18 gal conical ways to sanitize

[bailey mountain brewer]

hi everyone, i have been brewing on the spike system and have a cf15 fermenter. I am curious how people are sanitizing a conical of that size, any tips or tricks or ideas that people have come up with to make it simple but still being 100% sure of sanitation.

thanks

 

[Qhrumphf]

Option one: fill completely with sanitizer or pasteurization water, blow out with CO2 as you would with a keg (and if doing a heat kill leave it under pressure as it cools). Highly effective but expensive (or challenging and dangerous w/ near boiling water). CF15 I imagine can handle pressure but that's also a concern.

Option two: spray bottle or sanitary brush/rag and douse all surfaces. Works only if you're thorough

Option three: low foam sanitizer (NOT star-san), a spray ball, and a pump, and run a SIP cycle.

If possible, #1 is my preference, followed by #3 then #2.

#3 is the standard for professional breweries (and any food/beverage/otherwise sanitary industry).

 

[CodeSection]

I use the no rinse Saniclean low foam sanitizer....https://www.morebeer.com/products/star-saniclean.html

 

[IslandLizard]

hi everyone, i have been brewing on the spike system and have a cf15 fermenter. I am curious how people are sanitizing a conical of that size, any tips or tricks or ideas that people have come up with to make it simple but still being 100% sure of sanitation.

thanks

You can't sanitize something that's not clean already.
Sanitizing is the easy part. It's the cleaning that's critical. I'd add cleaning to your question.

I mostly use plastic brew buckets, but also an older 7 gallon Blichmann conical. I clean with a stiff nylon hand brush and tenacious deposits with a non-scratching scouring pad. Using (homemade) PBW, generic Oxiclean, or washing soda, occasionally BarKeepers Friend. On plastics I use the worn out scouring pads, the wooly substrate. Brushes inside valves and bulkheads.

For ball valves I adhere to the 45-60° cleaning method. And leave them at half open (at 45°) to dry. They get taken apart and cleaned every 8-10 brews, rarely find anything in them anymore, but is for good measure.

Every 6-8 brews or so I recirculate near boiling lye-reinforced homemade PBW through my boil kettle, pump, hoses, and plate chiller (back and forth) for a few hours. The mesh hop bags get "bleached" in there too.

Aside from dunking smaller parts, and spraying liberally in awkward areas, I mostly use a few small Starsan soaked washcloths and mop all surfaces, several times. It often generates a thin foam layer which offers the best protection, IMO.

Mostly Starsan, once a while Iodophor or IOStar.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

thanks for the suggestions.
my current process is cleaning first with my cip ball for about 20min at 180degrees with pbw. then scrub it all down with a brush, removable parts the get soaked for an hour or so in the hot pbw then scrubbed and rinsed. for sanitizing i spray down with star san. again removable parts get soaked in star san. i may try some of these suggestions.

thanks again

 

[IslandLizard]

thanks for the suggestions.
my current process is cleaning first with my cip ball for about 20min at 180degrees with pbw. then scrub it all down with a brush, removable parts the get soaked for an hour or so in the hot pbw then scrubbed and rinsed. for sanitizing i spray down with star san. again removable parts get soaked in star san. i may try some of these suggestions.

thanks again

Looks like you got the cleaning routine down pretty much.^
The CIP ball needs a fair lot of pressure to do the job, hence you need to use a strong pump.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

i use chugger pumps that are rated for 7gpm. on spikes website its listed that the chugger pump provide enough pressure for the cip ball to work. i think it does a decent job but i still always scrub it down, figure let the cip ball do what it can and i finish the job by hand.

 

[augiedoggy]

i use chugger pumps that are rated for 7gpm. on spikes website its listed that the chugger pump provide enough pressure for the cip ball to work. i think it does a decent job but i still always scrub it down, figure let the cip ball do what it can and i finish the job by hand.

if you used a stronger pump you wouldnt need to hand wash your dishes before (or in this case after) putting them in the dishwasher a 7gpm may be enough to make it spin and spray water but not enough to have enough force to truly effectively CIP even with the miniture spray balls.

At home I fill 1/3 way with pbw mix and wipe out the conical with a rag and pbw mix... Then rinse, then either do the same with some sanitizer mix or spray it with spray bottle of sanitizer.. I only have 12.5g conicals and at that size I personally feel cip is more cost and work than its worth but YMMV.

I do cip at work with a 3/4hp pump and never stick my hands in the conical to clean or sanitze anything manually short of mounting and removing the CIP ball. We have standard cip balls at the pub and I have tried the 17gpm pumps which work but not nearly as effectively as one of the 3/4hp pumps we normally use. its like the difference between a pressure washer and the sprayer on your sink.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

that makes a lot of sense. i know the cip ball doesnt get it completely clean thats why i finish the job by hand. it gets the majority of the mess out of the way so im just left with a few tougher spots to clean up. thanks for the info