Homemade PBW Recipe

[dleonard5]

Made a batch up per the original recipie and used it recently; works great!!
I reused some after cleaning a secondary and put it through my coffee maker. It work a ton better than vinegar...

Great job you guys!

Don

 

[dleonard5]

I've noticed that colder water causes foaming. Conversely hotter water reduces it. In my keg washer I use 150 deg. water with minimal foaming.

 

[Justintoxicated]

I just bought the ingredients to make this and was reading the TSP 90 label. And in big bold letters it says to avoid using this on glass! So don't clean my carboys with PBW or home made PBW then? Maybe I should just stick with plain oxyclean?

 

[Horseflesh]

I have used the homemade mix on glass with no problem. I am not sure, but I think that warning is in place because TSP is usually used as a no-rinse surface cleaner. In that application, it will leave film on glass. A PBW-style soak & rinse seems to be a different kettle of fish.

I would test it first though, and definitely be careful about letting this cleaner dry out on any surface.

 

[PR-brewing]

First of all, great thread! I made my way through all of it over a few days while sourcing the ingredients. I live up in northern Alberta in Canada, 95% of my brewing supplies come from ontariobeerkegs.com because it is far more economical then my LHBS. This recipe was definitely the way to go, in town my LHBS was selling a 1 pound container of pbw for 22.50cad. Ahhhhh! A 50 pound pail shipped from Ontario would have cost about 6 dollars a pound after shipping. This recipe cost me about 2.15cad.

It seems to clean quite well compared to the oxiclean I was using before. My water is fairly hard, so I was constantly getting a calcium film on anything I has soaking in oxiclean solution. With this recipe, I am finding that there is white fluffy material that is floating around once the solution is cool. I assume this is calcium that precipitated out of solution, has anyone else experienced this? I don't think it is a big deal, everything easily rinses clean but it was definitely a bit of a surprise to find.

Thanks to this solution, I managed to revive 3 nasty nasty old corny kegs! I'm sold!

 

[Justintoxicated]

I have used the homemade mix on glass with no problem. I am not sure, but I think that warning is in place because TSP is usually used as a no-rinse surface cleaner. In that application, it will leave film on glass. A PBW-style soak & rinse seems to be a different kettle of fish.

I would test it first though, and definitely be careful about letting this cleaner dry out on any surface.

If you look online you will read that TSP90 can etch glass. But it might depend how strongly it is diluted with water.

 

[DrGMG]

I just wanted to thank whoever came up with this recipe. I just used it on a fermenter, left it overnight with 122 degree water and it came out cleaner than when I use PBW.

Thanks again.

 

[BrunDog]

You're welcome!!




Ok, it wasn't me. I had nothing to do with it. But it definitely works a treat and I wish I could say it was my contribution! Trevster gets that honor.

 

[Stealthcruiser]

@ Trevster......
Not been on the thread in a while.........Is there a "finalized" recipe that these folks are seeming happy with?

Thanks!

 

[user 204491]

This one from page 2 is the one I've been using for quite some time now. Mixing up a fresh batch tomorrow actually!

 

[DrGMG]

@ Trevster......
Not been on the thread in a while.........Is there a "finalized" recipe that these folks are seeming happy with?

Thanks!

I bought the oxy and 7th gen from Amazon. The TSP from Lowes. Oxy comes with a large scoop.

I used 6 scoops oxy, 4 scoops 7th gen and 2 scoops TSP.

 

[soccerdad]

Home Select Oxi-All .. 14 ounces for a buck.

For any of you that live in the sublime sunny south and have a Harvey's grocery, check the dollar section. Unscented, 14 oz $1. Home Select may be in other stores as well .. food lion, the pig, winny's .. I'm not sure. It is available online at 'Homeland' but a buck and a quarter plus shipping

 

[brewprint]

Finally getting around to putting this together.

Currently on Amazon the 4lb DAP TSP is $11.66.

The 45oz Subscribe and Save Seventh Generation Dishwashing powder detergent is $5.55. I may be able to get that for 15% off adding it to the rest of my stuff.

I also need to make a trip to the dollar store to get some of the 'free' oxygen cleaner. Not sure how much that is yet.

What's the ratio that you all are using?

I just bought 5lbs of actual PBW for $20. Some buddies went in on a whole bunch of it so it was cheaper.

 

[brewprint]

This one from page 2 is the one I've been using for quite some time now. Mixing up a fresh batch tomorrow actually!

96 ounces of Sun Cleaner
35.5 TSP
39oz of Seventh Generation dish washer powder

Is this correct?

 

[32indian]

96 ounces of Sun Cleaner
35.5 TSP
39oz of Seventh Generation dish washer powder

Is this correct?

I use 96 ounces OXO (Sun Cleaner)
64 ounces of TSP/90 (red devil)
40 ounces Seventh Gen (auto dish soap powder free & clear)

Everything is avail. on Amazon if you use "Prime" it's not bad. The free and clear OXO clean on amazon is only 57.6 ounces, so I reduced my last batch to match that and came up with:

57.6 ounces OXO clean (full container)
38.4 ounces TSP/90 (Red Devil)
24 ounces of Seventh Generation

That makes up 7.5 pounds of powder, and you still have TSP/90 and Seventh Gen remaining for next batch.

-Tom

 

[user 204491]

96 ounces of Sun Cleaner
35.5 TSP
39oz of Seventh Generation dish washer powder

Is this correct?

Like I said earlier in the thread, I follow this recipe exactly and have always had great results. That's...

96 oz of Oxygen cleaner (OXO cleaner from Costco)
64 oz of Red Devil TSP/90 (Ace Hardware)
40 oz of Seventh Generation Powdered Dishwashing Detergent (Amazon/soap.com)

 

[brewprint]

Like I said earlier in the thread, I follow this recipe exactly and have always had great results. That's...

96 oz of Oxygen cleaner (OXO cleaner from Costco)
64 oz of Red Devil TSP/90 (Ace Hardware)
40 oz of Seventh Generation Powdered Dishwashing Detergent (Amazon/soap.com)

To me this table does not say what you just posted. I guess I'm not seeing these numbers you posted in this reply match the table.

 

[brewprint]

I use 96 ounces OXO (Sun Cleaner)
64 ounces of TSP/90 (red devil)
40 ounces Seventh Gen (auto dish soap powder free & clear)

Everything is avail. on Amazon if you use "Prime" it's not bad. The free and clear OXO clean on amazon is only 57.6 ounces, so I reduced my last batch to match that and came up with:

57.6 ounces OXO clean (full container)
38.4 ounces TSP/90 (Red Devil)
24 ounces of Seventh Generation

That makes up 7.5 pounds of powder, and you still have TSP/90 and Seventh Gen remaining for next batch.

-Tom

Having a hard time finding that oxo cleaner on Amazon. I have a large amount of oxiclean versatile. I wonder if that would do the same thing?

 

[brewprint]

Ended up ordering everything from Amazon and Costco. My local costco only has the Oxiclean Versatile but online you can order a 14lb box of the OXO for $24 shipped.

Altogether it will cost me $2.08lb. It's still half the price of buying PBW bulk.

 

[user 204491]

To me this table does not say what you just posted. I guess I'm not seeing these numbers you posted in this reply match the table.

I believe you are summing the numbers listed next to each sub-ingredient (column 4) vs. just using what it tells you to in parentheses next to each ingredient (column 1).

So you use a 4 lb bag of TSP/90, and that gives you 35.5 oz of Anhydrous Metasilicate.

Hopefully that clears it up!

 

[brewprint]

I believe you are summing the numbers listed next to each sub-ingredient (column 4) vs. just using what it tells you to in parentheses next to each ingredient (column 1).

So you use a 4 lb bag of TSP/90, and that gives you 35.5 oz of Anhydrous Metasilicate.

Hopefully that clears it up!

Yep got it now. Looking forward to trying this stuff out and compare it to the actual PBW.

 

[user 204491]

Yep got it now. Looking forward to trying this stuff out and compare it to the actual PBW.

Good deal! I've been using this mixture for quite a while and am quite pleased with it.

 

[lewandowski46]

So decided to make some of this. Didn't get too detailed with ratios, just bought the below and mixed it up as it looked to be pretty close from what I've read in the previous 35 pages. Brewing tomorrow so will give it a try.

2x All Laundry Booster Free & Clear - 3.25 lbs ea = 6.5 lbs - $3.99 ea (Fry's Marketplace)
Savogran TSP - 4.5 lbs - $9.98 (Lowes)
7th Generation - 2.81lbs - $5.49 (Fry's Marketplace)

Total, $23.45 for 13.81lbs of cleaner or $1.69/lb.

Oh and a 2 gallon food safe bucket to store it in from Lowes. :rockin:

 

[BrunDog]

Just FYI you used real TSP. The recipe, and those of us who make it, use TSP substitute, which is Sodium Metasilicate.

 

[lewandowski46]

Yeah based on previous discussion in the thread, TSP should work just as well as the TSP substitute used in actual PBW. I didn't see any of the TSP/90 by Red Devil used at my local Lowes so normal TSP it ended up being. Being in AZ, dumping the waste into the yard is only going to clean the gravel and maybe keep some weeds at bay.

 

[phug]

For whatever reason, if you're somewhere where tsp hasn't been banned, it's nearly impossible to get the metasilicate. Tsp seems to work just fine. And the fact that it's a food additive that often find in cereal means I'm not worried from a food safety perspective if I don't get every last bit rinsed off.

 

[DrGMG]

So decided to make some of this. Didn't get too detailed with ratios, just bought the below and mixed it up as it looked to be pretty close from what I've read in the previous 35 pages. Brewing tomorrow so will give it a try.

2x All Laundry Booster Free & Clear - 3.25 lbs ea = 6.5 lbs - $3.99 ea (Fry's Marketplace)
Savogran TSP - 4.5 lbs - $9.98 (Lowes)
7th Generation - 2.81lbs - $5.49 (Fry's Marketplace)

Total, $23.45 for 13.81lbs of cleaner or $1.69/lb.

Oh and a 2 gallon food safe bucket to store it in from Lowes. :rockin:

You wont regret it.

 

[Wildcat_Brewing]

I have red devil in my fridge, its mainly vinegar though.

 

[brewprint]

This stuff is awesome. I think it's the same as PBW.

I think that this thread should be a sticky.

 

[iskra092]

Hey guys, can I swap the oxygen clean for the oxiclean versatile? Thanks