How clean is "clean"?

[bsimonssays]

I just bottled my first batch last night! It smells delicious and the small sampling that I sipped tasted great. So thanks to everyone for their advice so far.

After bottling I rinsed all of my equipment thoroughly and washed the trub and krausen (?) out of my fermenter with warm, soapy water. Everything is visibly clean but still smells strongly of hops (not that I dislike that!) Is that clean enough or should I be using some other type of cleaning agent to try and remove all traces? What do you typically do to clean your equipment after bottling?

 

[Yooper]

I never use soap, as I think it can leave a residue. I use oxiclean in warm water, and a soft cloth if it needs it. Then, I rinse well.

Clean is just clean. No visible debris or soil. The odor may remain in plastic, but mine doesn't even have a beer odor to it.

 

[thedude00]

+1 on Yooperbrew reply

 

[bsimonssays]

A few more questions then:

1.) Now that I've used the soap, how do I remove the residue?
2.) When you say oxiclean, do you mean this stuff? http://www.oxiclean.com/
3.) So I shouldn't worry about the odor?

 

[david_42]

Rinse a lot or use oxiclean
yes
no.

 

[Malticulous]

I leave my fermenting buckets out in the sun full of bleach water solution. The smell and the color of the beer goes away. People will tell you not to use bleach. It has to be rinsed or dried. I don't worry too much about it unless I'm going to use it right away. Few things work as well as a good bleach soak. I wash and sanitize them again while I'm brewing with different products.

Dish detergent is fine but has to be rinsed off or it could ruin head retention.

 

[jeffmeh]

A few more questions then:

1.) Now that I've used the soap, how do I remove the residue?
2.) When you say oxiclean, do you mean this stuff? http://www.oxiclean.com/
3.) So I shouldn't worry about the odor?

Get Oxiclean Free, which has no perfumes or dyes.

 

[pcollins]

I just use a bunch of hot water and a brush and/or scrubby to clean. I'll make sure it's visibly clean and then repeat the same with diversol. I'm not using plastic, only glass carboys. If they look clean and smell clean they are clean.

As an aside, I also do my clean up in my laundry room where I have my white washer and dryer. Good halogen lighting right above the two units. When I inspect my carboys for cleanliness I just look at them with the well-lit dryer or washer surface in the background and you can see pretty easily if there is anything left over on the surface. Nice little bonus for my clean up routine. Alternatives: large piece of white paper, white t-shirt or fabric.

My unsolicited two cents. LOL

 

[homebrewer_99]

I wouldn't recommend a brush or a scrubby on your plastic.

An overnight soak in Oxyclean and a soft sponge wipe down followed by a rinse is all you need.

Some of my buckets are 16 years old.

Another tip is DO NOT STACK them inside each other. The outside of one will scratch the inside of the other. Once they are completely dry you can loosely place the lid on top (do not snap in place) and then stack them that way.

 

[tamoore]

My buckets always have a 'hint' of an odor from a previous batch, but that's all I'd call it. A hint. I don't scrub them with anything but the back side of my hand and hot water to get any stuck krausen off. I then rinse with cold water about 3 times, before filling to the top with hot water and a scoop full of Oxy-clean free. I'll leave the water/oxy-clean in there at least a week, and empty it, rinsing three times before spraying down with Star-San for the next use.

 

[pcollins]

I wouldn't recommend a brush or a scrubby on your plastic.

True. I was hoping my qualification that I'm only dealing with glass would be enough. Silly me. LOL

To repeat: don't use a scrubby on plastic.