"Tater" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> I am planning on staring my wine kit next week (yay!)
>
> I am having a bit of confusion about cleaning and sanitizing. My kit
> came with
>
> straight a cleaner and one step sanitizer
>
> some instructions say to start by cleaning everything at once, others
> say clean and sanitize parts to be used at each step, which to do?
> Should i clean the bottles at the same time, they'll be sitting as
> much as a month(or longer if bulk aged) or at the time of bottling.
>
> one step says it will only be good for a week, do i have to make a new
> batch every time i do SG test for the hydrometer, sampler, and test
> stand?
>
> one step says rinsing it not neccessary, will it hurt to rinse?
>
> also, mixing instructions are for a gallon of each, will i need that
> much? more? less?
>

Clean just before you use. Don't confuse yourself by over-complicating
things. All you are doing is making sure things are kept clean.

An analogy would be 'when do you wash your hands? 1 month before you touch
food or just before...'

The purpose of cleaning is to avoid contamination. As with personal hygene,
you are merely trying to avoid things like bad bacteria and other such
nasties from getting into your wine.

Hope this doesn't sound terse etc. I can remember when I first started out
and had it firmly in my head that this winemaking marlarky was some mystical
hocus pokus when, in fact, it isn't.

Attention to detail and cleanliness in every step is all that is required.
Good luck and may you enjoy the fruits of your labours :-) <hic>

Mike