I would say that you're not lucky but a miracle worker... first of all
there's typically enough chlroine in unboiled city water to fry yeast
fermentation and secondarily chlorine doesn't kill all the nasties that can
put off the flavor of beer.

Are you measuring your final gravity to see what kind of attenuation you're
getting?

I hear you about contradictory information but that's the philosophical side
of beer-- you've got to do what works for you!!!! Live and learn. This is
also the important aspect of keeping good records of what you've done that
works or doesn't work..

Anyway... I guess I'm sold on iodophor. Barring that, household bleach does
as much as as any of the fancy stuff as long as you're anal about rinsing
(again, chlorine can be your friend and your enemy).

I'd also strongly suggest you get to full 5 gallon boils as this does a lot
towards sanitizing everything anyway...
"sozman" <pauls> wrote in message
news:3fbfd9da$0$20482$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...[color=blue]
> "Denny Conn" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
> news:3FBF9BBA.5FE57817@privacy.net...[color=green]
> > sozman wrote:
> >[color=darkred]
> > > So you don't reckon sodium metabisulphate, sodium percarbonate or[/color][/color]
> phosphoric[color=green][color=darkred]
> > > acid based sanitizers are any good? I have only used the first two[/color][/color][/color]
and[color=blue]
> so[color=green][color=darkred]
> > > far haven't had any infected beer.[/color]
> >
> > You've been lucky. None of those are effective sanitizers for beer.[/color]
>
> That's quite possible, I have only brewed three batches. Then again I[/color]
just[color=blue]
> use water out of the garden hose to bring my wort up to the desired volume
> for fermentation. The scary thing is that these (in particular the sodium
> m.) is pretty much what the LHBS promote as sanitisers.
>
> Being a newbie at homebrewing means I need to sift through the **** loads[/color]
of[color=blue]
> (often contradictory) information on the web and elsewhere and make up my
> own mind. The info I have seen has been pretty favorable towards things
> like StarSan (phosphoric acid based) and "oxygen powered" (which I assume[/color]
is[color=blue]
> largely sodium percarbonate).
>
> I guess it is like PC backup software, you don't know how effective it is
> until you lose a hard disk.
>
> cheers
>
>[/color]