Cleaning new all grain equipment

[I-Hop]

Hello all.
Finally, after years of building my brew rig (with the birth of my 3 children in the meantime to detour the process) I have finally finished. Thanks to a friend at work who did some awesome sanitary welds for me, and the guys at Brew Hardware and NorCal Brewing Solutions for their awesome parts selection. Now that my system is finally built, I need to start thinking about cleaning the whole thing for the first time (before its 1st use). I imagine there are oils and God knows what on everything. What should I use to clean it all? Also, can I clean it as a system, or do I need to break it all down and clean the parts separately? I hadn't thought about cleaning each part individually before I assembled it. I was too busy daydreaming about the day I can finally brew all grain as opposed to extract brewing. LOL Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[augiedoggy]

I would at least run a hot pbw solution through it for a bit..

 

[BargainFittings]

As suggested, I too would pump hot pbw solution through all the lines and vessels. Rinse well and brew.

This will let you trouble shoot any issues before you brew - like leaks, hose changes, etc.

For ball valves, open them a 1/2 way open so you can clean inside the body of the valve. Same when you rinse them.

Looks great!

 

[Cyclman]

A very hot PBW rinse. You can "passivate" your SS with one oz Star San per gallon water. Then air dry. I always run a hot rinse cycle before brewing.

 

[dmcman73]

If you think there are some heavy oils on the SS (such as cutting oil), use a TSP solution to clean it all. Afterwords follow up with a Hot PBW rinse and then passivate the insides of those kettles with Starsan as Cyclman suggested.

 

[I-Hop]

Thanks everyone.
TSP solution, Hot PBW, then a good rinse followed by a Starsan solution it is.
Thanks again for your help. I cant wait to finally fire this thing up!

 

[dmcman73]

Good luck on your brew. Afterwords, just clean with PBW no need to use anything else.