Herms

[altstart]

Gooday Brewers
After attending Andrew Qlds brew day and seeing his Herms in action I have returned home inspired. I have a 6 metre length of half inch annealed 316L stainless and I have wound it into a neat coil to go into the herms I am building. The problem I have is that the stainless was given to me some time ago and I have no idea what has been pumped through it. Does any one have any idea if this material is porous to any substances and what regime do I follow to make sure I do not poison myself or others who drink my beer.
Cheers Altstart

 

[seravitae]

stainless is pretty chemical resistant, i'd recommend soaking it in dliute sodium hydroxide solution, washing it lots of times, then sodium percarbonate to sterilize it.

remember, cleaning and sterilizing are two different things, and use different chems

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Gooday Brewers
After attending Andrew Qlds brew day and seeing his Herms in action I have returned home inspired. I have a 6 metre length of half inch annealed 316L stainless and I have wound it into a neat coil to go into the herms I am building. The problem I have is that the stainless was given to me some time ago and I have no idea what has been pumped through it. Does any one have any idea if this material is porous to any substances and what regime do I follow to make sure I do not poison myself or others who drink my beer.
Cheers Altstart

Me personally, I would run a good solution of caustic through to see what sort of muck comes out, followed by a citric solution to neutralize the caustic. SS 316 to my knowledge is not pourus it is the most ideal food grade SS you can get.

remember, cleaning and sterilizing are two different things, and use different chems

Yes they are indeed. In my place of work when cleaning bottle fillers it is regarded that 80c water for 20mins or more is sterilizing.Prior to that we use a caustic solution which we regard as sanitising h34r:

BYB

 

[seravitae]

and to add more semantics to the pool, sterilizing and sanitising also different.. danm those scientists.. h34r:

 

[AndrewQLD]

Gooday Brewers
After attending Andrew Qlds brew day and seeing his Herms in action I have returned home inspired. I have a 6 metre length of half inch annealed 316L stainless and I have wound it into a neat coil to go into the herms I am building. The problem I have is that the stainless was given to me some time ago and I have no idea what has been pumped through it. Does any one have any idea if this material is porous to any substances and what regime do I follow to make sure I do not poison myself or others who drink my beer.
Cheers Altstart

Great news Altstart! I hope you will keep us updated with some pics to?
I'd go with a hot caustic flush and then PBW followed by a good hot water flush.
Have fun.

Andrew

 

[Screwtop]

Great news Altstart! I hope you will keep us updated with some pics to?
I'd go with a hot caustic flush and then PBW followed by a good hot water flush.
Have fun.

Andrew

With Andrew on this Jim, don't think you've too much to worry about with the SS, cleaning as above should remove any gunk left from previous use.

Good luck with the project and keep us posted.

Cheers,

Screwy