Brewery Cleaning
Cleanliness is next to goodliness.
The worst part of brewing is the cleaning. Full stop. End of discussion. It’s nowhere near as engaging as brewing, fermenting, kegging or drinking (especially the drinking), but it has to be done. I mean it’s cleaning FFS. But why all the cleaning? Well, for one simple reason. To brew better beer. A dirty brewhouse produces dirty, foul tasting beer.
But how clean do things have to be? Some people go for hospital grade sterilisation, while others just do the basics. The short answer is anything before you boil the wort needs to be clean, but not hospital sterile, after all you’re going to be boiling for around an hour to kill any potential microbes that could spoil your beer. But anything that touches the wort after the boiling process needs to be clean and sanitised. Again, not surgical sterile, just enough to kill the wild yeast and bacteria.
There are a couple of products that can help with the cleaning process. For cleaning I use Sodium Percarbonate, but you could also use PBW, OxyAction products like NappiSan, Sodium Meta Bi-sulphite etc. Any number of cleaners can be sourced from your home brew store. The problem with some cleaners is that they may have fillers that do nothing but bulk the product out; and perfumes. For this reason I stick to Sodium Percarbonate or ‘Perc’.
For sanitising you’ll want to use Star San (Stellar San in Australia). This is a phosphoric acid based product that foams up. It’s easy to use, and you don’t have to rinse it off. The saying is “don’t fear the foam”. If you get a keg full of foam after tipping it out, just get as much out as you can and the rest won’t do any harm to your beer.
After you have thoroughly cleaned your equipment, you need to sanitise anything that will contact the wort after the boil. This includes your fermenter, bung, airlock, spoons, hop bags, lids, scissors, yeast packet etc.
Here are a few rules for being brewery clean:
Cleaners and sanitisers are not the same thing.
Equipment must be thoroughly cleaned before you sanitise. Sanitising dirty equipment is a waste of time and may cause cross contamination.
The more heat you apply and and the longer you leave it, the easier and more efficient your cleaning will be.
Never think that if a little cleans, a lot will clean better / faster etc. Always follow the manufacturers instructions for both cleaners and sanitisers.
All surfaces must come into contact with the cleaner and sanitiser.
As we learned in high school science, always add chemicals to water, never the other way around.
Step 1 – Coarse Clean
Get any caked on crud off your equipment. This may be from the boil, krausen or any number if things that can cause a build up of organic material. Don’t use anything that will scratch the surface, but give it a good scrub. For fermenters I just use a cleaning cloth and a bit of elbow grease.
Step 2 – Chemical Clean
Follow the manufacturers instructions and mix up your cleaning solution. Soak all parts in it. Make sure you disassemble all the small parts because organic material can get caught up in seals and threads etc.
I usually fill my fermenters and kegs up with warm water, place all the parts inside them, and then add the chemical cleaner.
I’ll leave them for a couple of hours to soak, then empty the solution out and rinse with clean water. There’s no need to let anything dry before the next step.
Step 3 – Sanitise
You don’t need nearly as much sanitiser as you did cleaner. I usually make up 3-4L and put some in a spray bottle to spray things as I use them.
Contact time is important here, around 15 minutes is good to make sure all the greeblies are deadded. For a keg or fermenter I’ll pour a litre in, seal it up and shake the bejesus out of it. I’ll do that 3 or 4 times over the 15 minutes. Smaller items I’ll put in a bowl or container and cover them and let them soak.
Remember to sanitise your hands as well. Not for a 15 minute soak, but just rinse them in the mixture from time to time.
The spray bottle can be used to sanitise anything like alfoil, pipettes, etc. that you might be using.
I’ll generally leave anything I’m using in the sanitiser until I need it.
The Last Word
Go to your brewing supplies store and get yourself some cleaner and sanitiser. It’s worth the cost, you don’t want to waste your time and money with a spoiled brew. They last a long time. A container of each lasts me around a year and I do a lot of brewing. Follow the instructions – don’t wing it. And remember, if it comes into contact with cooled wort, it has to be sanitised.
And don’t be surprised if the cleaning process strips some of the nickel plating on metal ball locks etc. I have a number of brass fittings now! It doesn’t hurt them in any way.