Hey all, I need some helpfull suggestions.
I'm moving soon, and don't want to take the house bug with me. The basement at this apartment has this white powdery mold all over the walls. I've just lived with it for the past year. I make sure everything coming from the basement gets sanitized well, but I just found mold in my kegerator.
I keep most of my equipment upstairs, but things like my carboys and my kegs are downstairs. I have to assume it was a dirty keg along the way that brought the mold up from the basement. I have damp-rid in the kegerator, but there always seems to be a small puddle of condensation on the bottom of the freezer anyhow.
I'm having a party before I move, trying to get rid of most, if not all, of my kegged beer. I find it's easier to move empty kegs than it is to move full ones. Call me lazy, if you will. So, I'll have the chance to strip all the kegs and sanitize all the parts. I'm thinking a two step process that involves acidified bleach (1oz bleach in 5 gallons of water, then add 1 oz vinegar,) then either starsan or iodaphor. I'm leaning towards iodine, simply because I've used starsan since the beginning of my brewing, and from everything I've read, it's good to change. So I can two step the kegs, and strip them down, but what about all the other parts of my pipeline?
Once I move, I can finally build the wider collar for my magic Chef and have 6 taps. Since I'm tearing down the current setup, I figured it might be a really good time to sanitize all of that as well. Taps, shanks, and disconnects all get the two step sanitize, and I'll replace all the tubing. I'm most likely going to add Y valves to my secondary regs, so I'll pull the gas disconnects and sanitize them as well. I only expect to be replacing gas lines if I find mold. Otherwise, I'm going to just sanitize and reuse the ones I have.
While I'm building the collar for the keezer, I want to make sure the bugs are dead inside the freezer. I want to spray the keez down, and then bleach it. After I'll probably wipe it down with iodine as well, just to be sure.
That's the plan for the kegging setup. What should I do about the rest of my brew stuff? I'm due for a new autosyphon and tubing, and a switch to a different sanitizer. I really don't want to take the mold with me to my new apartment. What step am I missing? Where do you see I could possibly miss a step and carry the mold over?
I have a couple of weeks, so I have time to do everything right.
Thanks
B
I'm moving soon, and don't want to take the house bug with me. The basement at this apartment has this white powdery mold all over the walls. I've just lived with it for the past year. I make sure everything coming from the basement gets sanitized well, but I just found mold in my kegerator.
I keep most of my equipment upstairs, but things like my carboys and my kegs are downstairs. I have to assume it was a dirty keg along the way that brought the mold up from the basement. I have damp-rid in the kegerator, but there always seems to be a small puddle of condensation on the bottom of the freezer anyhow.
I'm having a party before I move, trying to get rid of most, if not all, of my kegged beer. I find it's easier to move empty kegs than it is to move full ones. Call me lazy, if you will. So, I'll have the chance to strip all the kegs and sanitize all the parts. I'm thinking a two step process that involves acidified bleach (1oz bleach in 5 gallons of water, then add 1 oz vinegar,) then either starsan or iodaphor. I'm leaning towards iodine, simply because I've used starsan since the beginning of my brewing, and from everything I've read, it's good to change. So I can two step the kegs, and strip them down, but what about all the other parts of my pipeline?
Once I move, I can finally build the wider collar for my magic Chef and have 6 taps. Since I'm tearing down the current setup, I figured it might be a really good time to sanitize all of that as well. Taps, shanks, and disconnects all get the two step sanitize, and I'll replace all the tubing. I'm most likely going to add Y valves to my secondary regs, so I'll pull the gas disconnects and sanitize them as well. I only expect to be replacing gas lines if I find mold. Otherwise, I'm going to just sanitize and reuse the ones I have.
While I'm building the collar for the keezer, I want to make sure the bugs are dead inside the freezer. I want to spray the keez down, and then bleach it. After I'll probably wipe it down with iodine as well, just to be sure.
That's the plan for the kegging setup. What should I do about the rest of my brew stuff? I'm due for a new autosyphon and tubing, and a switch to a different sanitizer. I really don't want to take the mold with me to my new apartment. What step am I missing? Where do you see I could possibly miss a step and carry the mold over?
I have a couple of weeks, so I have time to do everything right.
Thanks
B