I don't know why everybody else is so down on PBW, but I love the stuff. It's like freakin' magic in a can, and I highly recommend it.
Sure, you can use other cleansers, and use a brush and a sponge and scrub all the baked-on crap off your boil kettles and fermentors by hand, but that's just way more work than I want to do, especially when there's absolutely no need to. I just mix up some PBW, toss it in, walk away for 15 or 20 minutes, come back, pour it out, and I'm done! (The reason for soaking isn't to get it more clean, it's just that if you soak it, the PBW does all the work for you and the dirt actually just disappears and you don't really need to do anything else)
Yes, making up a full batch of PBW to fill up a kettle/fermentor does seem like a lot of extra water, but something nobody ever actually points out is that you can generally re-use the same batch a number of times before it loses its potency and you actually need to throw it out. I typically mix mine up in a bucket and reuse it for 3 or 4 brews (or toss it if it's been sitting around for more than a couple of months, just on principle).
Regarding process, what I do is the following:
- Prior to brewing, do a quick rinse of all cold-side bits (transfer tubing, fermentor, etc) with sanitizer (if you've stored it right it should still be clean from last time, so no need to re-clean it). The boil kettle and anything that goes in it (chiller, etc) will be sanitized by the boiling water.
- Brew / cool / transfer / pitch / etc
- Fill boil kettle with PBW, walk away and let it sit for 15-20 minutes (occasionally longer.. just let it sit until the gunk is all gone from the sides of the kettle).
- Drain PBW into bucket (using the same transfer tubing as was used for the wort). Toss tubing and any other dirty equipment into the bucket of PBW.
- Fill boil kettle with sanitizer and let it sit for a couple of minutes
- Drain sanitizer into a different bucket using transfer tubing. Transfer equipment from PBW bucket to sanitizer bucket and let sit for a minute or two.
- Put everything away. Keep PBW and sanitizer in buckets for next time (using lids will also help it keep better).
After fermenting/racking is done I do basically the same process with the fermentor / racking cane / bottling bucket / etc. Run PBW through each of them in turn, followed by running sanitizer through each of them in the same order, then put everything away.
The whole process takes maybe half an hour, but most of that time is time I get to just walk away and do something else. No scrubbing, no labor. I actually find the whole process rather soothing in a way, not really like "cleaning" at all.
One thing to note: If you do use PBW (or any other alkaline cleaner) on stainless steel equipment, you should always finish them off with a rinse (or at least wipe-down) with Star-san or some other acid-based sanitizer. The reason is that the alkaline solution actually weakens the stainless patina on the steel and leaves it more susceptible to scratching/rusting than normal. However, coming in contact with the acidity of the sanitizer re-establishes the stainless coating and makes it good as new again, so there's no harm done in the end. The final rinse with sanitizer on all the non-stainless bits isn't technically necessary, but I've already got it on hand and it's easy enough, so why not? (It also helps to rinse off any remaining PBW residue which might dry onto the equipment and have to be washed off later..)
(On a related note, I use plastic carboys, and everybody always tells me "oh, you shouldn't use those, they get all scratched up and harbor bacteria!" How do you scratch up the inside of your carboys? You must be sticking something inside them like a brush or something to scratch them up! Well, just stop doing that! I've been using the same carboys for several years now and they're as good as new because all I do is pour PBW into them, let it sit, and pour out again. In addition to being really easy, it also means there's no way for them to get scratched up in the first place.)
Now, all that having been said, really the answer to the cleaning question is:
Do whatever you like best, as long as it actually gets the stuff clean. Most normal people should have a good sense of whether a pot is clean or not (you've done dishes before, right?). There's no special level of uber-clean required for this stuff, you just need to make sure it's got all the residue and gunk off it. If your method, whatever it is, gets things "I would want to eat off that" clean, that should be good enough.
Sanitizing, on the other hand, is another issue. First, there's no point to sanitizing anything if it's not completely clean first. It just won't work, no matter how much sanitizer you use. Second, to have full effectiveness, sanitizer needs to stay in contact with all surfaces (that is, immersed) for at least 60 seconds (preferably 2 minutes or more, just to be sure). After that, you should ideally also
let it dry completely without rinsing. Star-san and similar sanitizers actually produce a thin antibacterial protective coating when they dry which helps to keep surfaces sanitized even after they're dry and sitting around in the air. If you rinse it first, you're washing off that extra protection.
Anyway, got a bit longer than I really intended (sorry), but that's my $0.02.. Hope it's useful!
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