Ok please excuse this total newb question but are you able to use any type of cheap dish washing soap or detergent (or just rubbing alcohol) to clean the mr. beer brewing barrel and bottles? I ask this because I want to brew cider and will not be buying the kits from mr.brew (so I do not have any one-step)

A lot of folks use Oxyclean Free. It is free of any fragrance and is a great cleaner.

The liquid or gel form? and do you just pour it in with a bit of water and scrub? We are talking about the laundry deturgent stuff right?

the laundry stuff, should be a white power.

The important thing is that it's the free (green lid).

Do not use isopropanol (alcohol) on plastics! True there are some harder plastics that it may not harm but as a general not, no isopropanol on plastics.
Cleaning and sanitizing are two separate steps. Surfaces must be cleaned before they can be sanitized.
As a cleaner oxy-clean free is great and fine to use on most surfaces (don't use on anything tethlon coated). I used to use alcohol on my stainless for quick, on-the-fly sanitizing, but heard on Brew Strong that the contact time before evaporation isn't sufficient to sanitize.
One step is a sanitizer. It will sanitize surfaces after they have been cleaned. StarSan is also a preferred sanitizer. They are both " no rinse" sanitizers. The correct proportion of bleach and water "can" be used as a no rinse sanitizer, but onestep and starsan are cheap. If you are going to be brewing/fermenting, I would suggest that you pick some up.

Pick up a bottle of star san. It's concentrated, last forever
and you will not have to worry about off flavors from soap.

You want to make sure anything you clean with has no scents added (not even as cover up). Which is why the Oxy Free stuff is awesome.

For sanitizing, it really is best to get a tub of OneStep or a jug of StarSan from a local or online homebrew shop.

For (most likely) readily available, effective and cheap no rinse sanitizer, you can use a mixture of water, bleach and vinegar. (some care needs to be taken, as you should not mix straight bleach and vinegar).

"March 29, 2007 - Sanitizing with Bleach and Star San
Charlie Talley from Five Star Chemicals tells us best practices in using household bleach and Star San in sanitizing equipment."
basic-brewing-radio-2007

Well I have started my brew of hard cider using cascade complete dishwasher detergent (because I actually could not find any of the above cleaners, except bleach which sounds dangerous) used nottingham danstar brewing yeast and 2.5 gal of whitehouse 100% apple juice. I scrubbed the heck out of the inside of my mini brew keg with cascade the rinsed it out for a good 30 min....should that be good?...Can't wait for these 3 weeks to be up (crosses fingers).

Good old Walmart has Oxyclean free. Well, sometimes they do. I normally pick one up when I see them in stock. For the last year or so, their stock of it has really varied.

I hope that Cascade works out for you. I actually found a bottle of Dish soap once that was fragrance free and clear. I used it and rinsed like mad and had no ill effects from it at all, but I stress the rinse like mad part.

i've used ivory unscented dish soap with no ill results.

My local walmart (statesboro) did not have oxyclean of any kind. I did rinse it out like I was trying to prevent a plague though lol

try dollar tree/dollar general/family dollar etc.

Next time I will...but for now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed...hope for a good brew

The main thing to remember is that Oxy Clean is just cleaner, not sanitizer. You risk contamination without sanitizer.

Good to know...what should I use as a sanitizer then?

STAR SAN! love the stuff!

Awesome...I will keep an eye out for it.

you'll only find it online or at brew stores. it wont be at walmart or anything.

i will also vouch for it. the initial price can be a little shocking but it lasts forever!!

You'd've been better off using bleach and rinsing. Or just regular oxiclean and rinsing.

Buuuut, you're probably ok. You could find Notty, but not starsan, one step, easy clean or idophor?

Man, I am getting scared about this now . I really did not look at around at my local brew store for cleaners (I was pretty set on just getting oxyclean from walmart). Next time I go though I will look. Is Notty good yeast by the way? I have not seen anyone mention it, but no one has told me otherwise. Also should I have used the whole packet or can I store the rest of it in the fridge. Man I am new to this!

There are other cleaners similar to oxiclean. Sun oxygen cleaner and LA totally awesome both have the same active ingredient. In my experience, the LA totally awesome takes longer to dissolve.

I really like Nottingham, especially in cooler weather. If you're going to use it within a week or so, you can use half, tape the package shut and store it in the fridge.

Don't worry! You're almost certainly ok.

Unless you have tap water that's not just contaminated, but contaminated with a cider-spoiling organisim (which is pretty unlikely) or the cascade contained something that didn't get rinsed away, you should be just fine.

That said, next time, pick up some one step, starsan, iodophor or whatever no-rinse sanitizer you can find at the LHBS.

And yes, Nottingham is a GREAT yeast. I've used it in cider before and it turned out great.

Oh, and one last thing...you might want to switch from High Life to drinking Grolsch in the swing-tops. It's no worse than High Life, and the bottles are PERFECT for bottling your cider.

Good luck!

Sweet, I guess I need another brewing container lol. Last question I swear, does it matter how much yeast you put in?

You only need another fermentor if you want to ferment another batch while this one is going. So yes, you probably do!

It absolutely does. In general, for anything you're fermenting in a Mr. Beer fermentor, one package of dry yeast, just sprinkled in and wait five minutes (then aerated like crazy) is about the right amount for most average gravity beverages, be they beer or cider (so long as you don't add extra sugar to the apple juice).

ooppss...I only added half a packet of yeast...should I pitch the rest in?...it has only been brewing for a day btw.

Nah, at this point, just leave it.

+1 the yeast have already replicated what they will need....its that process that can have the off flavors...especially if they replicate too fast ie too warm a temperature..

Oh ok, are you saying that me using half a packet will cause weird flavors or adding the rest would?

Using half a packet *might* cause off flavors...if it has, adding the rest won't help.

I bought Oxiclean, but I don't think it's the "free" version (it has a yellow lid). Can I still use it?

I wouldn't. it will leave a scent in plastics and such.

On glass swing-tops too? What should I use to clean them?

oxy clean free or PBW or any other cleaner designed for brewing will work. bleach will also work in a pinch, just be sure to rinse. You might be ok with normal oxyclean but I wouldnt do it. if you have any one step (the stuff that comes in mr beer kits) that is a cleaner and sanitizer as well.

i've used regular old dish soap for glass... thorough rinsing, and air dry, opening down. sanitize before bottling. never had a problem

Don't you have to rinse the other cleaners as well? I don't understand the distinction.

i believe the distinction is scents... regular oxy clean is scented... might impregnate the plastic. oxy clean free is unscented, as is PBW.

if it's glass, it's not that big of a concern, since scents can't really get it there... but i would get in the habit of using PBW for all my brewing-related cleaning... i love the stuff. great for a warm water soak to clean out my better bottle...

Scented or not, PBW still instructs to rinse after cleaning. I don't think I want to have any of them, being used as a cleaner, in my beer.

so... you won't use PBW... Powdered Brewery Wash... the same cleaner that actual breweries use?

yes, you have to rinse it... it is an alkaline cleaner.. and it's not advertised as a "no rinse" cleaner. so, yes you need to rinse it. but, it works amazingly well as a cleaner... brew pots, fermenters, i think folks use it to clean their kegerator/draft lines...

so what do you use as a cleaner?

No. I am just questioning why someone would point out that to make sure you rinse if you use bleach as a cleaner.

i think CF was talking about using bleach (and other "scented" cleaners) on plastics... in proper ratio, bleach + water *can* be no rinse, but i wouldn't chance the bleach (or any other scent from a scented cleaner) setting into the plastic... especially when there's better cleaners and sanitizers out there.

The question CF responded to was:
"On glass swing-tops too? What should I use to clean them?"
Perhaps we should wait to see what CF meant.

yeah, i meant you need to rinse when using bleach as a cleaner. then again, you need to rinse all cleaners - only sanitizers should be no rinse.