Spike cip

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Brewer #423642

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Good day fellow brewers. Does anyone use the spike cip spray ball? Is it worth the extra cash? Looking at using it in conjunction with the spike flow pump and a cf30 fermenter. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
 
I don't know about the Spike unit, but, I have the Blichmann CIP and their Riptide pump.

I was just recently whining about it's relative lack of effectiveness on the forum monthly zoom call, and was discussing with @Bigbre04
I swapped in some quality braided hoses, and managed a spotless clean in about an hour.
I did a pre rinse with a hose after the yeast dump
re-sealed and ran plain water for 20m. This got 99% of debris.
dumped, resealed ran with pbw at 160F.
It was __SO... CLEAN__

And that smell. Nothing in the brewery smells like that. :cool:
I took the tri clamps off, cleaned & sanitized and ran the CIP once more with star san and air dried.

You definitely want a decent pump, the Spike is probably the best in class right now, Blichmann riptide is a bit less pricey, but damn powerful.
I like the spike mill, it's the bees knees for crushing grain. But, I was looking at something and had some questions and there's no reaching them by phone. At least with Blichmann I can get them during business hours with a question, need a part, etc.

If you're planning on an equipment upgrade, buy once, cry once.
 
I also do not have a spike cip, but I have their small (flex) fermenter. I find that cleaning it with a scrub daddy and pbw is not much effort. I do rinse then soak it for a few tens of minutes with hot water before I start.
 
The problem with the cf30 is it's a long way to the bottom, I can only reach 2/3 of the way down, and the coil is a pain to clean. Was hoping to find an easier way. I have that same dernord spray ball and was planing to build the bucket style keg washer with it.
 
Brewer #423642 said:
The problem with the cf30 is it's a long way to the bottom, I can only reach 2/3 of the way down, and the coil is a pain to clean. Was hoping to find an easier way. I have that same dernord spray ball and was planing to build the bucket style keg washer with it.
Click to expand...
That's what I use it for
 
Brewer #423642 said:
The problem with the cf30 is it's a long way to the bottom, I can only reach 2/3 of the way down, and the coil is a pain to clean. Was hoping to find an easier way. I have that same dernord spray ball and was planing to build the bucket style keg washer with it.
Click to expand...
Ah, big fermenter with ‘stuff’ inside. I misunderstood, sorry.

That being said, how bad could any spike product be? It’s probably one of the best of its kind, if their other products are any indication.
 
So I was talking about this on the video call.

the best type of spray balls that are reasonable price wise and scale wise, are called Jetting spray balls. They use the pressure of the water to spin and spray the whole vessel top to bottom. I found 2 versions on amazon for about $20 they call them Rotating sprayballs. Potatoes potatoes?

My SOP for CIP(I am running commercial chemicals, all SS, and a 1hp pump so take this with a grain of salt). Adapt to your chemicals/temps/comfort level.

1-- use head pressure to push out the remaining sludge.
2-- open door, disassemble, take off gaskets carefully
3-- blow down or let CO2 drain via gravity
4-- preheat tank(i push 180 through the whole setup, spin it for a min, and then dump it)
5-- Caustic cycle at recommended temp and concentration. I use Birkko Cir q late OR 5star LCC (400ml into 10 gals of 180 water)
6-- 30 min spin cycle
7-- flashlight inspect tank
8-- rinse with hot water then rinse with cold
9-- Acid cycle 20 mins. I use 5 star acid No5 or whatever Nitric/phos blend i can get my hands on(300ml into 10gals of cold water)
10-- rinse with cold water
11-- Sanitizer spin 15 mins open, reassemble tank and then spin for 15 mins. I use PAA from Birkko(100ml into 10gals cold)
12-- push sanitizer out with CO2 and leave assembeled and under 5psi until ready to fill.

PAA is a leave in sanitizer. I am not sure if Star San is a leave in or if it needs to dry??? if it is a leave in, i would push as much out as possible and then leave the fermenter under pressure until you are ready to fill it. helps to avoid bugs.

You should also be building in any and all hoses that will be touching the wort past the heat exchanger. they need to stay sealed and clean.

happy to go further into detail if you want.
 
Bigbre04 said:
So I was talking about this on the video call.

the best type of spray balls that are reasonable price wise and scale wise, are called Jetting spray balls. They use the pressure of the water to spin and spray the whole vessel top to bottom. I found 2 versions on amazon for about $20 they call them Rotating sprayballs. Potatoes potatoes?

My SOP for CIP(I am running commercial chemicals, all SS, and a 1hp pump so take this with a grain of salt). Adapt to your chemicals/temps/comfort level.

1-- use head pressure to push out the remaining sludge.
2-- open door, disassemble, take off gaskets carefully
3-- blow down or let CO2 drain via gravity
4-- preheat tank(i push 180 through the whole setup, spin it for a min, and then dump it)
5-- Caustic cycle at recommended temp and concentration. I use Birkko Cir q late OR 5star LCC (400ml into 10 gals of 180 water)
6-- 30 min spin cycle
7-- flashlight inspect tank
8-- rinse with hot water then rinse with cold
9-- Acid cycle 20 mins. I use 5 star acid No5 or whatever Nitric/phos blend i can get my hands on(300ml into 10gals of cold water)
10-- rinse with cold water
11-- Sanitizer spin 15 mins open, reassemble tank and then spin for 15 mins. I use PAA from Birkko(100ml into 10gals cold)
12-- push sanitizer out with CO2 and leave assembeled and under 5psi until ready to fill.

PAA is a leave in sanitizer. I am not sure if Star San is a leave in or if it needs to dry??? if it is a leave in, i would push as much out as possible and then leave the fermenter under pressure until you are ready to fill it. helps to avoid bugs.

You should also be building in any and all hoses that will be touching the wort past the heat exchanger. they need to stay sealed and clean.

happy to go further into detail if you want.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the excellent write up! Never thought of keeping the hoses capped off.
 
Bigbre04 said:
So I was talking about this on the video call.

the best type of spray balls that are reasonable price wise and scale wise, are called Jetting spray balls. They use the pressure of the water to spin and spray the whole vessel top to bottom. I found 2 versions on amazon for about $20 they call them Rotating sprayballs. Potatoes potatoes?

My SOP for CIP(I am running commercial chemicals, all SS, and a 1hp pump so take this with a grain of salt). Adapt to your chemicals/temps/comfort level.

1-- use head pressure to push out the remaining sludge.
2-- open door, disassemble, take off gaskets carefully
3-- blow down or let CO2 drain via gravity
4-- preheat tank(i push 180 through the whole setup, spin it for a min, and then dump it)
5-- Caustic cycle at recommended temp and concentration. I use Birkko Cir q late OR 5star LCC (400ml into 10 gals of 180 water)
6-- 30 min spin cycle
7-- flashlight inspect tank
8-- rinse with hot water then rinse with cold
9-- Acid cycle 20 mins. I use 5 star acid No5 or whatever Nitric/phos blend i can get my hands on(300ml into 10gals of cold water)
10-- rinse with cold water
11-- Sanitizer spin 15 mins open, reassemble tank and then spin for 15 mins. I use PAA from Birkko(100ml into 10gals cold)
12-- push sanitizer out with CO2 and leave assembeled and under 5psi until ready to fill.

PAA is a leave in sanitizer. I am not sure if Star San is a leave in or if it needs to dry??? if it is a leave in, i would push as much out as possible and then leave the fermenter under pressure until you are ready to fill it. helps to avoid bugs.

You should also be building in any and all hoses that will be touching the wort past the heat exchanger. they need to stay sealed and clean.

happy to go further into detail if you want.
Click to expand...
Yup. I got really good results with the CIP ball this time out just starting with the hose, then throwing in some hot water for the CIP ball. then draining, adding in PBW with the same hot water.
Did not consider leaving the kettles under pressure, may add that in.

good info. Even if you don't know how to use honey in a beer :p
#Beefin'
 
This is my cp set up, has a strong pond pump and cleans kegs


20250530_112618.jpg
 
Last edited:
Dave Y said:
Yup. I got really good results with the CIP ball this time out just starting with the hose, then throwing in some hot water for the CIP ball. then draining, adding in PBW with the same hot water.
Did not consider leaving the kettles under pressure, may add that in.

good info. Even if you don't know how to use honey in a beer :p
#Beefin'
Click to expand...
Low blow man... low blow.
 
I leave my kegs pressurized after cleaning, sanitizing, and purging, never thought about doing that with my fermenter. I did fill and purge my fermenter once, but then thought that when racking from kettle to fermenter the little bit of O2 that does get untrained into the wort wouldn't because it would be Co2 getting untrained into the wort.
 
Starsan is a no-rinse product. I remove what I can but a few ounces remain and are unnoticed and unharmful.
 
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