Hot answers tagged cleaning
19
Cleaning is the process of removing material from the surface.
Sanitizing is the process of reducing the number of organisms (in brewing, we're worried about bad bacteria, mainly).
Sterilizing is like sanitizing, but removing all bacteria.
If I remember right, sanitizing is a technical term that means a certain amount of allowable bacteria remains, and ...
17
Oxiclean isn't a sanitizer, it's a cleaner. You can see here for the difference (What is the difference between Clean, Sanitized and Sterilized?). If you're fairly clean it might not matter, but using oxiclean will not kill bacteria; it will only remove a fair amount of it.
That being said, I believe you're close; the brewery cleaners and oxyclean (free) do ...
11
I like to rinse well, then soak in warm PBW (or cleaner of choice). I fill the keg with cleaner, put on the lid and shake really well. Then I remove the lid, poppets, O-rings and dip tubes and put them in the keg to soak overnight.
Next day everything gets a good rinse in warm water.
I fill the keg with some Starsan (or sanitizer of choice) and let the ...
10
"You can't sanitize a turd" - George Fix
If you can see it, feel it or smell it, you can't sanitize it. A little oil from old yeast or a plug of old hop trub wedged into a seam will never get sanitary from contact with a sanitizer. So clean first, then sanitize.
Sure, a clean glass carboy looks pretty clean and will probably sanitize well, but how clean ...
10
Well as you asked for 'tips', I've used the following to both dislodge stubborn material from the inside of tubes, and to remove excess water which aids drying:
It's a stainless steel brake cable from a bicycle, with a peice of towelling skewered on the end. The one I used was just over 2 meters long. I sterilise the whole thing, and just 'drag' it ...
9
I think I would replace all of the seals and soak the kegs in hot Oxyclean Free or PBW for a few days. Maybe rinse and refill with that a couple of times. Then I'd just use them with strong flavored beers, or beers that would go well with the root-beer flavor for a couple of batches. If you don't notice any off-flavors, move to more subtle brews. If ...
9
Oxyclean is a good cleaner, and you can use that on kegs. Diversol on the other hand is a bleaching product (chlorine-based), and like sodium metabisulfate that you were warned not to use will corrode the kegs if left too long. (EDIT: just to clarify, Oxyclean's active ingredient is sodium percarbonate, and this is safe to use. Sodium metabisulfate, ...
8
Dishwasher detergent is generally not recommended because most detergents have perfumes and rinse agents. The perfumes tend to stay on the glass until a thorough hand-rinse, and the surfactants in rinse agents destroy your beer's head and lacing.
If you can run the dishwasher without any of these (I'm not sure from your description if that's possible), the ...
8
This method is sometimes referred to as a "swamp cooler", and is well known and used in homebrewing circles. Honestly, if the brew shop employee told you it wouldn't work then they are either (a) trying to sell you a brewing fridge, or (b) not that educated on homebrewing.
Change out some ice packs in the water twice a day and you get get down to the low ...
7
I soak in OxiClean Free, warm to hot water for 20 minutes or so. Then, rinse thoroughly with hot water. It helps to shake around the rinse water in the bottle, as OxiClean leaves a slick film that won't come right off unless you agitate the rinse water or use a scrub brush. OxiClean is great at stripping off beer residue and also helps to remove the ...
7
For cleaning, if you're able to get all the debris out with water and a cleanser then I wouldn't worry about it.
I usually give the stubborn stuff a good soak in warm PBW, then flush with hot water. Worst case scenario, I use a bottle brush or dip tube brush.
For drying, the two most common methods are hanging and blowing out with an air compressor. ...
7
1) Can I just place my fermentation tank in this tub of water to counter the heat? Yes. This will work to a degree (ha, ha.) The water is slowly but constantly evaporating. The energy need to make liquid water into gas comes out of the water's temperature. This "evaporative cooling" will help cool your wort by a few degrees.
2) Will this method work during ...
6
PBW. It is magic. Seriously. Put a bit in there with warm water, and the krausen should go away in 30 minutes. I once put a touch in my coffee mug, and the stains from months of not washing it diligently were erased. It's magic.
6
If it's on stainless steel Bar Keepers Friend will clean off just about anything. I use this on my ss pots and pans and it works great (I try not to use it on mirror finished surfaces though).
You can find it at Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart, the grocery store, just about anywhere.
EDIT: I also believe that Bar Keepers Friend is a glass cooktop cleaner, ...
6
Reusing beer bottles is safe if they are thoroughly cleaned - after all, the bottles you get from the store are most likely reused bottles.
For bottles to be sanitary, they need to be both cleaned and then sanitized. There are a few ways of doing this
putting them in the dishwasher. The cleaning cycle clears out any deposits, while the steam cycle at the ...
6
I don't worry about it, other than rinsing sweet or bitter wort off of the copper manifold and chiller. The low pH of the wort will clean off any oxides, and copper is readily consumed by the yeast (it's an essential nutrient), and it's all pre-boil, so a hot-water rinse is all that's necessary, assuming you're doing all of your cleanup at the end of your ...
5
First, shed a little tear for the empty keg. Then get excited about the next beer to fill it.
I'm not as methodical as brewchez. There are four dirty kegs sitting open in my garage right now. As you can imagine the leftover beer gets pretty dry and cakey. Never a problem.
Clean
PBW and it's ilk are my cleaner of choice. Put a few gallons of hot water ...
5
Oxiclean is a fine cleaner, requiring just a few minutes contact to clean, depending upon how soiled the equipment is. As it's decomposition includes hydrogen peroxide, it can also be used as a sanitizer in sufficient dosage. Hydrogen peroxide is a great sanitizer, but there are some drawbacks
it's corrosive to metals, since the peroxide increases the ...
5
I'll try to present both sides of the story:
If the tree is fully cleaned, and your sanitizer is sufactant-based (such as StarSan) so that kills organisms on contact then maybe (and only maybe) you can get away without sanitizing. That's about as far as you can guess as to the consequences of not sanitizing the brew tree.
If it's not clean, then forget ...
4
I would not use OxyClean as a sanitizer.
The people who make OxyClean are not required to tell you what is in OxyClean, beyond the sodium percarbonate. There are likely UV brighteners and possibly other chemicals. Because its not "food-safe" they don't have to put out a complete ingredient list. I don't recommend you use it for a sanitizer because of ...
4
I have used swing tops in the past without issue. If you are worried about the seal you can buy replacement seals, which should probably be done every once in a while. I don't think it's necessary every time. I have bottled 2 batches using some Fischer bottles and had zero problems with the seal.
As far as the green bottles go. If you keep it out of the ...
4
I never found One Step to be a very effective sanitizer. Some informal experiments I did years back showed that OxiClean seems to sanitize, but I'm not satisfied enough with those results to give up using StarSan. Yes, it's expensive, but it's also very effective. And it's not as expensive as losing a batch of beer to infection.
4
You might want to give the cleaning episode of the Brew Strong podcast. Jon Herskovits of Five Star Chemicals is in that episode, and they talk about the differences between cleaning and sanitizing,etc.
4
Well, Chemipro Oxi I would not consider a sanitizer...cleaner, sure, but it is essentially sodium percarbonate - it technically CAN be used to sanitize, but the amount needed makes it pretty uneconomical.
Betadine, on the other hand, can be used for years...bottles may have an expiration date (typically required on medical-type solutions), but it can be ...
4
I use either Oxiclean (the Oxiclean Versatile works as well as the free and leaves no odors or residue) or PBW. I did some tests and found that PBW works better than Oxiclean, but it close, and for the lower price Oxiclean is a great choice. If you always rinse your bottles as soon as they're empty it makes cleaning them much easier.
4
Replacing the seals is usually a good idea. Seal Kits are inexpensive. A good how-to on replacing seals is helpful.
The one tricky bit about o-rings is that certain types work best with certain kegs. This is especially true of the o-rings that sit between the dip tubes and the in/out ports. With the right o-rings, you really don't have to apply that much ...
4
Yes, that's how I wound up with a closet full of empty bottles. I've only reused bottles that came into my house full, so who drank from them isn't really a concern, aside from the fact that they'll be cleaned and sanitized before the next use.
What I do:
Fill container with bottles turned upright (a 5-gallon bucket will hold 13 12-oz bottles, and I can ...
4
Its probably from having too high of a humidity level in the fridge. I have this same problem in my fermentation fridge (develops darker spots of mold) and my keezer (no mold but moisture pools at the bottom of the freezer).
I just make it a point to wipe out the excess moisture from the walls of these two whenever I am messing with beer. I have considered ...
3
PBW, hot water and if neccessary, a carboy brush. They are made with wire similar to a coat hanger so you bend it in the middle of the bristles at a 90 degree angle and reach the bend that you talking about. I would throw in the hot water and PBW and wait twenty minutes, the crud will most likely just flake off. You can always rub it with the brush to be ...
3
I neeeeever quite get all the little bits unstuck. Fortunately brewing is rather forgiving. Any little bits that still make it will just end up going along for the ride in the next batch. The wort is still being boiled, so any baddies hanging out in the few specks of grain aren't going to make it through. Dunk it in star-san just beforehand if you want ...
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