GF equipment cleaning

[ericinthewoods]

I am not personally an adherent of a gluten-free diet. However, I have several friends who have recently been diagnosed with celiac's disease. They know more about their dietary requirements than me, and one had been having so much trouble recently that she will not chance her intake with anything over 2ppm gluten. I plan to build a chestnut honey brown/stout for them.

I brew whole grain, but I am looking for effective ways any of y'all know of to completely eradicate any traces of gluten in a basic RIMS setup. Any cleaning chemicals and/or processes that are 100% effective (with reasonable data/sources that I can reference) at removing glutinous protein?

 

[KevinM]

Nope. Just standard cleaning, bleach/oxy, and rinsing.

People try their best, but sometimes the most trusted way is to have a separate facility and separate equipment.

Some products have disclaimers, like gluten free, made in a facility that produces wheat and nut products.
I used to see some that stated they would clean their equipment and do gluten free as the first batch of the day to minimize risk.

 

[ericinthewoods]

Thanks for the help. I was hoping for some magic bullet for this.

I can just get them to come supervise the cleaning of the parts and buy some separate tubing. Really, I just didn't want to have take apart and re-tape the rims tube.

 

[Osedax]

Are you brewing all grain gluten free? If not, you won't have to mess with half of you system. If you are, you could always to BIAB style.

Anything plastic is not ok. Everything else will have to be taken apart and cleaned thoroughly. I recommend biozyme or something close. It will break down proteins better. Either way, its not going to be safe. 2ppm is a tiny amount. Just a word of warning.

Good luck and hope the brew goes well.

 

[ericinthewoods]

I've only done all-grain brewing, so that is what I envisioned. My plan was to borrow and adjust some of the recipes for chestnut beer that have been posted on here, as even millet, sorghum and buckwheat are incompatible with the most sensitive person.

If plastic is out, then I wont be using a mashtun; the RIMS tube will be unnecessary if I'm just using a SS kettle on a burner, which I feel comfortable that I can physically and chemically remove enough protein to dilute into less than 2ppm in 5 gal. The impeller housing on the pump is plastic too, so I'll be batch sparging. Seems like BIAB is the way to go, I've just never actually done it, and I don't know how that'll translate into using chestnuts.

Alternatively, I can step down in scale to 2 gal batches and use their cooking equipment, in which case, I can teach them how to do it too. This seems like the best option, barring some BIAB techniques that I'm unfamiliar with.

Thanks for putting me in the right direction. I think I"ll go back to research this problem for a while.

 

[skemp45]

Best advice I can give you is if they are celiac, don't mess around with trying to clean it "the best you can". Just use different dedicated equipment like KevinM said, you really don't want to make someone sick because you "missed a spot" Treat it seriously as you would want someone to do for you and Good luck, I hope they like it!

 

[ericinthewoods]

Yeah, I've decided to use her cleaned cooking equipment and to show them how to make smaller batches on their stove. When they're ready to step up production, then I can show them what they need for larger scale.

 

[brewguyver]

Yeah, I've decided to use her cleaned cooking equipment and to show them how to make smaller batches on their stove. When they're ready to step up production, then I can show them what they need for larger scale.

Good call - no sense trying to clean your stuff because its way too much work, and you might not get it clean.

I'm going to do my first GF brew with malted quinoa, and will be using completely separate set up.

Side note - don't use liquid yeast - need to find a dry yeast certified GF. Liquid yeast were grown up in wort.

 

[ericinthewoods]

Yeah I came across that bit of info, even the GF wyyeast has 2 ppm when diluted in 5 gal. For celiac's ppl, that can be considered too much, depending in the sensitivity. I'll be doing a healthy starter for whatever brand of dry yeast LHBS carries.

 

[brewguyver]

Yeah I came across that bit of info, even the GF wyyeast has 2 ppm when diluted in 5 gal. For celiac's ppl, that can be considered too much, depending in the sensitivity. I'll be doing a healthy starter for whatever brand of dry yeast LHBS carries.

Typically a starter isn't recommended for dry yeast - they're packaged with all their nutrients. When a starter is done the yeast will exhaust their glycogen stores, and won't do much else. Instead, rehydrate multiple packets (enough to hit target cell count) in sterile warm water per packets directions no more than an hour before you are ready to pitch the yeast.

You could do a starter, but once I knew this I stopped making the extra effort.

 

[ericinthewoods]

Thanks for looking out, guyver. I was not aware of this. I'd only used them for my first two (failed) kit beers, than switched to all grain and liquid yeasts.

 

[opiate82]

Just so you know, I didn't realize that this thread was in the gluten free section and the title really made me do a double-take.

 

[Osedax]

Hey, if you can get your girlfriend to clean your equipment, kudos.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[ericinthewoods]

SWMBO says that'll never happen.

 

[blkhrt]

I was going to try and brew a batch for a family member who has celiacs, but I will try and get some separate equipment. Can I brew in my same pot but maybe do a LME or DME and use a separate fermentor and tubing to transfer the wort and beer?

 

[ericinthewoods]

I was going to try and brew a batch for a family member who has celiacs, but I will try and get some separate equipment. Can I brew in my same pot but maybe do a LME or DME and use a separate fermentor and tubing to transfer the wort and beer?

I'm not familiar with gluten free DME or LME, so I can't speak to the feasibility of that- the only one ive heard of is the briess white sorghum syrup. My celiacs positive friends often call the companies that produce the foods to make sure that they were processed in a separate facility and some other obscure questions about how they're produced. You might want to double check that with the person you're brewing for.

Also, I don't want to say that you'll be able to get your pot clean. The proteins that make up gluten denature around 500F I believe, you'll have to scrub and chemically clean your pot very thoroughly. That's why I chose to use my friends' large stewpots. They'll likely have separate equipment at their house that stays gluten free, find out if they have a pot big enough.

Use a fermenter, racking cane, and tubing that have never contained beer before.