eHERMS Cleaning Tips?

[laughingboysbrew]

Brewed my first batch on my new 20gal system (Blichmann kettles) Everything went great, except for underestimating my efficiency. (87%)

Any tips on cleaning?

I recirculated my sparge water through my HEX so to flush any sweet wort out. Otherwise, don't think the HLT needs any attention. I scooped most of the spent grains out of the MT and because there is not an element, it's easy to tip and rinse.

However, for the BK, even after scooping out the hop leaves, there was lots of hop gunk on the element and hop resin on the walls of the kettle. I soaked it in Oxy for an hour and then rinsed, but it was all still there. Took quite a bit of elbow grease to clean up the element, and I'm resoaking for the residue on the walls.

Any thoughts on the BK, or the entire cleaning process greatly appreciated.

 

[kcmobrewer]

Subbed. Starting to build my e HERMS and would like some tips too .


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[laughingboysbrew]

just an update... I soaked 15 gallons of StarSan in the BK over night. I drained and the stainless was sparkly clean. The remaining grub was minimal and came right off of the element with a light brush of my hand. A buddy of mine soaks PBW in his MT and BK overnight. I might do the same next batch.

 

[BSD_Glass]

I fill my BK after brewing (and spraying out at the sink) and hook up everything to recirculate a hot (170 F) PBW solution for a couple of hours. I go through the pump, plate chiller, hex coil.

I let that come up to temp and run for a couple hours then pump the water into my stainless MLT which I cover and let sit overnight. It is still quite warm in the morning. Once the water is in the MLT, I disassemble and wipe down ,if needed, with a scrubby and then rinse everything that was circulating PBW. The PBW does most of the work. I drain the MLT and do the same (light scrub and rinse) the next morning.

I also assumed that sparging through the hex coil would clean it out but on a lark a few months ago I decided to recirc through it and a TON of crap came out. So I run cleaner through it after every brew now.

That's just what works for me.

Cheers!

BSD

 

[LandoLincoln]

just an update... I soaked 15 gallons of StarSan in the BK over night. I drained and the stainless was sparkly clean. The remaining grub was minimal and came right off of the element with a light brush of my hand. A buddy of mine soaks PBW in his MT and BK overnight. I might do the same next batch.

That's a bad idea if you have hard water. You'll have a scale residue that will have to be cleaned off with CLR or vinegar.

Star San is not a cleaner. I wouldn't recommend it for getting gunk off of things.

At the ends of my brew days, I use Barkeeper's Friend and a toothbrush to get the BK heating element clean. I just use a towel to dry out the inside of the HLT. I run sparge water through the HERMS coil so I don't bother with cleaning that. I have a stainless MT and I use some Barkeeper's Friend and a scrubby to clean that out. I just use water from a hose to flush out the pumps and the chiller.

 

[kcmobrewer]

Won't it start pitting your stainless steel also?


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[nosnhojm20]

subbed. building and tips are welcome

 

[Yooper]

Won't it start pitting your stainless steel also?


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I'm not metallurgist, but I don't think so. I know that many other brewers store star-san solutions in kegs long-term. I never have, but I think star-san when diluted won't harm stainless.

 

[BSD_Glass]

I store all of my clean and ready to fill kegs with 1/2 gallon of properly diluted starsan solution. Sometimes for months at a time. When I am ready to fill them with beer, I shake up the keg then run the sanitizer out through a picnic tap with the residual pressure of co2, sanitizing the diptube and liquid out post. This also leaves the keg blanketed with co2 pretty well.

I have never had a problem with starsan pitting my stainless corny kegs.

Cheers.

BSD

 

[milldoggy]

My cleaning is fairly simple. I spray and shopvac out my bk. Flush lines with clean water. Scrub everything with a green scratchy pad, rinse and suck out. Fill with 5 or so gallons( cover the element). Mix in pbw and run my wort pump through my chillzilla and my herms back in bk. Maybe 30 minutes. Drain and rinse. I made camlock adapter for my rinse hose, this speeds up cleaning. Mlt, I just scoop out, lightly scrub and rinse.

 

[milldoggy]

Oh, hlt and water pump, just drain and dry. I use the shop vac to suck out water from the chiller and hex. Thinking about trying my compressor to blow through the lines