Hints/Tips for speeding/easing 11gal BIAB cleanup...

[jamorgan3777]

Hello all,

I have been brewing all grain BIAB for a little over a year now. I have ~25 batches under my belt and they have all been drinkable and most of them have been quite good (IMO). I also recently added an 11 gallon BIAB capacity. I have most of the kinks worked out, except for cleanup at the end of the brewday. I thought to myself last night, when I was hauling my 20 gallon brewpot into the house to dump it and spilled ~4 gallons of trub and wash water all over the floor, that there must be a better way to do this. I have a chugger pump that I have incorporated into the system, what I am missing is some ideas/tips on how to cleanup in more of a CIP sort of mode. Not actual CIP (with spray nozzles and such), more of 'no moving of equipment' mode. I was wondering what some of your processes are and if there are any other 11 gallon (20 gal pot) BIABers out there, what is your cleanup routine once you rack to the fermentor.

Thanks!

 

[JPicasso]

Okay, I'll bite.

Why were you carrying 4 gallons of trub and wash water INTO the house?
If you are outside, that's the best place to spill it all over the place, not inside.

Seriously,
I dump all the trub and wash water before coming back into the house.
And while I"m only setup for 5 gallon brews, I rack (well, dump) almost everything to the fermenter.

 

[jamorgan3777]

I was bringing it inside to dump it down the drain.

I dont have a dip tube on my "out" valve so that leaves a couple of gallons in the kettle.

I guess what I am asking more is if you were not able to pick up your brew kettle, how would you clean it?

 

[Transamguy77]

Can I assume you don't have a hose outside to use? I have a keggle with a dip tube (1/2" rigid and a bend with a female end, cost less than $10) and I do have a hose but if no hose I guess I'd bring out a few gallon jugs and use them to rinse it out.

 

[flips]

Cleaning in the middle of a Wisconsin winter is a real pain for me, but in the summer it’s much easier. Granted, it hasn't been much of a summer, but it has been above freezing for the last couple of months.. I only have a 5 gallon setup, so I will dump a gallon a trub into a 5 gallon bucket and then take it either to a toilet, or dump it on the compost.

If you don’t want to carry anything you could get a utility pump, like this one and then attach it to a garden house then run that to the edge of your property or somewhere you don’t mind flooding with trub and water, and then spray down the kettles and pump it out at the same time.

flips