Silly question

Ok, this is a silly question that i am sure has a simple answer. How to brewers clean the large conical fermenters that you see at brewpubs? Do they open the hatch and lean in and just spray it down? Scrub it? Fill it with some Oxyclean (just kidding) and let it soak and then dump it? I was at a brewpub in Odessa, Ukraine and i was sitting right infront of the window to the brew area and i couldnt help but to ponder, "how to they clean the inside?"

Hot water and caustic.

At the brewery I go to they have a skinny guy that climbs in and scrubs!

Most of the fermenters I see have access panels for deep cleans but day to day it's computerised CIP (Clean in place) systems.

The small guys do the same but on a manual basis.

Sweet, thanks for the answers. Now i know! What is CIP? Does it use chemicals or it just like a machine controlled cleaning apparatus?

CIP uses nasty stuff like caustic soda. They pump it around and filter out the crud. That's one of the reasons the big boys use stainless steel for everything.