How Often Do You Clean Your Brewery?

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gava

I do rather like beer.....
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Just finished a clean of all my full brew rig.. I did this because I noticed the same type of weird taste in my last few beers so I thought I best give the rig a clean. This led me to thinking what is the average time people clean their brewerys and the reasoning behind this.

After my cleaning I found a lot of little bits within the threads and in odd spots which I assumed my PBW and hot water would have found but there it was looking at me in the face.

After cleaning alot of my gear im now PBW broke and looking for some alternatives which I could use on my rig. I have SS parts apart from a heat exchange and a counter flow chiller which both have about 8m of copper within it. Since I have copper within my unit does this limit my selection of cleaners and also the length that I use them?

I had a quick search and didn't find much on this topic , excuse me if this has already been covered.
gav.
 
After cleaning alot of my gear im now PBW broke and looking for some alternatives which I could use on my rig. I have SS parts apart from a heat exchange and a counter flow chiller which both have about 8m of copper within it. Since I have copper within my unit does this limit my selection of cleaners and also the length that I use them?

I had a quick search and didn't find much on this topic , excuse me if this has already been covered.
This is a good place to start: http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixB.html
 
I give my pot a scrub every brew and every few it gets a napisan soak with hot water. The bag gets hosed out on the clothesline and dried and gets put in the pot with the napisan sometimes - or simply replaced.

Five minutes and I'm done. Clean as a whistle.
 
I'm with nick on this one. but i just hose my gear out/off. soak the bag when i remember.
 
I simply hose it all off.
All the important parts are hooked up to the boiling wort and sanitised by heat via pump for 30 minutes or so.
 
Everything pre-kettle is hosed and cleaned after each use.

Everything used during and post boil is cleaned and sanitised before storage, and sanitised again before use.

The kettle ball valve is dissembled after every use, cleaned, and soaked in StarSan before re-assembly, and soaked in StarSan before it's re-installed on the kettle outlet. I even squirt StarSan up the kettle outlet before I install the ball valve.

Fermenter is cleaned and sanitised after every use, and again just before drainage. Fermenter tap is dissembled and cleaned after each batch, sanitised, and sanitised again before it's screwed back int the fermenter.

Haven't ever had an infection problem, other than from use of inappropriately used ginger beer bottles and tops.
 
I do the hose/napisan clean for everything after use.
I did find some nasty slime and sludge when I pulled everything apart after 10 or so brews, in threads and in awkward spots (like under my pickup filter) so I try and strip stuff back a bit more frequently now. Ignorance was bliss beforehand though.
 
I have a stainless conical and in the 10 years I have had it, never pulled the ball valve apart on the dump. I sanitise with pressurized steam and it does a great job......but, last two APA's I made went bad. Seems the ball valve finally developed something that could handle a good steaming, pulled it apart and soaked in sodium percarbonate, then starsan then assembled and steamed again before next batch. Back to wonderful.

Out of paranoia I am now disassembling ball valve every time I clean the conical and soaking in starsan. One lost batch is too many, two was quite distressing!!!!
 
Geez I must be the only when you does it every time I brew then?
I usually clean my mash tun out when boil is starting/boiling. Then straight after beer is in the fermenter is full I hit the kettle. I guess I just find it easier to clean every time instead of letting it build up. This does include pulling it apart, then one brew day I hit it with boiling water. I don't think I've ever cleaned my HLT tho...no point.
 
Here is a link to a Brewstrong podcast on sanitising with bleach and starsan.

I found it very informative.

Podcast
 
Everything pre-kettle is hosed and cleaned after each use.

Everything used during and post boil is cleaned and sanitised before storage, and sanitised again before use.

The kettle ball valve is dissembled after every use, cleaned, and soaked in StarSan before re-assembly, and soaked in StarSan before it's re-installed on the kettle outlet. I even squirt StarSan up the kettle outlet before I install the ball valve.

Fermenter is cleaned and sanitised after every use, and again just before drainage. Fermenter tap is dissembled and cleaned after each batch, sanitised, and sanitised again before it's screwed back int the fermenter.

Haven't ever had an infection problem, other than from use of inappropriately used ginger beer bottles and tops.

My cleaning regime is exactly the same as Warra's. I also have a napisan bucket, rinse bucket and stasan bucket and sprayer in my brewery each brew. Nothing goes near the grain let alone the wort that hasn't gone through each of these. The spray bottle sanatizes everything I touch and I mean everything. I do this all the time but still got an infection about 3 brews ago :angry:
 
I use a stainless jiggle siphon on the end of a silicon hose to empty my BIAB brew kettle (98L), this makes it a doddle to clean.

No threads, no ballvalve, no pickup, no worries :)

My 50L and 98L pots get cleaned with hotwater and a sponge. That leaves them shiny. The jiggle siphon, mash weapon, spoon and silicon hose end up in a PBW soak bucket I always have laying about.

No Chill, so no chiller to clean. Empty cubes get emptied, rinsed, inspected and dosed with a camden tablet and some water... keeps them clean until I rinse, sanitize and refill.

I sanitize the spoon, jiggler, silicon hose, cubes and mash weapon before/during the brew

I've started using fermenter lining bags with my 60L fermenter so now all I do is remove the lid/blowoff/fermenter thermowell, pull the bag and toss it. Then just rinse the two part lid, fermowell and blowoff components and dump them in a PBW soak.

I also use an auto-siphon/racking hose to fill the kegs. No taps, no airlocks, no fermenter to clean.

Fermenter lids etc get the starsan treatment before fermenting.

I've contemplated installing a ballvalve + pickup etc... but then i think about the tedium of tearing it all down every brew to clean/sanitize and I decide not to :)
 
i just light a few sulfur rings and close the door. A day later youre ready to roll :p
 
Hot side stuff gets rinsed and hit with 80 degree napisan, which exits via the chiller and associated hoses, then hot water to remove the napisan, then rinsed through again with starsan. The hot napisan and starsan are used to clean any fermenters that need it, and the holding vessel. I generally don't clean the ball valve. Now I have a pump, I'll be using that to recirc the napisan for half an hour or so in future brews. Everything gets a damn good scrubbing too, and I dry the plate chiller, sealed with foil in the oven at 150 for an hour.

No wonder my brewday takes 8 hours from go to whoa. Mind you, I live in a flat so there is no option to hose anything out in the garden.
 

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