Safe/practical to leave brew equipment in no-rinse sanitation tub throughout the whole brew?

Question

I'm brand new to brewing and am just using extract kits.

I got my haircut recently, and it gave me an idea for brewing (!). The barber keeps his scissors in a little trough full of that blue barbicide. Throughout the day, customer after customer, he never cleans or washes the scissors by scrubbing them manually. He puts the scissors into the barbicide every time he's done using them. And when he needs them again, he pulls them out of the barbicide and uses them immediately on the customer.

So I'm wondering if this translates to keeping brew equipment/utensils santized. My extract brews are taking a few hours from start to finish, and I am constantly setting utensils (mash paddles, measuring cups, whatever) down on a clean surface, but then feel the need to re-sanitize them every time I need them again.

So I'm wondering if I can just make a big tub of sanitized solution (I've been using no-rinse Easy Clean), once, at the beginning of my brew session, and then just use it (like the barbicide) to keep my utensils sanitary? That way I can just use them as-is (since its no-rinse) when I need them, and then throw them back into the vat-o-sanitation when I'm done with them (for the moment).

Thoughts?

Answer 1

In short, No.

Easy clean is not a sanitizer. After cleaning with easy clean, a no rinse sanitizer needs to be used like starsan.

I often soak beer equipment for hours in oxyclean, very similar to easy clean. But I rinse after and then sanitize before use.

Soaking anything in sanitizer for much longer than it's recomened contact time can be bad for some materials. Glass being the exception.

Acidic sanitizers (Starsan): Most plastics and silicone will turn to slime if left to soak more than an hour. Metals will start to corrode or etch.

Iodine sanitizers (Io star): will stain silicone, though only cosmetic. Items sanitized with this need to fully air dry before use.

You may be going clean freak as we all do when we are new to brewing. Keep in mind your only utensils that need to be sanitized are those that will come into contact with your wort after the boil and chill. Usually this will only be your fermentor and any line used to fill it. Best practices are to use the boil for sanitan.