Beer Stone in a plastic conical...

[atoughram]

I seem to have built up a bit of beer stone in my conical.

I've searched threads here and found cleaning beer stone on SS, but not plastic...

It appears that Five Star Acid Cleaner #5 works pretty well for beer stone on stainless, but has anyone tried it on plastic?

I might try HCL/Muriatic Acid on it but keep it away from the stainless...

Anyone have any good ideas?

 

[kchomebrew]

Full the bucket/fermenter with hot water and add a scoop of oxyclean and it'll remove the beer stone on plastic.

 

[atoughram]

Looks like the tank is made from Polyethylene plastic and is safe for Muriatic Acid. The stainless is not safe for Muriatic...

 

[atoughram]

Full the bucket/fermenter with hot water and add a scoop of oxyclean and it'll remove the beer stone on plastic.

The picture was taken after an overnight soak of Oxyclean.

 

[Rev2010]

Oxiclean won't do it. Do you have StarSan? What I did for my stainless kettle, and I'm sure it should do that same for plastic, is use 4x concentration (or just do 4oz in 4 gallons to make it easier) and let it sit for 20-30 minutes then dump it out and clean it. The beerstone will even wipe away with a wet towel.


Rev.

 

[atoughram]

Oxiclean won't do it. Do you have StarSan? What I did for my stainless kettle, and I'm sure it should do that same for plastic, is use 4x concentration (or just do 4oz in 4 gallons to make it easier) and let it sit for 20-30 minutes then dump it out and clean it. The beerstone will even wipe away with a wet towel.


Rev.

I am doing this I do have a quart of starsan.. I'll do a starsan soak for now but looking elsewhere, I found Five Star Acid Blend #5 for a lot cheaper than Starsan - and I'm replacing this conical next year with a SS one but this one still has a few brews left in it. I've fermented 235 gallons in it without an acid cleaning. (15gal conical, 22 batches.)

http://www.store.homebrew4less.com/...horic-Blend--1-Gallon/productinfo/BC6712-A-1/

 

[atoughram]

The starsan did wonders - I let it soak while the Seahawks beat the Browns...

But it's still not perfect, I think I'll try some of the Five Star Acid cleaner sometime.

 

[Rev2010]

Here's what my kettle before and after 4x StarSan soak looked like:

Rev.

 

[atoughram]

Wow! That cleaned it right up!

When my kettle got a little messy, I used cheap oven cleaner on it and it cleaned right up.

 

[snackson]

I have horrendously hard water where I live and when I use tap with oxyclean, it leaves a nasty build up after a soak. I have to follow with a concentrated acid soak and that usually does the trick.

 

[atoughram]

I have horrendously hard water where I live and when I use tap with oxyclean, it leaves a nasty build up after a soak. I have to follow with a concentrated acid soak and that usually does the trick.

What kind of acid?

I had issues when using straight Oxyclean too - but I added a 3:1 ratio Red Devil TSP 90 powder to it and that seems to have taken care of most of the problem.

 

[snackson]

Stars san, vinegar, citric acid have all worked for me. I do it warm as it tends to help.

 

[atoughram]

Time for another beer stone removal soak - I ordered some Saniclean and will try and CIP it.

 

[bigdawg86]

Vinegar works phenomenal, but not sure if there would be a problem with the retained smell.

 

[atoughram]

Good question. It's a 17 gallon inductor tank, I'd hate to ruin it and make it smell like pickles.