Cleaning/Sanitation practices.

[GFHomebrew]

Gday All fellow home brewers. I am looking for feed back on your cleaning and sanitation schedules how do you go about cleaning out your equipment one your Finnished with its use and then what is your rule of thumb when it comes to sanitation and more precisely sterilisation that beautiful heartbreaking key to great beer!

Me first.

Fermentor once racked out I'll hose out the trub swill it and throw it on the garden as I've herd the tomatoes love the yeasties so does the slugs!.

Then I'll fill again with tap water grab me brew cloth (soft no bristles) and try to work off stubborn first rinse scum.
Then I'll head over to laundry turn on hot tap fill till few liters and add a cap full of oxy clean (sodium percarbonate 25.7%w/w) - vannishAussie napi San type stain remover. Fill her up swill fermentor round and let her soak for an hour or so. Do brew day dance.
Come back decant suds into bucket for later use -oh unscrew tap all fermentor contraptions throw in bucket and pay a bit of attention to tap threads.
Rinse out fermentor tap thread then put the kettle on for a cuppa then I spray tap thread fittings with phosphoric Acid sanitizer (foaming type) put fermentor together then swill fermentor with freshly boiled water to rid fermentor of any up rinsed soap.
Next I mix up a few liters 3 ish of phosphoric acid sanitizer decant hot boiled water out tap then throw this in fermentor along with gromet air lock bits and swill around fermentor. I leave this like this till wort is chilled then decant outta tap sanitizer into bucket through transfer hose. Then rack in fresh wort seal lid air lock and wack fermentor in fridge till pitch temp reached.

This process follows for kegs and bottles even beer lines! but for brew kettle I give it a quick scrub along with Imersion chiller at end of brew day throw in save sodium percarbonate scrub rinse put away.

What am I doing wrong ? Can you point out any flaws I have I understand better brewing comes down to better sanitation and of course the rest but first things first . Let me know.

 

[Mark D Pirate]

Gday All fellow home brewers. I am looking for feed back on your cleaning and sanitation schedules how do you go about cleaning out your equipment one your Finnished with its use and then what is your rule of thumb when it comes to sanitation and more precisely sterilisation that beautiful heartbreaking key to great beer!

Me first.

Fermentor once racked out I'll hose out the trub swill it and throw it on the garden as I've herd the tomatoes love the yeasties so does the slugs!.

Then I'll fill again with tap water grab me brew cloth (soft no bristles) and try to work off stubborn first rinse scum.
Then I'll head over to laundry turn on hot tap fill till few liters and add a cap full of oxy clean (sodium percarbonate 25.7%w/w) - vannishAussie napi San type stain remover. Fill her up swill fermentor round and let her soak for an hour or so. Do brew day dance.
Come back decant suds into bucket for later use -oh unscrew tap all fermentor contraptions throw in bucket and pay a bit of attention to tap threads.
Rinse out fermentor tap thread then put the kettle on for a cuppa then I spray tap thread fittings with phosphoric Acid sanitizer (foaming type) put fermentor together then swill fermentor with freshly boiled water to rid fermentor of any up rinsed soap.
Next I mix up a few liters 3 ish of phosphoric acid sanitizer decant hot boiled water out tap then throw this in fermentor along with geomet air lock bits and swill around fermentor. I leave this like this till wort is chilled then decant outta tap sanitizer into bucket through transfer hose. Then rack in fresh wort seal lid air lock and wack fermentor in fridge till pitch temp reached.

This process follows for kegs and bottles even beer lines! but for brew kettle I give it a quick scrub along with Imersion chiller at end of brew day throw in save sodium percarbonate scrub rinse put away.

What a, I doing wrong ? Can you point out any flaws I have I understand better brewing comes down to better sanitation and of course the rest but first things first . Let me know.

main difference is the time i allow the sodium perc to sit , usually 24 hours
i rotate my sanitisers between Star san & hydrogen peroxide
with Star san alone you're not killing everything , it's ineffective against wild yeasts and mould
but it can be stored , i mix up 5 litres at a time and re use several times ( i never rinse afterwards )
for my pre boil stuff i don't sanitise , just clean as anything that survives the boil probably deserves to live at least and rule the universe at best .

also note that mixing star san stronger only wastes money , a small 4 oz bottle lasts me at least 6 months

 

[jeffpn]

I use dishwashing soap and bleach to clean everything that touches my cooled wort. I use the dishwashing soap to clean my kegs beforehand, and than soak for a few minutes in OneStep. After I transfer out of a carboy, I'll clean it with soap only. All keg hardware gets cleaned in OneStep. Sometimes I clean the keg first with dishwashing soap.

 

[Thurston Brewer]

You're regimen seems OK to me - much more involved than what I do... I live in a pretty dry climate, though, not much opportunity for bad buggies in this environment. Are you having contamination problems or just asking?

BTW, whenever I read your posts I hear the words in my head with an Aussie accent. Much more entertaining that way!

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I use very hot water, boiling some times, pbw, me scrubbing by hand, I also use a hose brush and keg brush, more hot water and everything gets coated right before use with star sans

not very detailed i know but i clean on the fly, never a set schedule

 

[GFHomebrew]

You're regimen seems OK to me - much more involved than what I do... I live in a pretty dry climate, though, not much opportunity for bad buggies in this environment. Are you having contamination problems or just asking?

BTW, whenever I read your posts I hear the words in my head with an Aussie accent. Much more entertaining that way!

Glad to hear thirtsty! Na no problems with contamination in beer as such just a bad batch of starters I did awhile back. Just wanted to know everyone else's take on the cleaning process and sanitation processes in their home brewing.

Learning about star San sanitizer though it's not the be all and all.

 

[jeffpn]

Nothing is the be all end all.

 

[Brew Cat]

Alott more thorough than what I do but if it works. I never use soap. After I finish racking the wort I rinse with hot water wash out with a little oxyclean then store until brew day. On brew day just dump stars san in swish around dump stars san out and add chilled wort stick in an airlock and done.

 

[GFHomebrew]

My phosphoric acid sanitizer solution is 1.5ml / 1lt it's at 50% phosphoric Acid and dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid 15%
The other sanitizer is Morgan's sanitize 2.95% hydrogen peroxide.

How about sodium meatabysulphste. I here this stuff is a sanitizer of sorts never used before brother is a plumber and he's got a bag full of the stuff.

 

[LlewellynBrewHaus]

Kettle gets hot water swish it remove the big crud, then hit with more hot water and norwex rag (silver impergnated) till clean. I have never used detergents and abravise cleaners on kettle...since it is aluminum [for now] I read that the oxide layer that forms from heating provides a barrier between the pot and the contents. Mash tun gets good hot water rinse post mash then again pre-mash she gets a soak in 180 degree sun oxygen cleaner for 30 min and double hot water rinse. Fermenter gets the most attention. Hot water flush-180 degree sun oxy soak for hour then soft nylon brush scrub, stainless steel glycol coil has added a fair bit of time to the fermenter cleaning. Then hot water rinse and star san treatment.
Kegs and beer lines get the same sun oxy/star san treatment pre and post fill

 

[GFHomebrew]

Kettle gets hot water swish it remove the big crud, then hit with more hot water and norwex rag (silver impergnated) till clean. I have never used detergents and abravise cleaners on kettle...since it is aluminum [for now] I read that the oxide layer that forms from heating provides a barrier between the pot and the contents. Mash tun gets good hot water rinse post mash then again pre-mash she gets a soak in 180 degree sun oxygen cleaner for 30 min and double hot water rinse. Fermenter gets the most attention. Hot water flush-180 degree sun oxy soak for hour then soft nylon brush scrub, stainless steel glycol coil has added a fair bit of time to the fermenter cleaning. Then hot water rinse and star san treatment.
Kegs and beer lines get the same sun oxy/star san treatment pre and post fill

Cheers Welshman so this sun oxygen cleaner is like oxy cleaner eh? Sodium percarbonate? It seems we all have similar but slightly differing cleaning and sanitising schedules. Let's admit it's a big part of brewing so I thought I'd run this thread! After cleaning my beer lines the other day I thought I could taste a little star San in the brew it was tangy next pour was better.

 

[Thurston Brewer]

How about sodium meatabysulphste. I here this stuff is a sanitizer of sorts never used before brother is a plumber and he's got a bag full of the stuff.

That's what I've been using. I always rinse, but it's worked fine for me so far. Might try out Star San soon, but I'm still gonna rinse...

 

[LlewellynBrewHaus]

Cheers Welshman so this sun oxygen cleaner is like oxy cleaner eh? Sodium percarbonate? It seems we all have similar but slightly differing cleaning and sanitising schedules. Let's admit it's a big part of brewing so I thought I'd run this thread! After cleaning my beer lines the other day I thought I could taste a little star San in the brew it was tangy next pour was better.

Yes Sun is a generic brand of oxyclean, I pick up a 3lb tub at my local dollar store for under $5. I've debated mixing it 50/50 with red devil TSP to get some chelation but it works so well on its own that I have not seen the need to try it yet. As to the starsan taste in your beer lines; I've let my starsan soak in one of my kegerator beer lines that I had on IPA on for 5 days [due to forgetfullness] flushed out a bunch of green looking junk and hooked up a new keg. Since I fine with gelatin the first pint on a new keg I have always sent down the drain and the next pint tastes spot on. I believe I read an article on starsan when I first started to use it; and in that article they purposely mixed starsan 50/50ish with beer and bottled it and no one could pick it any off flavor after conditioning/ I've have never detected any thing off with it either

 

[GFHomebrew]

Yes Sun is a generic brand of oxyclean, I pick up a 3lb tub at my local dollar store for under $5. I've debated mixing it 50/50 with red devil TSP to get some chelation but it works so well on its own that I have not seen the need to try it yet. As to the starsan taste in your beer lines; I've let my starsan soak in one of my kegerator beer lines that I had on IPA on for 5 days [due to forgetfullness] flushed out a bunch of green looking junk and hooked up a new keg. Since I fine with gelatin the first pint on a new keg I have always sent down the drain and the next pint tastes spot on. I believe I read an article on starsan when I first started to use it; and in that article they purposely mixed starsan 50/50ish with beer and bottled it and no one could pick it any off flavor after conditioning/ I've have never detected any thing off with it either

Just quietly between you and me mate I've actually wait for it, used 3 ml in mash before to drop ph! Yep I did! Nice head on that beer! Ha ha I know I'm gunna cop it for that post lol.

Pure phosphoric acid is used in mash acidification so I though (50% plus what ever that soap agent it is) why not.

I'm sure that twitch will go away ha ha

 

[Thurston Brewer]

Pure phosphoric acid is used in mash acidification so I though (50% plus what ever that soap agent it is) why not.

I'm sure that twitch will go away ha ha

This explains so much, tb !!

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

Yes Sun is a generic brand of oxyclean, I pick up a 3lb tub at my local dollar store for under $5. I've debated mixing it 50/50 with red devil TSP to get some chelation but it works so well on its own that I have not seen the need to try it yet

I have a large amount of this 8 pounds I think and found out Im allergic to something in it, I keep breaking out in hives after using, go figure I made it just for cleaning my brew rig

 

[LlewellynBrewHaus]

I have a large amount of this 8 pounds I think and found out Im allergic to something in it, I keep breaking out in hives after using, go figure I made it just for cleaning my brew rig

Wonder what on earth is in it that messed with you ?!! M assuming you don't have the same issue with PBW

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I'm pretty sensitive to strong detergent odors it could just be that, I have to use tide free for my laundry

 

[GFHomebrew]

My standard starter cleaning and sanitation scheduled is as follows

Use yeast calculator on here based on recipe requirements usually strong ale .75 and pro lager 1.25 for lagers.
I'll pitch in required DME for starter 1.040 add water and boil in flask for 10 minutes with alfoil on top to sanitize everything. Chill her down and decant warmed up yeast into flask and throw this on stir plate.

Once Finnished with flask it gets a 24hour soak in oxy clean then rinsed and back in box for next time.

I've given up on Real Wort starters for now as I had a contaminated batch.
If I'm no chill brewing I'll pinch some wort on brew day to pitch tomorrow when cube is at pitch temp.
Just thought I'd add this to the thread too.
I see in photo I don't have alfoil on top. I don't do this with my small flask no head space with my 3lt no probs as plenty of room to control boil overs I stand by with oven mit ready to pull her off the flame.

 

[OkanaganMike]

I use PBW for first time cleans or if something is particularly stubborn. On brew day, I dump my 4-5gals of star san into the keggle and drain it out the valve through my plate chiller then into the carboy. This sterilizes my lines and plate chiller and eventually the carboy. After the boil is complete and the wort removed, I just rinse out the lines with a garden hose and give the keggle a bit of a scrub with the hose and a stiff brush. Sometimes I'll add some dishsoap to the keggle for a scrub but not always. I always have a fresh to semi fresh bucket of star san in the state of the art brew lab (dingy old garage) for soaking stuff but that's about it and its worked for the last few years anyways without issue (knocking on wood).