For cleaning fermentation buckets, wine bottles and your other wine making equipment, its hard to beat the effectiveness of Five Star PBW. It’s a buffered alkaline detergent that has been proven to be more than effective substitute for caustic soda cleaners that is safe on the skin as well as stainless steel, glass and plastics. It is the preferred cleaner for many home winemakers. PBW’s contains Sodium percarbonate (an oxidizer), Sodium carbonate aka washing soda (a buffering agent) plus Sodium metasilicate (a builder). It uses active oxygen to effectively clean and it’s safe to let items soak in PBW to get tough areas clean.

Many people, including myself, also use Oxiclean to effectively clean. The active ingredients are close to those found in PBW, but at roughly 60% less cost. Both are effective cleaners but most winemakers I know give the nod to PBW.

When it comes to wine making, cleanliness and sanitation is key! An effective combination is PBW for cleaning, followed by Star San to sanitize.