The complete cleaning regimen of a brutus system

From a history in hospital sterilization and microbiology, physical cleaning of the surfaces is important, scrub them a bit then a bit of powdered brewery wash and a good rinse. If there are proteins left then even autoclaving won't kill everything.

Post-boil surfaces should be cleaned and sanitized as we all do.

I'm guessing more than a few batches of beer over the course of brewing history have been spoiled by a blow-off hose that was merely rinsed and then bleached, not scrubbed before sanitizing.

Disease causing pathogens? Probably not, but spoiled skunky yes.

Guys,
They have taken unfiltered pond water (duck poop et al) and run it through a full brewing procedure as they would have in the 13th century just to see what would happen.

After full workups they discovered that the pond water at best would make you sick, while the beer was 100% pathogen free.

Come on folks, your over thinking it. Just clean everything after your brew session as well as you would your good cookware, rinse well and dry it.

Come next brew day, rinse everything off with clean water before brewing and get to it.

Only sanitize the stuff that will come in contact with the wort post boil.

Personally, I flush my CFC both ways with a garden hose, and then recirc with boiling worth the last 10 minutes of the boil. After chilling, I flush it both ways with hot water, and drain well.

I run 150 degree PBW through the entire system about once every 6 months.

FWIW and it was stated earlier in the thread - most commercial breweries don't do anything pre-boil except for rinse. When there's enough build-up then they go through a CIP cycle. Otherwise - water and most of the time not even hot water - just plain old tap water. One other thing I noticed - do *not* use any scotch brite pads on your stainless pots that aren't made for stainless! You'll ruin the passivation layer. 3M makes special stainless scouring pads.

Any benefit to circulating starsan through the post-boil plumbing with a pump? If so, how do i ensure little/no residual solution in the pump/lines?

I am just getting ready for my first AG brew (been doing extract for years). Lots of good ideas here about circulating hot wort - makes sense. Would it be good to thread a SS mesh hose over the BK drain tube to catch hops and avoid a stuck CFC? Lots of questions, first AG this weekend...

Yes you need to both clean and sanitize your post-boil plumbing. Anything wort is going to touch after it's been boiled. A little residual Starsan is not going to hurt anything. Personally I blow my plate chiller out with filtered air from my air compressor to get a majority of the liquid out but that is it.

You'll find lots of people use braided screen - you'll need to do some searching on the site for proper sizing. Whirlpooling with a dip tube is a lot easier though - no need for a screen.

I've always heard to clean after brewing, but to sanitize just prior to brewing. Wouldn't this be best?

Lennie said:

I've always heard to clean after brewing, but to sanitize just prior to brewing. Wouldn't this be best?

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I usually rinse very well post brewing. Then PBW day before or morning of brewing and then sanitize. You don't want big periods of time lapsing in between cleaning and sanitizing.

I always clean well after brewing to remove material while its still hydrated. Once it dries on I have a harder time cleaning. Thats why I think its important to clean promptly. Sanitizing is done just before brewing to catch anything that has drifted in on the air. I can see sanitizing after cleaning, but to my way of thinking if theres no food or water for a microbe then it can only sit threre waiting for these things, and sanitizing right before use kills them and doesn't leave time for more to drift in. I suppose for things like ball valves that may not dry quickly/completely, sanitizing might be a good idea.

Plate chillers, pump heads, ball valves, etc do not dry out well on their own. I've come back weeks after brewing to find water still trapped. Better safe than sorry. There is no reason to out forth all the effort to be half-assed in the most important part.

To: Cliff 897
I've read in so many places (Palmer, Strong and others) that bleach (chlorine) is a no-no in beer, as it causes phenolic, antiseptic-like off-flavors. It can be boiled off, and most of it is removed by heating to strike water temps, but it's potential for creating bad tastes is so high, or, rather, its taste threshold is so low, that it should not be used without severe rinsing. If it's present in the mash (pre-boil), in even small quantities, it can ruin your beer. I play it safe, and use Star-San, as it works just as well.