Cleaning a bad infection

[llamatabrew]

Just curious if anyone has a link to a good site/thread that talks about how to get through a bad infection situation. I've had a pretty significant infection in (I assume) both my plastic bucket-based fermentation system, and unfortunately in both my kegs and draft lines.

I've read basically "get rid of all plastic and replace" -- that's fine, I'm willing to make that sacrifice/investment. I'm more concerned about cleaning the nasties from my kegs, poppets, lines, etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This situation has basically kept me from brewing for most of the year. Just haven't had the time to properly deal with it.

 

[lumpher]

once your eqpt gets totally infected, only answer is to throw it out or keep it off to the side and use it to brew saison

 

[llamatabrew]

The buckets and transfer tubing...fine by me. But the stainless steel kegs and draft equipment? C'mon there's gotta be a way, right?

 

[homebeerbrewer]

The stainless will hold up to high temps, so clean with Oxyclean or PBW near boiling temps, then sanitize with Starsan the same way. Store the kegs with CO2 pressure, and replace all plastics. Any glass that you might have can be sanitized in a bleach solution (1 tbsp of bleach per gallon of water), let soak for a few hours or overnight.

Do that, and then brew something, damn it!

 

[llamatabrew]

Cool - what about the poppets/etc in the keg posts? Can I just run the hot cleaning and sanitizing solutions through and be done with it? Or do those need replacing as well?

Do I need to worry about the keg lines and faucet?

 

[homebeerbrewer]

Cool - what about the poppets/etc in the keg posts? Can I just run the hot cleaning and sanitizing solutions through and be done with it? Or do those need replacing as well?

What I'd do (maybe not necessary) is replace the o-rings. I'd also soak the poppets, and QD's in both the cleaner, and then the sanitizer. Any plastic that the beer comes in contact could harbor the infection in a tiny scratch that you can't see. Anything that can withstand near boiling, or slightly higher temps would be better sanitized that way. I believe, but never tried it, that the QD's will withstand near boiling temps - so try that at your own risk. You may also want to consider replacing the CO2 line.

Do I need to worry about the keg lines and faucet?

The faucet can be cleaned the same way, but replace the non-metal lines.

Also, make sure you disassemble everything down to individual components before cleaning and sanitizing.

 

[Mazey]

I've boiled my poppets, keg posts, and corney lids with pressure relief valve in place with no noticable ill effects. 15-20 minute simmer then sanitize with starsan. I don't know if this is a good practice but two batches have been through the keg since with no noticable problems.

 

[lamarguy]

Boiling is not necessary to kill the residual bacteria and/or wild yeast on your equipment. If you skipped cleaning your equipment altogether, pasteurization (~162F for 10 minutes) is sufficient to kill the organisms capable of growing in beer.

That said, you should thoroughly clean your equipment every time you brew, infection or not. Throwing away equipment that can be cleaned is just silly.

My recommendation is:

1. Lacking a CIP system, scrub every surface you can access with hot (~130F) PBW or oxyclean.
2. For the surfaces you can't easily see or reach with a brush (e.g. valves, spigots, tubing, etc.), drop them in ~160F PBW for ~30 minutes and rinse with hot water. Most plastics (except PET) can handle 160F without deforming.

 

[prosper]

the only equipment I'd replace is the tubing (heck, I do this every year or so regardless) and o-rings. I'd boil the poppets, pressure release and posts. Heck, boil the entire dip tube in your brew kettle next time you make a batch of beer if you want to be paranoid (scrub it out first).

Everything else gets cleaned first then dunked in hot, acidified bleach water: 5 gallons of water, 1oz each of vinegar and bleach for a few hours (only let stainless steel contact the bleach solution for a short time, or it will corrode). Use a detergent with the bleach - something with a surfactant or a wetting agent in it, like liquid dish soap, or jet dri. This will lower the surface tension of the water, which will allow it to flow into smaller crevasses than it might otherwise, and less air bubbles preventing full surface contact.

I'd fill the buckets with the hot bleach solution and let them sit overnight. Acidified bleach solutions are probably the deadliest (to microbes) sanitizers available to home brewers, and if the bleach doesn't kill it, the heat will. It's microbial armageddon.

180F ought to be hot enough to maintain temps long enough to kill stuff without damaging the bucket. Racking canes and autosyphons will probably not survive the heat, but an HDPE bucket should. If you're really stingy, your vinyl lines will probably survive the heat, too.

After this treatment, everything will have to be thoroughly rinsed off to remove any residual surfactant and chlorinated compounds from the bleach.

Oh, and *hot* bleach water gives off some pretty intense fumes; I'd do it outside.

 

[Catt22]

Just curious if anyone has a link to a good site/thread that talks about how to get through a bad infection situation. I've had a pretty significant infection in (I assume) both my plastic bucket-based fermentation system, and unfortunately in both my kegs and draft lines.

All the previous advice appears to be good, but I would approach the problem slightly different. You said you "assume" you have an infection in your fermenter which says to me that you are not sure. What I'm getting at is that yoiu really need to pin down where the infection is originating in order to wage a successful battle against it. IOW, if it's in the beer lines and taps, but not in the fermenter, you know where to focus your effort.

One potential source that is often overlooked is the CO2 system (ie regulator, gas hose and keg QD). Beer can back up into the hose and sometimes even the regulator under certain circumstances. Any contamination in these items will be blown directly into your beer anytime you use the CO2 tank. Pay particular attention to the keg QD's, both gas in and beer out. You can take them apart for cleaning. Do it.

I would still clean and sanitize everything very well. Bleach would be high on my list of weapons. I would mix an extra strong bleach solution just for this attack. You will want to rinse everything well an let air dry if you do that. Boil any equipment that can withstand the heat.

Lastly, brew something and see what happens.

 

[dcbeerboy]

like zombies, you must kill it with fire.

 

[BargainFittings]

A fresh pair of eyes to look over your procedures could help too if everything suggested here fails. Get an experienced brewer to look over your setup and see what is going on.