Best Practice Cleaning Methods

[Tahoose]

Not fully related but it is cleaning, when I bottle beers I generally soak the bottles in a perc solution for 3 days. Then I drain the bottles and rinse them out 3 times to get rid of that greasy film that is left from the sodium percarbonate. I then let them drip dry and sanitise pre use.

I have heard of people using citric acid after a rinse like this and am wondering I this might cut down on the amount of times I need to rinse the bottles and cut down on the amount of water needed.

 

[catcher]

Doing a test run with bleach to try and kill everything off. But I noticed this drum has tiny small back dots which look to be in the plastic. Even after bleaching. Could they be the cause?

 

[MartinOC]

Mate, it's like a reserve parachute: "If in doubt, chuck it out".

If those black dots seem embedded in the plastic, there's a fair chance that's the source of your problem.

Resign that fermenter to equipment/bottle-soaking duties & get yourself a new one for fermenting in & look after it. Even then, they don't last forever.

Cheap insurance.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Have a look at SE's post number 6 and go to the link he pointed out, take no notice of the negative comments, you have to get medieval with your fermenter, don't puff house around with napisan etc. Get stuck into the caustic and bleach that will get rid of your little black dots. Finish off with proxitane and you should be right.

 

[rude]

I use snap taps on my fermenters. Super easy to break down.

I fill the tap hole with a bung, and then fill the fermenter with PBW, and everything goes into that to soak for at least 24hrs. Even the lid, since it's a bucket style fermenter.

Rinse, and then pour a few L of starsan in, good swish around

Hey Stux what are snap taps I hate breaking down my taps never seem the same after

 

[rude]

Hey Stux what are snap taps I hate breaking down my taps never seem the same after

Sorry posted too quick just did a search

 

[Camo6]

The bottles that made it to a year old or more all lost their flavour and were gushers.

Sounds like you have a serious drinking problem my friend. Please don't hesitate to give me a call so I can help you carry your burden.



@ Catcher, sounds like your cleaning regime ain't all that shabby. What's your process (sorry if I missed it)? Do you do yeast starters or use a hop sock or something that might introduce an infection. Do you use a kettle with a tap that's never been broken down? Still sounds to me like you introduced a bug and just haven't got rid of it yet.
Like MartinOC points out, you're probably better off getting a new fermentor if you've ruled out other process faults. Twenty bucks at Bummings is cheaper than multiple wasted batches.

 

[Florian]

how do you know that it's actually an infection?

could it be that you are detecting off flavours caused by fermentation issues or other processes on brew day that you confuse with an infection?

 

[catcher]

Mate, it's like a reserve parachute: "If in doubt, chuck it out".

If those black dots seem embedded in the plastic, there's a fair chance that's the source of your problem.

Resign that fermenter to equipment/bottle-soaking duties & get yourself a new one for fermenting in & look after it. Even then, they don't last forever.

Cheap insurance.

Yeah I'm thinking that may be the best option for us.

 

[catcher]

how do you know that it's actually an infection?

could it be that you are detecting off flavours caused by fermentation issues or other processes on brew day that you confuse with an infection?

Nuh it's definitely an infection :-(

 

[Matplat]

I use snap taps on my fermenters. Super easy to break down.

Stux, I am curious about this. I have a snap tap that was on our water container that we usually use for camping, after seeing your comment I took a closer look. You are indeed correct that they come apart very easily and would be much easier to clean/sanitise.

However, my bottling wand doesn't fit inside the nozzle the way it does on th normal twist tap.

How have you got around this problem? Or does it not apply to you?!!

Cheers, Matt

 

[technobabble66]

...
FWIW, i used to break apart the tap to separately clean and sanitise. However i've found the taps become very hard to turn after a few cleans. I've never had an infection, so i'm probably a little naive and i just don't break apart the taps any more because i find the super tight taps to be super annoying.

... of course one of the brews I've got in my main FV has come down with my first infection.
Sooo very very freakin' unhappy!!
There's a few possible sources but I'd suspect the tap could be the likely one. Oh, the irony.
At least the beer still tastes ok and has maintain FG for the last week, so I'll bottle at least the bottom half and hope for the best.

So.... The moral of the story is to break apart and sanitise your taps. Even if it's just to rule them out as a source of infection when it does occur.
Boo. Fkn. Sux.

(Sorry for going OT)

 

[technobabble66]

...

Also techno, i use my food grade keg kube on the tap inners once they are sanitised ready to assemble. They glide so easily that way and the lube can be kept well away from contact with your beer, not that it has any effect anyway.

Those taps definitely hold crud no matter what you do!

This motivated me to finally use my KK Lubri-Film Plus (i.e.: food grade lubricant) on a stuck tap i'd stopped using (and the reason i'd stopped breaking apart my taps).
Broke it apart and lubed it up. Put it back together and it currently glides nicely. So broke it apart to clean & sterilze, and then re-lube and ready for re-use.

Thanks DJ_Lethal for reminding me to do something i should've been doing already!

 

[White Lies Brewing Company]

Catcher, I personally believe that the only true higher power is caustic. I am a fan of hot caustic (60C) and then an acid rinse (starsan, etc). Also don't be afraid to use some boiling water.

One question, are you sure your fermenter seals properly?

Also, avoid bleach, much more effective and more brewer friendly alternatives.

 

[kaiserben]

I've read through this thread and will be changing a few things in my cleaning regime.

But I have a question-

A lot of the good advice in this thread has people air-drying their equipment between uses.

I've been storing plastic fermenters with ~5L of no-rinse/tap-water solution in them, and simply giving a fermenter a shake a few minutes before I need to use it (then re-purposing that no-rinse solution elsewhere, for bottling or something before discarding it). Does anyone see any issues with doing this, assuming that the longest a no-rinse solution would be sitting around for would be maybe a month - and that it'd only be re-used a couple of times before I mix a fresh batch of no-rinse solution ???

 

[MartinOC]

As long as you're giving your equipment a good rinse to get rid of any residual alkaline cleaners (ie. Caustic/PBW/anything with Metasilicate or TSP in it), what you're suggesting would be fine. The sanitising power of Starsan etc. comes from it's low pH, so anything alkaline (high pH) would tend to neutralise that.

As long as the pH of your sanitiser remains low (I forget the exact number, but 2-2.5 comes off the top of my head??), there's no need to discard it, so it can be re-used a number of times. In any event, the stuff is cheap, so if you want to discard it after a couple of uses, it's not a huge loss.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

pH < 3.


I do the same except I drain the no rinse out after I give it the initial rinse after cleaning. Let them dry and store with glad wrap over the lid. When ready to reuse I just rinse again with starsan and fill. Works a treat