Cleaning process?

[Kyled93]

Hey all I am curious what the HBT community does in regards to clean/ sanitizing post brew.

It was my understanding for cleaning and sanitizing to complete the following :

Rinse down
PBW of system at 170 degrees
Rinse down
Acid clean
Rinse down
Sanitizer(usually slightly acidic)

Anyone else have a different method? Or types of products they use?

Kyle

 

[Brewham]

I got lazy and only ran my bottles through the dishwasher (heavy wash, sanitize and no soap). I used Starsan on the buckets, tubing etc. After 50 or so batches, I started getting foamy beers and realized I was infected. Since all the bottles in a batch were foamy, I figured it had to be something in common, either the buckets or the tubing.

Now, I will use a cleanser like PBW on the bucket, then re-use it in bottles to clean them. I throw the tubing and bottling wand in the bucket as well or I use them to fill the bottles. I dump the bottles out into another bucket and re-use it again to clean another 2 cases of bottles. So one batch will clean a bucket or two and 4 cases of bottles. The bucket gets Starsan and the bottles still go through the dishwasher before final use. PBW is pretty expensive and it takes a lot so I am trying some other products Straight A and the Brewvint brand from Austin Homebrew.

If I am going to re-use the bucket immediately after it is emptied, I won't bother to clean it - just a good rinse and wipe down with a paper towel, then Starsan.