Cleaning The Cube

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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.
 
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.
 
*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?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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