I've always used chlorine. I like long soaks with not too much caustic.
I have a second pot of well boiled water I use for rinsing.
It seems to work well enough.
If I were using lots of Stainless equipment I'd not use bleach.
I know people who curse chlorinators and insist on using Metasylicates (which are also strong caustics) but I rather suspect that the real (and only) reason the modern brew house preference is for metasilicates is simply because it does not react with the Chrome-Oxide passive layer in Stainless Steel - which is why SST is SST. Lots of Chlorine can pit Stainless, stripping away the Chrome-Oxide passive layer and let rust get started. Once you get pits, even microscopic ones, you have cleaning issues.
Any residual metasilicates will still kill the yeasts and ruin beer. So for me it's a 6 of one half a dozen of the other kind of decision except the bottle of Chlorox is right there in the laundry. So the chlorine is easier.
What do you do to sterilize?
What do you rinse with?
Boiled water or tap water?
As an aside:
You can passivate your SST (re establish the chrome-oxide passive layer) using powdered or granulated citric acid. Using a little heat speeds the process but, an over night soak at room temp works fine and the titration specificity is a joke. A couple or three cups of Citric acid powder to five or so gallons of water is fine - more or less. Accuracy is that free & easy.
What's better: unlike Nitric acid (which requires exact titration, temp, and time) you can spill it on yourself, the floor, the counter, etc., with no more harm than vinegar would cause, and clean up is easy, you can also dump it down the drain when you are done and it won't rot your pipes or harm anything.
Passivation won't fill in pits tho'.
I have a second pot of well boiled water I use for rinsing.
It seems to work well enough.
If I were using lots of Stainless equipment I'd not use bleach.
I know people who curse chlorinators and insist on using Metasylicates (which are also strong caustics) but I rather suspect that the real (and only) reason the modern brew house preference is for metasilicates is simply because it does not react with the Chrome-Oxide passive layer in Stainless Steel - which is why SST is SST. Lots of Chlorine can pit Stainless, stripping away the Chrome-Oxide passive layer and let rust get started. Once you get pits, even microscopic ones, you have cleaning issues.
Any residual metasilicates will still kill the yeasts and ruin beer. So for me it's a 6 of one half a dozen of the other kind of decision except the bottle of Chlorox is right there in the laundry. So the chlorine is easier.
What do you do to sterilize?
What do you rinse with?
Boiled water or tap water?
As an aside:
You can passivate your SST (re establish the chrome-oxide passive layer) using powdered or granulated citric acid. Using a little heat speeds the process but, an over night soak at room temp works fine and the titration specificity is a joke. A couple or three cups of Citric acid powder to five or so gallons of water is fine - more or less. Accuracy is that free & easy.
What's better: unlike Nitric acid (which requires exact titration, temp, and time) you can spill it on yourself, the floor, the counter, etc., with no more harm than vinegar would cause, and clean up is easy, you can also dump it down the drain when you are done and it won't rot your pipes or harm anything.
Passivation won't fill in pits tho'.