I've seen mold in my tubing 1 time. I easily got it out with warm water and then ran oxi clean through it for 24 hours. After I rinsed the oxi out, I hit it with star San and it was good as new
What's the average price for a spool of tubing?
Do they sell it at like homedepot or is it a food safe tubing?
So the local home brew shop is where I should get a spool?
So the local home brew shop is where I should get a spool?
dbsmith said:This thread has been inspirational. I broke my arm about 4 weeks ago and haven't been able to brew and it has been pretty lame. This would be a good time to give my little brewery operation a good clean and let my tubing soak in some oxiclean. Before this, I have always just rinsed the tubing with hot faucet water after using it and whipped it around to dry it, and then just sanitized it before use. Hasn't failed me (yet).
I bought a tube cleaning brush
I assume that jet pictured above can apply the most force to clean out a tube. I sometimes leave my tubes in Starsan too long and it winds up with a film on it. I tend to use my racking cane to blast a small piece of lightly snug paper towel through it that cleans off the interior of the tubing. It's not 100%, but gets most of it, usually takes a couple of times.
If there is mold, chunk it. Not worth the risk.
Since we are on the tubing topic, Anyone use the high temp vinyl stuff? I use this from Northern Brewer:http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/3-8-clear-hi-temp-tubing.html.
I like to replace it when it starts to look stained but it's not really that cheap. Anyone have a source for a spool of this?
One more vote for "when in doubt, throw it out."
For my siphon tube, which is probably 6 feet long, I run hot water, then sanitizer, then water again through it immediately after use, drain it as much as possible, and leave it. (I rinse after the no-rinse sanitizer because I've had stability problems with my sanitizer.) Siphoning doesn't get it very dirty, so there's no need for anything more than a little hot water.
For my blow-off tubes, there is often significant gunk that's been there for a week. It's short enough that I can soak it in PBW or OxyClean and it comes right off. If it looks at me funny after that, though, I throw it out and replace it.
There's a real fallacy here. Visibility of contamination? We're talking microbes here. Tossing it when you see it is a bit late, no?
I don't see the fallacy. Sure, I can't see an individual mold spore, but when I've had trouble it's been obvious---macroscopic colonies growing after a week or two. If that happens, then I'm not going to rely on sanitizer to clean it out, I'm going to drop the $0.50 on a new hose.
If you mean the "looks at me funny" bit, that's just a phrase. I mean if I have any reason to suspect it's not entirely clean or has a scratch that may harbor bacteria and be difficult to sanitize. In other words, when in doubt, I'm going to replace the hose. But most of the time, washing and sanitizing is going to do the job.
So, no, I'm not just taking a look to make sure there aren't any bacteria hiding out in there.
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