right away, then washing hands after opening the
> mail. Groceries should also be wiped down.

I think there are concerns with overloading people with recommendations may
discourage the most important ones like washing hands and not touching the
face, but I also get the feeling there isn't a lot of good research on
communication strategies, and there definitely is a major lack of
coordination across the US.