Brew Rig Sanitation

[adamshifflett]

Hey guys, hope everyones weekend was awesome! :rockin:

So I've downed my first 2 cornies of homebrew and I have 3 in the fridge now. I'm sure some of you remember my first posts a short 2 months ago. Needless to say I'm hooked. The sweet part is that my wife is loving the hobby as well. I think she's just glad that I'm not deployed any more and am home but whatever, I'll roll with the fact that she's open to me building a brew rig now.

There are obviously some incredible rigs out there that everyone has built and I just like everyone else wants to design my own (obviously stealing ideas like crazy).

One of the questions that came up when looking at fittings and such over the weekend was how do you guys that have rigs that are automated (to different degrees) with pumps, temp sensors, solenoid valves, etc., how do you sanitize the rig? Does everything get broken down, weldless fittings etc and sanitized? Do you run a sanitizing cycle of some sort? What are the different options out there?

As always look forward to hearing responses!

 

[Shockerengr]

In general, nothing prior to the boil needs to be sanitized. The boil easily takes care of that.

What's important is cleaning and draining. Leftover wort in the lines easily will grow mold and more, and moisture generally compounds the issues.

For my system, I run clean water through everything to flush the remaining wort out, and then removed and hang the hoses up to dry.

To sanitize my plate chiller, I recirculate boiling wort through it near the end of the boil.

 

[aiptasia]

A lot of food grade sanitizing solutions can also be run through the lines of any rig. Like above, a good water flush will push out the majority of gunk in the lines, and then using something like star san or idophor mixed up and flushed through the rig will also help sanitize the inner workings a lot.

Good sanitation is actually the most critical job in any brewery. If you're ever lucky enough to land a job in a brewery as a scrub monkey, consider it an honor. It really is the most important of all the brewery jobs.