Cleaning...at the end of my rope

[thebigo]

I have been having a hard time cleaning these bottles and fermenter, spent so much time trying dozens of tips and techniques, days researching and looking up answers. I have done my homework but don't know where to go next.

I love seeing yeast live and flavors change, but this cleaning (with no success) is all very irritating (to be positive it's quite a learning experience)

I also just feel bad asking question after question on cleaning...so I am sorry if it is annoying.

Now that that I've vented:

1) I am not satisfied with the cleanliness of my bottles or fermenters.
-I have oxicleaned bottles to remove labels and clean
-then rinsed to remove scale (to no avail)
-I then tried soaking bottles in a vinegar solution (also tried star san) but there is still scale.
-then cleaned in PBW and that removed a lot of scale.
-then tried a bottle brush after PBW and after a weak acid solution (not much better)
-I have even tried a magic eraser on the outside of my fermenters for dried PBW and scale.

**After all this and more I took my spray bottle of star san and RO water and tried wiping the dried PBW off the outside of my fermenter. This did not work either.**

What am I doing wrong OR what am I to try next?
-am I doing things in the wrong order?
-am I doing the wrong things?
-should I get a camera?
-am I even on the right track?
-should I write a book?

I will try and find a camera to take pictures and I plan on going to my local home brew club. My next step is to try a PBW soak on my fermenter and give it some elbow grease once more.

This is all I can think of right now. I appreciate the advice you all have given me in the past and look forward to anything you can tell me now.

 

[nebben]

There is scale on the inside, or outside of your bottles and fermenter? Are they just hard water stains? If so, you can use CLR (available almost anywhere) to get it off. I believe there is a mixture of vinegar and tartar that can do this too, but you'll have to go look that one up.

In general, if I am bringing in additional bottles into my rotation, I'll soak them in hot water+oxy for an hour or more. Once they are ready to de-label, I'll crumble them off or slide them off, then scrub hard with an abrasive sponge. Once this is complete, I'll rinse the bottle, then put it in a hot bath of 1/10 bleach solution. I'll let it soak for a minute of 10, then run a bottle brush through each bottle, quite aggressively. All bottles are triple rinsed, then put into storage until it is time to sanitize and bottle.

So far, I haven't seen scale on any of those after I'm done with the above process. One of my carboys got a wicked hard water stain on the outside after I left it in a cooler unattended for a week last year and much water evaporated around it, leaving the mineral stain. Ugg...it's ugly but it doesn't hamper the fermenter's performance and the inside is still clean. I also use a caustic solution and soak for a day or two after each use, so there isn't really anything on the inside remaining either. After rinsing, each one gets back to new condition.

 

[remilard]

Use pbw in the first place.

 

[jspence1]

I have the same issue when I use oxiclean. The vinegar did nothing the starsan kinda worked, in the end I used a dairy rinse acid I bought at farm supply store. Then I stopped soaking in oxiclean no more than 10 minutes and that solved the scale build up but it also solved the cleaning too. I've just ordered a 4# container of PBW from Austin Homebrew I'm hoping that will solve all my problems. I wish you luck with it.

Back to your problem. what I would try is double strength starsan with a 24 hour soak this did a decent job for me. Good Luck I feel your pain.

 

[mindcrime]

My pain free process that has yet to produce off flavours or infections!

Step 1: Rinse bottle well immediately after pouring with hot water/soap/Oxy/PBW/whatever. (I usually just use hot water)
Step 2: Store bottle until needed
Step 3: Another rinse as in step 1
Step 4: Fill dishwasher with bottles, no soap. Run with heated dry or sanitize setting on.
Step 5: Bottle