On why you should clean your pump

[flyfishorbrew]

I'm just putting this out into the world as a lesson learned that may benefit somebody down the line. I use an electric BIAB system with a pump. Normally I recirculate during mashout and again while cooling (it's a lot easier to recirculate the wort over my immersion chiller than it is to agitate by hand). I've probably brewed around 12 times with my current magnetic drive pump. When it comes to sanitation and having never had a (noticeably to me) infected beer I've figured all is well that ends well. I'm fairly careful about my sanitation but don't go to the lengths that some on this forum do. However, I'll be getting a little more serious about periodically cleaning out my pump.

I start running my pump at about 10 minutes before flameout so I know there's been a lot of contact with the boiling wort. Every three or four brew days, I leave the system together and run PBW through for an hour or so at around 160 degrees, and that's the sum total of how I've cleaned my pump. Yesterday I noted what seemed like restricted flow during mashout, and figured since I had the time I'd take the pump apart and check for and grains or other buildup that had made their way in there. I don't really want to go into huge detail about what I found inside nor would I know exactly what to call it, but suffice to say it's the last kind of thing you'd want your chilled wort coming into contact with (the growth was on the impeller). I cleaned off all the parts and gave it a long dunk in Star San. I have no way of knowing if all the crud has been in there for months or just since the last time I ran PBW through it a few weeks ago.

There's no question attached here - just a reminder to those who use pumps that it only takes a minute to remove the front housing and make sure your pump is clean. For my part, I may just start removing the housing after every brew to make sure it fully dries out.

 

[GoeHaarden]

Every three or four brew days...

Might be your problem...

I recirc PBW after every brew day making sure to cycle each valve 15-20 times. Recently took apart my pump head for the 1st time in about 5 years - spotless!!

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I do a high-ish pressure flush out of all the tubing/valves/pumps on my rig before calling it a brew day, and do a hot PBW recirculation every 3 or 4 brews that encompasses all valves, pump heads and herms coil. And every time I've taken the pump heads off to replace thinned out thrust washers the insides have been nearly pristine with maybe a little beer stone on the rotor.

Same for the ball valves - I've never found much of anything, never mind anything scary, which given the time it takes to open them up has been somewhat disappointing - I'd like to actually find something to clean once in awhile

Cheers!

 

[Nagorg]

+1 to what @GoeHaarden said.
Every brew day ends with me cleaning my kettle and my pump is part of that process. I heat a PBW solution in the kettle and recirculate that through my pump and hoses. I also work each valve slowly while recirculating which allows the nooks and crannies of the valves to get washed out.
That's followed by a recirculated StarSan rinse cycle.

Adds time to my brew day but I believe its well spent.

 

[bkboiler]

I don't quite plan to aspire to the white bread standard that Peter Bouckaert has...but I try to keep it clean enough where my friends can look at my brewery while drinking my beer and not raise an eyebrow.
Like you said the ultimate test is "does the beer taste good".
I actually run pbw at the beginning and end of each brew day.
My brew rig lives in the garage with sawdust and other crud.

 

[balrog]

given the time it takes to open them up ... I'd like to actually find something to clean once in awhile

There you go again, tempting fate...

 

[DarrellQ]

Might be your problem...

I recirc PBW after every brew day making sure to cycle each valve 15-20 times. Recently took apart my pump head for the 1st time in about 5 years - spotless!!

Curious as to how many cycles of fresh water you run through it to ensure that the PBW is rinsed out? Or any other method you have to rinse the PBW out?

 

[Beholder]

Curious as to how many cycles of fresh water you run through it to ensure that the PBW is rinsed out? Or any other method you have to rinse the PBW out?

I don’t do cycles of rinsing, but a similar volume of fresh water. As with above, I used to do a PBW hot recirc every brew day, but have reduced it to when I see noticeable beer stone deposits on my boil kettle.

As an aside, there are now TC pump head upgrades for standard pumps similar to the riptides to make putting off pump head disassembly for inspection / cleaning a thing of the past. I have the riptides, so another reason scaling back the PBW washes of the system is possible.

 

[GoeHaarden]

Curious as to how many cycles of fresh water you run through it to ensure that the PBW is rinsed out? Or any other method you have to rinse the PBW out?

I fill up four 5 gallon buckets with water from my IC so the first one is close to 120F. Ill fill the kettle up with hose water, and heat it to roughly the same temp 120ish. Add PBW - do my recirc. Pump out the PBW. Add first bucket of IC water and recirc to spray the sides. Pump it out and add the next bucket when it is close to empty. Continue until all 4 buckets are through. Finish with high pressure spray off...

Edit: I do BIAB so I only have one kettle, one pump, and a small amount of tubing to clean.