Cleaning The Cube

[Thirsty Boy]

People seem to be using a lot of water - i deliberately limit my whole no-chill cleaning regime to 5L One of the reasons to No-chill in the first place, is to save water.

*Empty cube - 2 or 3 rinses with 0.75 - 1L of hot tap water.
*0.75 - 1L of hot tap water + 1 desert spoon of PBW (or 1L of pre-made PBW solution heated) close lid, shake for a minute ish
*Drain (perhaps recycling PBW solution into bulk storage if not too soiled) - 3 rinses with 0.75 - 1L hot tap water.
*Drain, allow to dry, store with lid off and some kitchen towel stuffed inside opening to stop dust and bugs getting in.
*Sanitise with starsan immediately before use. Starsan is always recycled and used multiple times, so I only lose the liquid trapped in the foam etc

I see filling vessels up all, or even a significant part of, the way with detergent solution, as just a waste of water and detergent.

Except..... every now and again i decide my cube is building up some biofilm. So i fill it to just above halfway with very hot water and drop in one of those dishwasher tablets. One of the ones with enzymes - the enzymes **** up stuff that alkaline cleaners alone wont budge. They need time though, ergo the more extensive fill, then leave it a few days, shake, repeat with cube upside down. An acid detergent might do the same or better, dunno, I'll try one of these days. But I dont know how available they are to the general H'brewer anyway.

 

[sah]

WB-06 is a monster of a yeast. With 21L in a 25L cube I've not had an escape (yet).

Having said that, some yeast is just hard to contain in any fermenter. A blow off tube could be fitted.

 

[sah]

*Sanitise with starsan immediately before use. Starsan is always recycled and used multiple times, so I only lose the liquid trapped in the foam etc

How do you judge when the solution is still effective? Do you test pH?

 

[NewtownClown]

How do you judge when the solution is still effective? Do you test pH?

That's how I do it. If you mix starsan with distilled or RO water it lasts a lot longer and you can tell when it is exhausted when it becomes cloudy. Tap water containing minerals will cause cloudiness when mixed, so pH is the best measure.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

How do you judge when the solution is still effective? Do you test pH?

mostly i watch for cloudy - i was measuring for pH regularly, but tbh i dont much bother anymore as it never went out of spec without the sanitiser going cloudy. I splash and spray it around with gay abandon though... so i get through it before its an issue.

Melb tap water.... not much in it so the starsan lasts nicely for months at a time. Use, re-use, re-use again. Its not like it wears out.

 

[Charst]

I brought a little 10 litre cube with a tap on the front and now I buy a cask of RO water from the supermarket. Pureau I think it's called. Dump the cask in the cube and add the starsan and you've got 10 litres premade at your disposal. I check if it's cloudy before i fill my spray bottle but its been in there for months and no problem yet.