cleaning silicone lines

[fletchsj]

Thought it would be good to get a thread going about cleaning techniques for their brewing process. And, I was wondering how others do it.

I'm pretty anal and I pull apart every fitting and valve on my system after running oxyclean through my system, and scrub each fitting with a tooth brush and the oxyclean solution. Then drop in a bucket filled with iodophor solution while I finish cleaning.

Then I dump them all in a collander and rinse. Spread them out on a towel to air dry.

I know many people just do the oxyclean recirc and rinse water recirc. And don't tear apart the whole system. It certainly would take less time, but those that do that method, have you ever gotten infections?

Do you ever get build up in your herms/rims tubes? Or plate/counter flow chillers? I'd love to have a pipe cleaner type tool to scrub/feed through those tough to reach places.
I know some of this has been covered in other posts, but I haven't yet found a thread that is all inclusive. If their is please refer, if not let's discuss this important topic.

 

[Zamial]

Autoclave. <- Any small parts or flexable peices get sent through the pressure cooker with a 15# weight. This will take the parts past where any life can live and sterilize them. I have gone out of my way to have all stainless steel, borosilicate glass and silicon where ever possible in my brewery.

I certainly do not disasemble my entire brewery after every use and autoclave each part. Generally, I just use an oxifree soak/scrub, rince well and sanitize before putting away.

 

[OldManBrew]

Rinse well.
Run a 10-15 min cycle of onestep through at 150F. Rinse and drain.
Every 4 or 5th batch use pbw or acid #5 depending on build up.
If rust or heavy build up use acid #5 else pbw.
Same temp and process.

Do use a plate chiller and it gets same cycle as others, main thing on plate chiller is to make sure you clean at twice or more the speed that you ran the chilling through.
When doing the onestep/pbw cycle flow the the plate chiller backwords.

SaniClean everything before use on brew day. I mean everything including hands before I touch anything.

Conicals get same treatment anytime they are emptied.

At least that is how I have done it, knock on wood no infection yet.

 

[fletchsj]

Do either of your systems have tread tape in them? I have welded bulkheads in my system but still use tread tape. (a pet peave of mine) I think it is one of the reasons I disassemble every time. Same at the connections for camlocks on hoses etc.

 

[Zamial]

Do either of your systems have tread tape in them? I have welded bulkheads in my system but still use tread tape. (a pet peave of mine) I think it is one of the reasons I disassemble every time. Same at the connections for camlocks on hoses etc.

Are you talking about teflon tape? If so there is no reason to freak out over it. You can pull off what you can see ( I do not know why you would) or just leave it alone. There is probabbly teflon tape in much of the plumbing in your house.

My rule is anything up to the point when I chill the wort is fair game. It is going to be sanitized during the boil. This includes the teflon tape...and my brewery is all weldless so I have lots of teflon tape in it.

 

[fletchsj]

So as long as it is pre boil side of the process seems like cleaning tech is more lax since boil should sterilize. This is interesting as it certainly would take a couple hours off my brew day due to cleaning time.

Since you don't completely disassemble, how do you store your equipment? I have tool boxes with small box organizers for each fitting. And, compartments for the larger stuff like tubing etc

 

[Zamial]

Storage for me is not really all that complex. I drape my hoses so that no water can/will stay in the line. (Same is true for the IM) The smaller parts I have a small box I keep them in. The keggles, once cleaned out I flip over and leave on the stand.

Right before I officially start my brew day, I bring a small volume of water to boil and run boiling water through my fittings, pump and keggles/MLTs, just incase something got inside the system.

I would not say that I am lax on cleaning but I would say that I am FAR away from being OCD about it. People have been making beer since before there was electricity and before moderen cleaning techniques/chemicals were developed. While it is always better to be extra clean, I refuse to spend as much time as cleaning as I do brewing.

I also do bi-annual deep cleanings by disassembly and use a pressure washer but that is only for my own peice of mind.

Like a said before most anything preboil is not going to be a huge concern. It is post boil were you run into issues with contaminations. I will admit that I may even be a little overly paranoid post boil but I have never had an infection outside of 1 batch and that was with an experimental fermenter that has since been scraped.