• Homebrewing updates...

    From Baloonon@baloonon@hootmali.com to rec.crafts.brewing on Tue Apr 7 01:52:40 2020
    From Newsgroup: rec.crafts.brewing

    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.
    --- Synchronet 3.17c-Linux NewsLink 1.112
  • From DaiTengu to Baloonon on Tue Apr 7 07:20:29 2020
    Re: Homebrewing updates...
    By: Baloonon to rec.crafts.brewing on Tue Apr 07 2020 01:52 am

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

    So far, so good, 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.

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

    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.

    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.
  • From Joerg@news@analogconsultants.com to rec.crafts.brewing on Tue Apr 7 09:18:03 2020
    From Newsgroup: rec.crafts.brewing

    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

    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.


    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.


    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/
    --- Synchronet 3.17c-Linux NewsLink 1.112
  • From Baloonon@baloonon@hootmali.com to rec.crafts.brewing on Wed Apr 8 02:08:36 2020
    From Newsgroup: rec.crafts.brewing

    "DaiTengu" <daitengu@warensemble.com.remove-1nc-this> wrote:

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

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

    So far, so good, here!

    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.

    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.

    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.
    --- Synchronet 3.17c-Linux NewsLink 1.112
  • From Baloonon@baloonon@hootmali.com to rec.crafts.brewing on Wed Apr 8 02:27:59 2020
    From Newsgroup: rec.crafts.brewing

    Joerg <news@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.
    --- Synchronet 3.17c-Linux NewsLink 1.112