How many rinses of PBW do you do?

[Zenmeister]

A while back I noticed a yellow tint in my water in my BK while warming it up before brew day. Turns out it was left over residue from PBW cleaning several weeks earlier from my last brew. Since then I always rinse twice whenever I use PBW, and I will get that yellow-ish water even in my second rinse. That second rinsing usually gets rid of the PBW residue, but I'm wondering what you do in your rising.
So this works for me, and I am going to keep doing this. Just wondering if you have noticed the yellow tinted water after rinsing, if you care, and what your rinse process is?
My process is as follows

	PBW Instructions	My Process
Clean	Kettles: 1-2 Oz per Gallon at 130-180 Degrees for 30 Min	.5 oz / Gallon at 165 Degrees F for 10 Min
Clean	Fermenters: 3/4 Oz per Gallon at 130-180 F for 30 Min	.5 oz / Gallon at 165 Degrees F for 10 Min
Rinse	Rinse with same temperature water	2X Rinse at 165 Degrees F for 10 minutes each

 

[Whisky River]

I’ve been contemplating the exact same question so I’ll be interested to see what others say. I usually do 3 rinses but I question if the last one is really needed. I also wonder about the effectiveness running a rinse cycle on my keg washer and wonder if the total volume of rinse water is more important than the duration of the cycle.

I know some folks do a final rinse with starsan to neutralize the PBW but then I would be concerned with reducing the effectiveness of the sanitizer.

Will be following this thread to see what the consensus is.

 

[day_trippr]

I've never had that happen but I can't say why or why not. I circulate ~150°F standard PBW solution through the pumps and valves and herms coil on my 3v2p rig for ~30 minutes - and keeping the solution hot with my bk burner - while frequently "exercising" the ball valves to get cleaner toward the backs of the balls.

I then run ~150°F rinse water through the same path with the same frequent valve action. Finally I blow out the hex and dry out the kettles and leave all of the ball valves half open. I don't use sanitizer at all...

Cheers!

 

[MaxStout]

It seems that no matter how much I rinse PBW, there is still some alkali left on the surface and it has that slippery feel.

I now rinse a couple times, spray some Starsan from a spray bottle to neutralize the alkali, then one more rinse.

 

[Zenmeister]

Interesting idea max. I'll try the Starsan spray, and final rinse. that makes a lot of sense.

 

[Stikius]

In my BK I follow the instructions for the cleaning process. Then, when rinsing, I fill up a bit of water, start recirculation and both open the tap and spray new water with a garden hose. This way I'm diluting the cleaning agent more and more for the approximately 5-10 minutes I'm rinsing.

For both kegs and FV this is my preferred process, and you only need to rinse once since you're probably going to use sanitizer before you use them anyway:

 

[Broken Crow]

I don't know if there's any science to it, but after some experimentation I had observed that when I wash with PBW at 130°, if I heat the rinse water 10°-20° hotter, it comes right off. Even at lower temps, it seems that using a hotter rinse works....entirely subjective, but that's been my own experience... I'm interested if anyone else has noticed/tried this and can either confirm or debunk it.

 

[WesBrew]

My process:
spray solids out of the kettle.
quick scrub with pbw/water, spray rinse.
fill with about 3.5g of water. Heat to a boil.
run it through the pump and plate chiller to flush them out.
No issues for me.

 

[redrocker652002]

I don't use PBW, I use Craft Meister Alkaline Brewery wash. I usually put about 4 gallons of warm to hot water in my DIY bucket and keg washer,add about 6 to 8 spoonfuls (the measuring spoon it comes with), and run it for about 20 mins and then spray it out twice with a hose. I run my finger up and down the inside of the buckets and kegs and if they are slippery then I rinse again. I like the Alkaline stuff because, according to the label, it can be used with normal temp tap water. So far, that seems to be working for me

 

[Bassman2003]

Sadly this step happens at the end of the brew day and you just want it over & done! What about taking dosage amount into consideration? Maybe the manufacturer amount is more than is needed and leave quite a bit behind? I look at what we are cleaning (mash tuns, boil kettle and pumps) and do not see a difficult cleaning task. Especially if the application is timely and nothing has a chance to dry. Maybe less could be used which would leave less behind and still get the job done?

On a side note - recircing PBW vs still soaking? I wonder if a constant movement application is better or worse compared to filling up the pump & tubing, recirc a little then close the system for a still soak. PBW works well in other still applications, why keep it moving?

 

[day_trippr]

Mechanical action accelerates the cleaning and improves effectivity. Same reason many recirculate beer line cleaner...

Cheers!

 

[Deadalus]

Sadly this step happens at the end of the brew day and you just want it over & done! What about taking dosage amount into consideration? Maybe the manufacturer amount is more than is needed and leave quite a bit behind? I look at what we are cleaning (mash tuns, boil kettle and pumps) and do not see a difficult cleaning task. Especially if the application is timely and nothing has a chance to dry. Maybe less could be used which would leave less behind and still get the job done?

On a side note - recircing PBW vs still soaking? I wonder if a constant movement application is better or worse compared to filling up the pump & tubing, recirc a little then close the system for a still soak. PBW works well in other still applications, why keep it moving?

I recirculate through the BK and that keeps it hot.

 

[Bassman2003]

Mechanical action accelerates the cleaning and improves effectivity. Same reason many recirculate beer line cleaner...

Cheers!

It is a logical view. I just like to examine this stuff as maybe it would clean the same without any motion? Would be some interesting testing. Something spinning quickly like the inside of a pump might benefit from more static contact time + some motion since PBW breaks things down.