Any sloppy brewers out there?

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Kmcogar

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I gotta tell you....I am a sloppy brewer. I clean the least amount as possible. My equipment does not look pretty. I drink too much when I brew so I'm sure my recipes are always different.

Comparing my stuff and cleanliness to other people i know that brew is like night and day. All their equipment is pristine, clean, and always professional. I'm embarrassed to even show them my equipment.

BUT!...............my beer taste great and it's not just me saying it. So I don't care.

Any other half ass brewers out there?
 
Well, clean is a relative term. I don't have **** growing on/in my equipment, but it is by no means pristine. But everything gets rinsed and scrubbed before I put it away. SWMBO would have my ass if it were any other way.
 
Meh, if you love your beer, who cares about the condition of the equipment?

I have a ton of beerstone on my boil kettle. It used to come off easily with a CIP alkaline wash followed by a good rinse followed by an acid wash followed by a rinse. It stayed shiny for at least a month, then I'd do it again. Now, it's like "oh, f*** it".
 
I clean the boil keggle maybe twice a year using red devil lye and a toilet brush, works well. the mash tun (keg) I rinse out but haven't cleaned it in 4 years. the HLT has been in use for 7 years and I never cleaned it. The other brew junk, immersion chiller. paddle, hoses, etc are rinsed with the hose and and sanitized before use (if necessary). I clean the better bottles with the pressure washer.


"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati".
 
I'd like to personally thank the "I don't care about cleanliness" d-bag who showed up at my club's Big Brew day in March at one of our local breweries. Dipping the fill tube into his filthy carboy ended up spreading an infection to a couple of dozen other members (including me) and completely effing up their brew systems.

By the time I discovered and eliminated it, a brewing friend and I lost at least 50 gallons of beer. In the whole club, hundreds of gallons lost.

CLEAN YOUR EQUIPMENT
 
I'd like to think anyone, regardless of their personal cleanliness habits, wouldn't bring that attitude to a collaborative function. What an a-hole that person is.
 
osagedr said:
I'd like to personally thank the "I don't care about cleanliness" d-bag who showed up at my club's Big Brew day in March at one of our local breweries. Dipping the fill tube into his filthy carboy ended up spreading an infection to a couple of dozen other members (including me) and completely effing up their brew systems.

By the time I discovered and eliminated it, a brewing friend and I lost at least 50 gallons of beer. In the whole club, hundreds of gallons lost.

CLEAN YOUR EQUIPMENT

I might be a sloppy brewer, but I would never endanger someone else's brew. My condolences to your loss.
 
I'd like to personally thank the "I don't care about cleanliness" d-bag who showed up at my club's Big Brew day in March at one of our local breweries. Dipping the fill tube into his filthy carboy ended up spreading an infection to a couple of dozen other members (including me) and completely effing up their brew systems.

By the time I discovered and eliminated it, a brewing friend and I lost at least 50 gallons of beer. In the whole club, hundreds of gallons lost.

CLEAN YOUR EQUIPMENT

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I might be a sloppy brewer, but I would never endanger someone else's brew. My condolences to your loss.

Bah, I guess I need to just RDWHAHB. But it was tough to lose that much. I wouldn't have cared about the stuff from the brewery, but we all know how much love goes into every one of our own batches. So losing a few Saturdays' worth of beer was tough.

Okay, I'm over it. :mug:
 
It may be my greenness on this whole endeavor, but I'm still pretty anal about my equipment. It's all squeaky clean still.
 
I'm sloppy on some stuff, not on other things. My cleanliness leaves much to be desired. I soak in star San and oxyclean, but I do it whenever I get around to it. I've left my kettle dirty after a brewday and forgot about it for a couple days. It was pretty gross. My wife once used one of my fermentors (when I was out of town and couldn't stop her of course) to soak the baby's sheets after he exploded all over the crib. Again, pretty gross. I still use it. The beer tastes great. No problems so far, so whatever. OTOH I am pretty concerned with pitching and ferm temps. So that, not so sloppy with.
 
I seem to make a big mess on brew day and end up with wort everywhere. I BIAB in a Gatorade cooler, and pouring wort back to the brew kettle isn't always a smooth transfer. I also get a fair mess with starsan draining out of bottles on bottling day. I typically need 2-3 old towels on hand to clean up spills and what not.
 
cleanliness is next to godliness but im an atheist. but my junk isnt nasty. but I do get lazy from time to time. I give my fermenter a good oxy soak. and boil a gal of water in it before use.(sanke) and clean cold side lines. the rest is gravy.
 
I have been known to plead the 5th on occasion. But it all gets cleaned eventually...

+1...I'm pretty anal when it comes to the parts of the process that matter (sanitation/cleanliness on the cold side of brewing day, everything to do with bottling; generally everything post boil), but I've been known to let a carboy sit for a while (? weeks, months) before cleaning...every time I do it, I say I won't do it again, but here I sit, typing this reply, and I can see 2 empty carboys, capped off with yeast and trub in the bottom, krausen plastered all over the neck and taper... Yeah, they'll eventually get cleaned...maybe tomorrow (or more likely, the night before I plan on brewing again!)

What I WILL NEVER do again, though, is let grain sit in my mash tun!!!!!!! That $h!t gets dumped immediately now, I mean during the boil!
 
I am not sloppy on cleaning/sanitation. No need to go crazy but why risk an infection? If there is one part of brewing that I might be a little sloppy is measuring. I measure out all my grain but if I have a few extra ounces.....who cares. Same goes for measuring volume....as long as I am close. Mash temps are more like a range.....152ish?? As well as OG/FG....+/- a couple of points and I consider it a success.
 
biochemedic said:
What I WILL NEVER do again, though, is let grain sit in my mash tun!!!!!!! That $h!t gets dumped immediately now, I mean during the boil!

I once forgot about my cooler mlt for a week once. I now brew on Saturday, dump the grains in the green bin on Sunday. The smell was atrocious and the cleanup was a *****. This is one area I will never be sloppy about. Mlt gets cleaned after cooling down. Now, my thief and siphon are another story. Always cleaning the moment I need it rather than just soaking in my sani solution. I feel for the trash man. I should give him some beer for having to smell my putrid grains four days later.
 
eventually this thread will have plenty of people say they don't clean their equipments as much as they should. hope your luck doesn't run out.

it's not a democratic issue. my stuff is only mine and i will continue to put effort into cleaning my stuff.
 
I clean my stuff after I use it immediately. Mostly because I'm new and I dont know where the line is for infection
 
I gave always been lax on the cleaning side, but I have to accept the fact that if I wait more than a few hours, it's just going to be twice as hard on me.

But in my lazier days, I discovered that Oxi-Clean is a great way to remove caked-on deposits. Also liquid dishwashing soap outperforms StarSan when it comes to "cleaning up". You still have to sanitize though, of course.
 
I like to keep my stuff clean. I don't scrub scrub scrub, all the time but I make sure all my kettles are washed and rinsed after use. I also make sure I wash out my fermenters ASAP... I think I clean right of the bat because I am lazy.... Its twice the work to do it later ;) so all of you sloppy brewers aren't the lazy ones, you like to work at things!!
 
I brew in the summer as often as in the winter, and summer is 100+ here in OKC. depending on how long the brew takes, I may wait until it cools off before cleaning everything out. Grains in compost, trub down the outside drain and everything Rinsed and cleaned out.
 
I know I over clean, over sanitize, and probably over wash my hands while brewing. I make up for it by losing track of time, skipping steps, and forgetting to take hydrometer samples. Still seems to work out OK :eek:
 
OOo...Ooo..!!!!!! How many of you (one using coolers for mash) have left the grain in there after sparge and forgot about it. I have had some psychedelic **** growing in there after a week or so! :fro:
 
DannyD said:
OOo...Ooo..!!!!!! How many of you (one using coolers for mash) have left the grain in there after sparge and forgot about it. I have had some psychedelic **** growing in there after a week or so! :fro:

I have definitely done this. My roommate was supposed to clean it up since we always rotated on splitting the cleaning duties. He just set it outside. Next time I went to brew two weeks later, it was a mess. I definitely threw up a little when I opened the lid.
 
I'm not sloppy, but I realize that certain items need to be cleaned more thoroughly than others. In general I tend to clean as I go(same as cooking) to the extent that I can. I hate winding up at the end with a stack of work to do, plus there is lots of downtime in brewing. In fact if I were to sum up brewing in two words I would say cleaning and waiting.
 
I remember taking like 4 hours to do a Mr. Beer kit just because I was super paranoid about infection. Now I pretty much just rinse everything on the hot side, and clean/sanitize as I go with everything else. And I always dump the MLT during the boil and rinse it immediately.
 
osagedr said:
I'd like to personally thank the "I don't care about cleanliness" d-bag who showed up at my club's Big Brew day in March at one of our local breweries. Dipping the fill tube into his filthy carboy ended up spreading an infection to a couple of dozen other members (including me) and completely effing up their brew systems.

By the time I discovered and eliminated it, a brewing friend and I lost at least 50 gallons of beer. In the whole club, hundreds of gallons lost.

CLEAN YOUR EQUIPMENT

That's what you guys get for dipping your fill tubes in any carboy that comes along.
 
What needs to be clean and sanitized is done well, the rest can be a bit messy. I do have totally separate systems for mashing versus cooling. The mashing side pretty much just gets a very thorough rinse with water after use. The post boil equipment always get rinsed after use followed by soak in oxyclean and then rinsed. About once every season, I'll run nearly boiling PBW through the post boil rig. Then I'll transfer it over to the mash portion and run it through that for a while. My tubing is translucent so it help in monitoring for any build up

The whole area is quite messy though with various tools, parts, etc. lying around.
 
I've never had any problems with infection what so ever and I always clean everything up after I brew, that way I'm ready to go the next time I brew. The temp controlled conical I just bought is a little different getting used to, taking it all apart and cleaning and sanitizing all the sanitary fittings and various pieces and parts, but I'm getting used to it now, I think it's brought my beer to another level, but I won't quit my day job just yet.
 
Meh, if you love your beer, who cares about the condition of the equipment?

I have a ton of beerstone on my boil kettle. It used to come off easily with a CIP alkaline wash followed by a good rinse followed by an acid wash followed by a rinse. It stayed shiny for at least a month, then I'd do it again. Now, it's like "oh, f*** it".

Yooper, may I ask what you use for your alkaline and acid rinses? I've been noticing a buildup on my kettle that won't come off with regular scrubbing. This is the first I've heard of beerstone, so I'm really glad you mentioned it.
 
Yooper, may I ask what you use for your alkaline and acid rinses? I've been noticing a buildup on my kettle that won't come off with regular scrubbing. This is the first I've heard of beerstone, so I'm really glad you mentioned it.

I've used oxyclean or pbw followed by starsan. I was trying to clean my SS mesh hop filter, and alkaline cleaners alone weren't enough. I finally tried following up with an "acid rinse" and that worked. The alkaline step breaks down any organic matter on the surfaces to be clean. However, it is still stuck to the surface. The acid step helps the now degraded material to release from the surface. The reverse order will not work. Hotter alkali works much better, but you have to be more careful. The acid step does not need to be heated.
 
I too, have tons of beerstone in my boil kettle, and can sometimes be slack with hotside cleanliness. But once my beer passes through the chiller, I would say that I am very anal
 
I really dont like cleaning my stuff, but I dont like dirty anything sitting around, so I clean as I go. I find if I clean as I go, i'm really not spending much more time in my brew day, as I clean while other things are going on (clean my mash tun during the boil, etc). Speaking of mash tun, it gets a little hairy trying to get rid of my spent grains since I live in an apartment; I wish I lived in a house so I could dump em.
 
I've never cleaned my wort chiller. I just expect my boiling wort to get the job done........a little hop residue left over from the back before....oh well
 
I have always thought of myself as a clean brewer. Till yesterday I was cleaning bottles and looked at the outside of my fermenting bucket, wow that thing was nasty. Well not anymore.
 
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