Clean in place

[h22lude]

Pretty sure you could also send your pump head to Bobby and have him do it:
https://www.brewhardware.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=LaborPumpTC&CartID=8
I was thinking I was going to do that, but am now thinking more along the lines of just ordering a new riptide from him with the TC ports soldered on. He also sells the flanges if you want to do the silver soldering yourself.

My pump head is poly so I dont think I have this option.

 

[h22lude]

Even though I generally take an askance view of most things 'Brulosophy', I really thought this was a good article. Man, that ball valve almost made me puke. After last summer's brew season and competitions, I went through a similar process of trying to discover why my beers were suddenly not turning out the way they had always been before. I didn't brew at all from last August until six weeks ago after I had completely disassembled, cleaned, revamped and retooled my equipment as well as processes and procedures from crushing grain to pulling the tap handle on the kegerator. I also scrubbed and cleaned (with Clorox) the concrete walls and floor of my brew area to eliminate any possible nasties as best I could within 'reasonable' limits.

It's been a painful (and expensive) journey. So how's it going after all that effort and $$$? Happy to say, now that the first of the beers are conditioned and pouring, I'm very pleased with the results, as have been some of my best friends and critics who never are afraid to voice their opinions, both positive and negative. Not sure where I made a wrong turn. Maybe I just got a little lax or lazy with attention to detail, but now I definitely feel back in the game. Hopefully the judges will agree.

Brooo Brother

I agree. I like reading some of their stuff but I find people take their results as gospel. I take them as very anecdotal. They do say the results shouldn't be taken too seriously so it isnt necessarily their fault.

Anyway, I went through a similar thing about 2 years ago. My beers were all tasting the same and all had an odd off flavor that I could never describe well. I tried everything just like you did. The last thing I tried was low oxygen. I went all in. My first low oxygen batch was a pilsner that won mini best of show at national comp. Not sure which area benefited from low oxygen but I was happy to finally fix the issue after many ruined batches and money spent.

 

[Broothru]

LoDO was one of the things I incorporated as well. I boil and quick chill the mash water as well as dose it with NaMeta to scavenge O2. All transfers, except the first one from boil kettle to fermenter, are done under positive CO2 pressure with TC fittings. Even when I dump trub, take periodic samples or harvest yeast I purge with a CO2 burst. I have krausened each of the four batches I've done since my overhaul, introducing a steeped hop tea into the speise before pitching the second yeast charge. The speise ferments with the hop tea and yeast in a mini keg with a spunding valve until it reaches high krausen (that way I get a biotransformation of the hop oils), and then transfer the contents of the mini keg and beer from the conical fermenter into a krausening keg.

After the krausen has done its work of completing the fermentation, carbonating itself, and then cleaning up any mess it's left behind I cold crash it and pressure transfer to a serving keg. The only thing left then is to fill my glass.

What I've noticed is that it adds about an hour or more to an already long brew day by bring the strike water to a boil, then chilling, before mashing in. Previously I'd just fill the kettle with water, mash in at 95F and raise to mash temperature for an hour. Now I'm doing step mashes (actually a modified Hochkurz profile) with very brief rests for Beta glucans and proteinase (5-10 minutes), a long Beta amylase rest for 60 minutes @ 145F and Alpha amylase rest for 20 minutes 158F, before mashing out. I've noticed a small but not insignificant rise in mash efficiency, but noticeably increased yield as well as clarity in the wort after the boil, even though I ditched the hop spider in favor of letting the hops 'go commando' in the boil.

I'm also seeing less trub when I dump (usually Day 2 of fermentation), little or no trub when I transfer to 'secondary' (krausening keg) and virtually trub-free yeast when I harvest. Over and above just a better quality of finished beer, I'm hoping that the combination of LoDO, krausening and pressurized transfers will extend the 'freshness' and keg life of my beers, especially highly hopped IPAs. I'm traveling to the Pacific Northwest next month and hope to visit with some hop growers out there and pick their brains for ideas about extending hop flavors and aromas over time.

The quest for beer nirvana never ends.

Brooo Brother

 

[h22lude]

I do a lot of the same. Just brewed my first batch in almost a year after moving twice. Made a few errors and still need to get my brew room the way I want it but it went well. I did miss the opportunity to spund though. I usually transfer with 1°Bx left but there was .5°Bx. Don't think it will fully carb with that little sugar left so unfortunately will probably have to carb the rest with CO2. Should still be really good though

 

[augiedoggy]

Sanitation is not only about infections. Crud buildup will spoil and the smells and taste spoliage produces are far from appealing for most people. When I took a one-year hiatus from homebrewing I neglected disassembling and cleaning the ball valves on my kettles and the smell when I finally disassembled them a year later was quite disgusting...

Ok my interpritation is when we are talking about CIP and wiping kettles out we are talking about eliminating that "crud". I do periodically take my ball valves apart to inspect and I found that my process of actuating the ballvalve open and close while pushing pbw and water does in fact do an adequate job of keeping them clean on the hot side. also crud doesnt ever get behind the seals in my weldless fittings, if it did that would mean the seals arent working, therefore constantly dissassembling this stuff is unnecessary and can very likely cause problems where there wasnt one. (which is one reason I believe some people have such bad opinions of weldless fittings.)

My pumps are hardplumbed into my hard lines. some only ever see hot water but those that see wort get periodically taken apart at home and inspected. Again if there was cause for concern found when doing this I would have changed my process. a microbrewery doesnt not disasseble everything between brew sessions. They run various caustics and cleaners to CIP. As long as I clean my system immediately after use I find it cleans up rather easily. At the brewpub this is also true, even though it makes a much longer brewday we have learned there are somethings we just dont wait on. Other things like cleaning kegs we make an afternoon or evening out of.

Ive spoken to many micro and nano brewery brewers and owners over the years and some of you would be surprised of what some of them do and dont do and what some get away with without concern of it effecting the beer. I have had some tell me they only rinse thier sanke kegs between fills and some dont even do that if they are refilling with the same beer.. Others have a way more complex cleaning process.. In the end they do what works for them and they still sell thier beer.. even in belgium where beer is fermenting in dusty attics and circulated through roof top gutters to make sours... Again there are opinions and assumptions here that vary from one extreme to the other with no or little data to base them on and this can lead to people getting carried away in either direction.

 

[Qhrumphf]

a microbrewery doesnt not disasseble everything between brew sessions. They run various caustics and cleaners to CIP.

But they are, or at least should be, using sanitary fittings that can be CIP'd with 100% contact.

In a professional setting I would never put a ball valve anywhere in direct contact with product. Water, sure. Gas, sure. But strong preference for not hot side (my home system does have hot side ball valves that I break down and clean, I don't use it enough to justify upgrading) and hard line in the sand cold side. The homebrew conicals with ball valves make me cringe.

 

[augiedoggy]

But they are, or at least should be, using sanitary fittings that can be CIP'd with 100% contact.

In a professional setting I would never put a ball valve anywhere in direct contact with product. Water, sure. Gas, sure. But strong preference for not hot side (my home system does have hot side ball valves that I break down and clean, I don't use it enough to justify upgrading) and hard line in the sand cold side. The homebrew conicals with ball valves make me cringe.

They come apart easily enough to be cleaned with a single wrench... that said I switched my conical valves out for butterfly valves.

 

[processhead]

Sanitation is not only about infections. Crud buildup will spoil and the smells and taste spoliage produces are far from appealing for most people. When I took a one-year hiatus from homebrewing I neglected disassembling and cleaning the ball valves on my kettles and the smell when I finally disassembled them a year later was quite disgusting...

Infections and smelly crud build up are both caused by bacterial growing where you don't want it, and the solution is the same for both, mechanical cleaning and sanitizing. In some cases, heat in your hot side processes takes care of the sanitizing side of the problem.