Milton / Baby bottle sanitiser?

I have used Milton a lot in the past because I had it lying about the house already (from baby duty) when I started brewing. It seems fine, I think once I've had a beer that was a bit sour. Current using VWP and can't tell any difference. I don't mind rinsing because I think our water is pretty clean (probably if there are off flavours in my beer it's related to chlorites rather than microbes)

Go to Lidl get their Oxy powder in tub, non scented and cheap, makes vast quantities. Use hot water as well, use small soft sponge on you FV, Steep your plastic barrels. Rinse out twice inc' sponge.Then use STARSAN. Don't fear the foam! Cheers , happy new year.

Just a little add on to Grahams comment. Yes Sodium hypochlorite is a bleach because of its basic chlorine base. However it deteriorates rapidly. It is not typically offered in large bottles because of it's short shelf life of less than six months. Extending past the shelf life means it becomes a poor cleaning agent as it becomes predominately salty water. Secondly it is light sensitive. It needs to be stored in dark bottles in a cool dark place to maximise it's life. It is most often recommended for butcher's trays and bench cleaning not homebrew hardware cleaning. In fact it is actually more expensive to use than Sodium Percarbonate, Sodium Metasilicate, or acid salt no rinse foam sanitisers you will find in local home brew stores. Beware of the brewing foibles, there are a lot out there and solely based on saving a few cents.

"Milton Sterilising Fluid allows you to sterilise in just 15 minutes, killing bacteria, viruses, fungi and spores (tough dormant bacteria). It has been used in hospitals for many years as a simple and very reliable method."

Wow. Sounds way stronger than needed for brewing! I wonder whats in it?

"Milton Fluid is made of an aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite and 16.5% sodium chloride. The Milton Fluid that is available to buy is a strength of 2% sodium hypochlorite."

Ahhh. Sodium Chloride is, of course, plain old salt, and Sodium Hypochlorite is bleach. This stuff uses some other chemicals so that it is a 'no rinse' cleaner for the baby products, meaning that it won't hurt the kid. According to their site, the presence of any protein will immediately denature the sterilizer into plain ol' salt.

HOWEVER, this sounds great for baby bottles, but perhaps not for brewing. Here's my thinking:

1) Bleach is troublesome as a cleanser because any active bleach that makes it into the fermentor can trigger a host of terrible flavors from the yeast. For this reason, bleach is always, always rinsed away with clean water after it is used to clean/sterilize brewing gear.

2) This particular product is basically just highly packaged bleach with a lot of marketing, and as such I expect that it is VERY COSTLY comparred to (a) regular bleach, or (b) the wide range of other BETTER sanitizers out there. I see on Amazon that a 28-tablet box of their "sterilizing tablets" goes for $3, but I am not sure how many tablets you'd need to use to generate a gallon or so of sterilizing liquid.

Summary: Yes, this product SHOULD be fine for brewing, but only if you rinse with sterile water after to ensure that no bleach is left on the gear. And its probably WAY more expensive than using plain bleach, or a proven brewing sanitizer.