Cleaning/Maintenance of a 10+ gal System

[KevinBrewsBeer]

I've been looking to upgrade from a 5 gal all grain system to a 10+ gal system. I work on a three tiered gravity setup at the moment and it's very simple to maintain. The more I look at larger systems, the more I think "how the hell do you clean this thing?". So how does everyone end up cleaning their pots and kettles when they are too large for the sink? Do you utilize the HLT water and run pumps to the other kettles and clean that way? It seems like getting every spec of grain or hop out of a kettle could be difficult. Any other suggestion for sizing up would be appreciated too!

Thanks!

 

[lump42]

I take my 15 g kettle and cooler MT outside and spray them out with a hose. I take a little scrubby and get the hot break out of the kettle. Disassemble the kettle valve, and clean inside with some old baby bottle brushes.

 

[KevinBrewsBeer]

Does seem pretty easy when its warmer outside. I live in Michigan and its too cold to use the hose 6 months out of the year. I brew in my detached garage and was thinking about bringing buckets of water from the house to warm up in the HLT to use. Perhaps I should just invest in a larger laundry tub and bring the kettles inside like I do now.

 

[lump42]

Does seem pretty easy when its warmer outside. I live in Michigan and its too cold to use the hose 6 months out of the year. I brew in my detached garage and was thinking about bringing buckets of water from the house to warm up in the HLT to use. Perhaps I should just invest in a larger laundry tub and bring the kettles inside like I do now.

What water source are you using to chill? Either use the same source or capture the chiller waster water and wash with that. Or carry everything inside and clean in a bathtub.

I brew in a unheated garage. I fill the kettles, chill, and clean from an outside freeze proof spigot. We don't get cold enough in central Kentucky to freeze a hose while in use very often (maybe two brew days in 7 years). If it's below freezing while I brew, I turn off the water and drain the hose after I fill and reattach it for chilling/cleaning.

 

[sicktght311]

Hot pbw/oxiclean soaks, and shop vac. I never move my 3 vessel system under regular cleaning. Maybe once every 4-6 months I’ll completely take apart the whole system, and I’ll clean the floors and stand and everything at that time. Otherwise normal cleaning is just scooping out grain, shop vac whatever is left, soak mlt in hot cleaning solution and scrub, pump that over to the boil kettle and do the same. Then drain and rinse both with clean water

 

[day_trippr]

[...]So how does everyone end up cleaning their pots and kettles when they are too large for the sink?[...]

Install a bigger sink
I run three 20 gallon kettles in a single tier rig. I drain the HLT and wipe it dry in place, but the MLT and FB get cleaned in the slop sink as soon as the sparge is complete, as does the BK and IC at the end of the session...

Cheers!

 

[Beholder]

With a 2V 20 gal k-RIMS, the heaviest lift is dropping the spent grain from the mash tun before using sprayer on hose to rinse the remaining grain out. Otherwise PBW on re-circ in the BK for 20 min before pushing to the MT. Rinse, wipe down and let air dry along with a quick breakdown of the riptides to let air dry.

 

[tjmac5071]

I had a plumber here doing some misc work so while he was here I had him pipe hot water into the outdoor spigot to help with refinishing the skating rink I put in this winter. An amazing side benefit has been cleaning my Homebrew equipment with hot water in the yard. Makes the whole process so much easier. I have quick connect fittings, pull the hose over a fence to drain after use. Works great. I also have one of those spigots that closes like 12 inches in to significantly reduce freezing risk.

 

[KevinBrewsBeer]

What water source are you using to chill? Either use the same source or capture the chiller waster water and wash with that. Or carry everything inside and clean in a bathtub.

I brew in a unheated garage. I fill the kettles, chill, and clean from an outside freeze proof spigot. We don't get cold enough in central Kentucky to freeze a hose while in use very often (maybe two brew days in 7 years). If it's below freezing while I brew, I turn off the water and drain the hose after I fill and reattach it for chilling/cleaning.

In the winter I carry my 8 gal pot inside, down the basement stairs, and to the laundry tube and chill that way. I havent had an accident yet but I'm waiting for the day where I trip down the stairs and ruin the carpeting and my beer. But its more convenient that way bc I also clean inside anyways. But If i switch to 10 or 15 gal I wont be able to carry that wort around. There is a spigot in our garage that I havent gotten to work since we have moved in. The weather in the winter has been up and down, so i'm sure I could use a hose on a day that is above 25 F and the hose shouldnt freeze if I use it for just a few hours.

 

[KevinBrewsBeer]

Hot pbw/oxiclean soaks, and shop vac. I never move my 3 vessel system under regular cleaning. Maybe once every 4-6 months I’ll completely take apart the whole system, and I’ll clean the floors and stand and everything at that time. Otherwise normal cleaning is just scooping out grain, shop vac whatever is left, soak mlt in hot cleaning solution and scrub, pump that over to the boil kettle and do the same. Then drain and rinse both with clean water

I never thought about a shop vac! I'm hoping I could do that same thing. Pump the PBW and rinse water and drain and never lift a kettle. Another draw back to my situation is that I don't have a good place to drain the water. No floor drain, a very small back yard and that PBW kills the grass, and the street is 50+ Ft away. But I think I could hook another hose to the pump and run it out to the street. Hot water wouldn't freeze in the hose and I'd repay my neighbors for freezing the street with free beer lol.

 

[twd000]

laundry sink with hot+cold frost-free taps in the garage is crucial. Plumb it to your house drain system. I brew year-round in my unheated garage in New Hampshire. So awesome to have hot water out there for all sorts of dirty jobs, not just brewing

 

[lump42]

In the winter I carry my 8 gal pot inside, down the basement stairs, and to the laundry tube and chill that way. I havent had an accident yet but I'm waiting for the day where I trip down the stairs and ruin the carpeting and my beer. But its more convenient that way bc I also clean inside anyways. But If i switch to 10 or 15 gal I wont be able to carry that wort around. There is a spigot in our garage that I haven't gotten to work since we have moved in. The weather in the winter has been up and down, so i'm sure I could use a hose on a day that is above 25 F and the hose shouldn't freeze if I use it for just a few hours.

At a previous house, I brewed in a detached garage without water. I would fill a cooler with ice and a gallon or two of water and recirculate that with a pond pump. You could capture the the waste cooling water into the HLT or MT and use it to recirculate PBW wash. For a drain you could install a dry well, dig a pit 2-3 ft wide and 2-4ft down, line it with landscape fabric, and back fill with coarse gravel. If you didn't want to look at it you could install a drain line onto the gravel and cap it with 6-inches of soil and sod.

If you don't want to haul water out there, look into installing a freeze proof yard hydrant in or near the garage.

 

[Baglorious]

In the winter I carry my 8 gal pot inside, down the basement stairs, and to the laundry tube and chill that way. I havent had an accident yet but I'm waiting for the day where I trip down the stairs and ruin the carpeting and my beer. But its more convenient that way bc I also clean inside anyways. But If i switch to 10 or 15 gal I wont be able to carry that wort around. There is a spigot in our garage that I havent gotten to work since we have moved in. The weather in the winter has been up and down, so i'm sure I could use a hose on a day that is above 25 F and the hose shouldnt freeze if I use it for just a few hours.

I assume you meant laundry tub... not tube. ;-)

My first thought: STOP CARRYING NEAR BOILING WORT AROUND! You're right... sooner or later, a disaster will happen. Best case scenario, carpet is trashed. Worst case scenario, 2nd or 3rd degree burns. :-(

Figure out how to get that spigot working in your garage, and use an immersion chiller to chill in the garage. (Just run the discharge hose down the driveway?)

Then, if you're hauling your kettle around, you're only risking a mess, but no burns.


For purposes of cleaning:

I brew on brewing on a nice 20 gallon kettle... that doesn't fit in my laundry tub, due primarily to the valves sticking out of it.

However... one of the best parts of my system is one of the easiest and cheapest, and that was simply adapting my tub to clean things that don't fit inside it. My laundry tub faucet had a garden hose thread, which is a pretty common feature. I bought a garden hose thread to camlock adapter, and use a camlock with a 3 ft silicon hose (1/2" diameter) on the end of my faucet. I clean the kettle on a table next to the laundry tub, using the silicon hose to reach and fill/spray into the kettle. I just use a few gallons so the weight doesn't get silly, put some hot water in, cleaner (like PBW) and use a sponge... and when I've given it a good clean, tip it and dump it into the laundry tub. I can then rest the kettle on the side of the tub, semi-inverted, and spray to rinse so that it runs back into the tub. You can pinch the silicon hose to get a nice hard spray for rinsing, or for initially knocking the trub out. Great for cleaning fermenters too.

SO, if you have a laundry tub already... put some kind of a fitting on the faucet to enable you to attach a couple of feet of some kind of hose, and you'll be in business. Even a hot water garden hose would work just fine.... just buy a 6 foot length and cut it to the length you want. Cheap and easy.

 

[eric19312]

I put a TC port on kettle lid and clean kettle with hot PBW and the CIP ball I got for my fermentor. 20 gallon kettle.