Cleaning in place

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nostalgia

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I'm in the process of designing my indoor electric brewery. As I lifted my very heavy 15 gallon kettle today to dump the water out of it after cleaning, I was thinking how great it would be to be able to clean the system without having to lift things.

So how do CIP setups work? How do you get all of the cleaning solution out of the bottom of the kettle? Even the best diptube will leave a quart or so down there.

Thanks!

-Joe
 
Interested in this as well. I'm guessing you pump as much of the cleaning solution out of the boil kettle, MLT or whatever and then rinse it with water and pump the water through the system.
 
I have thought about this too. The only thing I have come up with is using a spray ball that you run OxiClean or PBR through after the brewday. 2 things would be required, a tight sealing lid and a center drain, probably like 1" or more to get the debris out. I think it would be worth the effort after a few hundred batches, but I am not ready to bite the bullet yet...
 
I've cleaned in place for the last 5 brews or so. If someone is over brewing with me, we'll carry the MLT out back and dump it on the compost pile but for the most part I clean in place both with and without my shop vac.

Clean in place doesn't necessarily mean hands completely off so the whole spray ball thing isn't necessary. To me, CIP means I don't move my vessels off the stand and I don't dismantle anything. I scrub the tough stuff by hand and recirculate hot Oxyclean too. After I drain most of the liquid out, I spray out with the garden hose and drain again. Any leftover water gets sucked out with a big grout sponge and wrung out.

If you're set up with a wet/dry shop vac, you'll want the wet filter installed. I also found that I had to rig up an extra large splatter shield inside to keep grain from getting lodged in that filter. They may have redesigned them since I got mine. The downside to the vac use is that you still have to carry the bin and dump it and hose out the hose. So, I don't love cleaning the cleaning equipment.
 
Just had a thought, if you used a mesh bag like the brew-in-a-bag method to line the mash tun then all you need to remove the spent grain is to pull the bag out, then rinse, cleaner, rinse, sanitiser.
Why were you lifting a full kettle, can you drain it through the valve first?
 
Matt: I was not lifting the full kettle - there was maybe 1/2 gallon of liquid in it. But the 15 gallon Morebeer kettle is very heavy and unwieldy. It's not like I'm killing myself, but it'd certainly be easier to not have to drag it around.

-Joe
 
Along with the clean in place idea, people that recirculate hot Oxyclean or PBW is this safe to dump on your lawn? I’m working on a Brutus clone and had planned to do just that, but never thought about if pumping my PBW out into the yard would cause any problems like say killing my grass. Everything I’ve read says PBW is environmentally friendly and biodegradable, but I thought I’d ask before trying it myself.
 
Pumps and return hoses. That is CIP.
This I know. Which is why in the OP I asked about the remaining cleaner that the diptubes can't reach. Bobby sponges his out, but I'm sure pro breweries don't run around their boil kettles with sponges or Shop-Vacs.

Or do they? I don't know. I was just wondering if there were any homebrewers who came up with a good solution.

-Joe
 
Matt: I was not lifting the full kettle - there was maybe 1/2 gallon of liquid in it. But the 15 gallon Morebeer kettle is very heavy and unwieldy. It's not like I'm killing myself, but it'd certainly be easier to not have to drag it around.

-Joe

Fair enough, what seems to be the general comments on here is oxiclean is a great cleaner to remove organic matter, so maybe a soak with oxiclean (I am assuming that it is a s/s kettle) then a good rinse out (the truck drivers at work just use a garden hose that they squeeze the end to get a bit of pressure to clean/rinse out the chemical tankers) and drain, using the methods already mentioned to get that last 1/2 gallon out (spong/vac/bottom dump valve).

Are you are using a gas burner, as this might cause an issue of a bottom dump valve (you could always weld a bottom valve on the side and just tip the pot that way instead of lifting the whole thing).
 
This I know. Which is why in the OP I asked about the remaining cleaner that the diptubes can't reach. Bobby sponges his out, but I'm sure pro breweries don't run around their boil kettles with sponges or Shop-Vacs.

Or do they? I don't know. I was just wondering if there were any homebrewers who came up with a good solution.

-Joe

Pro breweries usually have dished bottoms in their kettles and mash tuns with a center tube for draining. In brewpub systems, at least the few I have worked with, the drain tube is 1.5 - 2 inches in diameter. the kettles are hosed out and then the cleaning solution is added. It is recirculated through a spray ball.

The cleaning regimen is 1/2 hour for alkaline cleaner, 10 minute recirc with fresh water, 1/2 hour acid clean and let drain.

Depending on the water conditions sometimes the acid and alkaline is reversed with no fresh water rinse.

There are smaller, older systems that do not have CIP. The brewer has to physically climb inside the tank and mechanically remove the soils. You don't see too much of this nowadays due to OSHA rigorously enforcing confined space regulations.

I end up with just over 1/2 gallon in my homebrew kettle. I carry it to my back fence and dump it in my compost pile. I rinse and manually scrub out my kettle with a green scrubby and PBW. Every other brew I do use an acid cleaner to remove beer stone build up.

It may be possible to assemble a recirculation system for a keggle, but you would have to have a 3/4" -1" diameter opening in the center bottom to drain out the trub. This could present a problem with a direct fire system.
 
Pro breweries usually have dished bottoms in their kettles and mash tuns with a center tube for draining.
Thanks Wayne. This was my guess, as the only way I could come up with for it to work.

It may be possible to assemble a recirculation system for a keggle, but you would have to have a 3/4" -1" diameter opening in the center bottom to drain out the trub. This could present a problem with a direct fire system.
Since I'm building an all-electric system, I may be able to cobble something like this together. Hmmmm, he says :)

-Joe
 
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