Pre-brew sanitation

I'm finishing up my AG brew rig, which is an indoor (electric) gravity fed keggle system that uses a pump with a RIMS system in the MT, and another pump through a chill plate after the BK. That said, I have a lot of equipment and hoses that I'm unfamiliar with cleaning and sanitizing, and I'm hoping to find some suggestions/tips.

First, a couple questions about pre-brew sanitation: I feel like sanitizing kitchen equipment was much simpler, as it was basically a carboy, a pot, and various utensils. I've always used sanitizer (typically one-step) on everything, regardless of whether it was used pre or post-boil. With kitchen equipment, it didn't take that much more time, and I felt like it was a nice guarantee against bacterial infection.

That said, with a large HLT and MT (and RIMS system), sanitizing probably won't be as easy. Do you guys sanitize everything, or only the equipment that will be exposed to post-boil wort?

Once I've decided what needs to be sanitized, I'll need to figure out the best method for sanitizing an AG keggle rig. I assume I can just make a couple gallons of sanitizing liquid, and run through the system? Any tips/tricks?

One thing I'm not sure how to handle is that after having run sanitizer through the pumps/chiller/hoses, the hoses and chiller will still be full of sanitizer. Should I run clean water through the system after the sanitizer, to replace the sanitizer with water? If so, how much water should I run through the system, before I figure all the sanitizer has been replaced?

And finally, a question about how to clean the rig after a brew session. I know I'm going to have a ton of spent grains in the MT, and a bunch of trub in the BK. And because the rig is indoors, I can't just break out a hose and spray it down like you might outside. What do you guys do to clean all this out? My thought so far is to have an empty 5-gallon bucket that I shovel/scrape everything into, then carry it upstairs to dump it. But while that may get the majority of the large stuff, I'll have plenty of small stuff that I'll have to figure something else out for. Because they system is electric, I'd rather not disconnect the keggles and carry them to a sink (although if that's the best method, so be it.) Is there a good way to clean the remaining grain/trub (particularly off the heating elements, and out of the pumps/chiller/hoses) with the keggles in place?

Thanks for your suggestions,
~Dean

I do not sanitize anything that will be in contact post or during boil. I clean all my equipment post brew and give a quick rinse pre brew to get the dust off. I know that a lot of people run boiling wort through plate chillers and pumps to sanitize but in my system that is not an option as I boil outdoors and move indoors to chill so I plan to use a spare pot or mash tun to recirc starsan for a minute and then dump into the fermenter to sanitize that.

I only sanitize what will touch my wort post chilling after the boil. Anything that touches it while it's 200+ degrees, is sanitized by the heat. So that being said, and what I do, is at flameout, I'll recirculate some hot wort through my chiller back into the boil kettle until everything is nice and hot. I do put the first bit of liquid that comes out into a pitcher just in case there's some funk in there. Then I'll move it over to my carboy which I've already sanitized, start the cold water flow on the chiller and then get the wort chilling into the fermenter.

For cleanup of the chiller, pump and lines, I just flush everything with a PBW mixture for a while get it clean and then follow that with clean water. I try not to leave anything full of liquid if I can, but then again, I have a CFC which drains pretty well with gravity alone. You could push some sanitizer in there to keep anything from growing, but you may not want that stuff sitting in there either.

Another recommendation - Get some Star-San if you haven't tried it. The no-rinse factor will help you a lot in your scenario.

As for cleaning the kettles. The MLT should be pretty easy, just scoop what you can and rinse the rest into a bucket or drain. it shouldn't take much water. I usually have to lightly scrub to get the ring of residue from the top. The BK will be the same, but usually some tougher scrubbing is required. You will need to use a hose or some water source for all of this though, so I'm still not sure that you'll be saving much grief in not disconnecting them to clean.
Personally, I think I would disconnect them and save myself the curses bound to come out of my mouth when I slip and launch trub all over the walls.

I just oxiclean every thing pre-boil. Never had any problems. You really don't need to sanitize anything pre-boil since it will all be killed in the boil. I do make sure everything is clean well, but never worry about sanitizing. Although I have heard oxiclean sanitizes. Don't know if that is true or not.

only clean the pre boil things no need to sanitize anything pre boil but everything post boil needs to be sanitized

Think of cleaning as Hot side and Cold side. The cold side is where everything sanitatised, Hot side everything is cleaned. Hot side I pump hot PBW everywhere. Cold side, I put the plate chiller in the pressure canner for 15min and do like the others.

I always got hot side and cold side confused, but for those who don't know.

hot side = everything up to the boil

cold side = everything after the boil

I always got hot side and cold side confused, but for those who don't know.

hot side = everything up to the boil

cold side = everything after the boil