What is the difference between Clean, Sanitized and Sterilized?

Question

What is the difference between

• Clean,
• Sanitized and
• Sterilized?

Answer 1

Cleaning is the process of removing material from the surface.

Sanitizing is the process of reducing the number of organisms (in brewing, we're worried about bad bacteria, mainly).

Sterilizing is like sanitizing, but removing all bacteria.

If I remember right, sanitizing is a technical term that means a certain amount of allowable bacteria remains, and sterilization is removing ALL bacteria.

For the most part, brewers don't need to sterlize, only sanitize. The chemicals made for brewing are made to sanitize.

You need to both clean AND sanitize. The analogy I like is this: if my Dog pees on my floor, I first wipe up the liquid (clean), then use bleach (sanitize). If I merely use the bleach I've still got pee on my floor.

Answer 2

Sanitizing is the removal of contaminants that could grow bacteria, while sterilizing is the complete destruction of bacteria. Cleaning is the removal of foreign matter. Technically speaking, you can clean something without it being sanitized, but not the other way around.

Answer 3

I wrote up something on my site for this. Seems to help new brewers. :)

http://www.brewgeeks.com/clean-and-sanitize.html