BS Remover

[BrewmasterBrad]

Warning: Shameless plugs for products I believe in. I do not work for Five Star. I am only passing on information that I hope the brewing community will find useful.

I, like many of you, have been using an oxygen cleaner instead of PBW for a while now to save some money. I also know that many of us do not use the proper amount of cleaning and sanitizing chemicals. I have recently had some great conversations with a representative from Five Star Chemicals that have been pretty eye opening. I expressed to her that many home brewers are like myself and we are cheap and don't necessarily follow directions very well. She explained to me why the products are formulated the way they are and that using more than the recommended amount of any chemical is not beneficial. In addition, Five Star just recently introduced a new beer stone remover for home brewers cleverly called BS Remover. The representative was kind enough to send me some samples of PBW and BS Remover so I could see for myself what a difference proper use of these products could do.

I had to do some renovations on my keggles so I could use the BS Remover since it is too acidic to use on copper. I swapped out my homemade copper dip tubes in my boil kettle and hot liquor tank with compression fittings and stainless tubing from Brewers Hardware. I also took the opportunity to swap out my old economy ball valves with quick clean ball valves. See the gross inside of one of the old ball valves.

Now that my kettles were copper free, I cleaned them using PBW on my Mark's Keg Washer and a CIP ball. Did you know that you only need 3/4 oz. of PBW per gallon of water? That's not much. The keg washer basin holds 1.75 gallons of water, so I measured out the proper amount of PBW. The keggles had already been cleaned using oxygen cleaner after my last brew day, but the PBW still removed a bunch of soil. After rinsing the keggles with hot water, I was ready to try out the BS Remover at a rate of 1/2 oz. per gallon. The BS Remover helps remove that stubborn beer stone and re-passivates the stainless steel when you allow the surface to air dry after use. You can see the before and after pictures below as well as the amount of beer stone that was left in the bottom of the keg washer basin.

So, what did I learn from all this? First, it pays to be nice to the Five Star rep. Second, I will never be cheap again when it comes to my cleaning regimen. If you don't see BS Remover available at your LHBS, ask for them to order it from Five Star.

 

[HopHeavy]

I think you are the Five Star rep

 

[sandyeggoxj]

It isn't on their website. It sounds like acid 5 in homebrew form...

 

[afro_lou]

I call BeerStone on that

 

[Jwin]

Glad you used beerstone remover as wortstone remover. Hope you have some left for your shanks and faucets.

 

[BrewmasterBrad]

No, I am not a Five Star rep, just a fan of their products. I also cleaned my sanke kegs that I ferment in, but it is very difficult to get pics from the inside of those. Regardless of the "stone" you are trying to remove, you can't deny the results and the advantages of passivating the stainless steel.

I do believe that it is similar to Acid #5, just diluted for homebrew use.

 

[dmcman73]

So, in the first pics of your keggle, the picture on the right where you used the BS on, the bottom of the keggle looks like it was scrubbed with a scrubby compared to the picture to the left.

 

[BeardedBrews]

Do you have pictures of how you used the Mark2 on a keggle? A parts list would be awesome too!

I've been on the fence about one for cleaning my kegs, if I could blast out my kettle on the thing then I think I'd be sold.

 

[dmcman73]

Do you have pictures of how you used the Mark2 on a keggle? A parts list would be awesome too!

I've been on the fence about one for cleaning my kegs, if I could blast out my kettle on the thing then I think I'd be sold.

The only thing it seems he added to the Mark2 setup was a 1/2 inch CIP ball. What you see in the picture he posted, the plastic basin, pump and gray plastic pipe that is threaded onto the pump all come with the Mark2 (along with a few other fittings). You can get a 1/2 inch CIP ball from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0152FG7UE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I just bought that CIP and should be getting it in a few days.

 

[BeardedBrews]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0152FG7UE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I just bought that CIP and should be getting it in a few days.

I'm mostly curious how he positions the keggle over the washer so that it actually runs back into the pump instead of spilling everywhere

 

[BrewmasterBrad]

So, in the first pics of your keggle, the picture on the right where you used the BS on, the bottom of the keggle looks like it was scrubbed with a scrubby compared to the picture to the left.

No scrubbing, just chemicals doing the work. I think there is a difference in the light or flash between the boil kettle and the mashtun. The pics were taken with my phone and I am by no means a professional photographer, but both keggles were nice and shiny after the treatment.

 

[BrewmasterBrad]

Do you have pictures of how you used the Mark2 on a keggle? A parts list would be awesome too!

I've been on the fence about one for cleaning my kegs, if I could blast out my kettle on the thing then I think I'd be sold.

For the keggles on the keg washer, I just invert the keggles on the washer just like I would a corny keg or carboy. The only difference is that I use a clean in place (CIP) spray ball on the washer riser instead of the standard PVC cap with a hold drilled in it that comes standard. The CIP ball is from Brewers Hardware. Because the spray ball sprays in a 360 pattern, you will need to invert the keggle on the keg washer, or fabricate a lid that will go on top of the keggle and also attach the CIP ball so you can wash the keggle upright and keep the spray from going everywhere.

I did a video of the spray pattern of the CIP ball and posted it on YouTube.

 

[BrewmasterBrad]

I'm mostly curious how he positions the keggle over the washer so that it actually runs back into the pump instead of spilling everywhere

The basin on the keg washer is wide enough to collect all the runoff. You could build your own keg washer with a bucket and a sump pump too.

 

[BrewmasterBrad]

The only thing it seems he added to the Mark2 setup was a 1/2 inch CIP ball. What you see in the picture he posted, the plastic basin, pump and gray plastic pipe that is threaded onto the pump all come with the Mark2 (along with a few other fittings). You can get a 1/2 inch CIP ball from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0152FG7UE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I just bought that CIP and should be getting it in a few days.

The CIP ball on Amazon looks very similar to the Brewers Hardware one, but not as beefy (just judging by the picture and not actually seeing the Amazon one in person). Should do the job though.