how do you clean your electric rig?

[Zeppman]

Hey everyone,

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but I'm trying to learn how to CIP my new electric rig. I brewed on it for the first time last and felt like I struggled with the cleaning part of the evening.

I based my rig off of theelectricbrewery.com design. Single tier, 3 20-gal kettles, 2 march 809s, and a morebeer CF chiller. I also use a blichmann false bottom and hopstopper.

For the most part, the brew went great. It was a lot of fun. I wasn't sure if I sanitized the chiller in the best way, but that was the only "am I doing this right" moment of the brew. When I got to the cleaning, I scooped as much of the grain out of the MLT as possible with a plastic colander. To get all of it out though, I had to take the MLT off the table. The boil kettle was even more difficult. I started by sucking the 4 oz of spent hops out with my shop vac. It quickly filled and kind of clogged (its only a 2.5gal capacity...I guess I'll be getting a new one). I had to empty it several times. After removing the hopstopper and rinsing that off, I then tried to rinse the kettle, drain and repeat.. and still I was leaving hop material and crud in the kettle. I felt like I was wasting a lot of water... or is this normal?

Please share your methods of cleaning. I was hoping that it would be quicker, and easy enough to where I wouldn't have to remove the kettles from the table. I realize it was my first run on the new rig but I didn't think it would be this difficult.

Also, a white film has built up on my element in the BK. Is this normal?

Thanks. (and if this is the wrong forum, sorry)

 

[dtfeld]

I use PBW at the recommended concentration to clean. I buy it in a 4# can. 8# is available as well.

Once the mash is complete I scoop out all of the spent grains. I make the PBW rinse (about 5 gallons) and heat it to about 150 in the HLT, and run it throught the HLT and MT and associated pump, heat exchanger and tubing for about 1/2 hour. I empty into a 6.5 gal carboy. I refill the HLT with fresh water and recirc about 10 minutes and discard the water.

Once the Boil is complete, I use the (now slightly used) PBW solution to clean the BK and associated pump, wort chiller and tubing, and then the PBW is discarded and the BK side flushed with fresh water.

This leaves everythiong looking clean and new including the heating elements. PBW removes any and all sediment that usually is present after the boil.

All that remains is to wipe things dry.

 

[Zeppman]

dtfeld, thanks for the response. You don't do anything extra to remove the crud and hop debris from your bk? (No scooping, vacuuming, etc?) Simply pouring in pbw rinse removes all of that?

 

[shutupjojo]

You really have to get most of the crap out then clean with pbw or oxy then rinse and dry. Every system is a little different and you must find the most efficient way to clean yours. It is always a pain in the ass to clean any system but a good vacuum with plenty of capacity and a good routine will make it less sh!itty and time consuming. Spray it down , suck it out , add pbw , scrub , recirculate , suck it out , rinse , suck it out , dry .

 

[hatfieldenator]

After a batch is done, I take both my Mash tun and boil kettle to a sink and hose them out to get most of the trub and spent grain material out first. Then, I fill my boil kettle up with water and PBW and run some of it through the pump and hoses into the chiller. I let it sit for at least a few hours, often overnight. Then, I pump out the PBW/Water and rinse with clean water a couple of times. That's it. If the chiller or hop stopper need additional cleaning I'll detach those and clean them in the sink seperately, but usually a soak in PBW as described is enough. As for sanitizing the chiller, I usually just spray starsan down into the cold side of the chiller right before I chill.

 

[ChuckO]

I also take the mash tun and boil kettle off to clean out the major debris. I hose out the mash tun during the boil, so that time doesn't add to my day.

Since I have a BCS-460 controlled system I have a program set up for cleaning. I run it first with water to flush the pumps and CFC, then with oxyclean, then twice with water for a final rinse. First flush runs 10 minutes, oxyclean cycle runs 30 minutes and water flushes run 10 minutes each at the end.

 

[mavrick1903]

I do much the same. I pull the MLT and dump grain. Rince upside down with a hose (that step might be adjusted for indoor winter brewing). Run a "wash cycle" of pbw on heat and recirc through all parts. Then rinse. My bk is a bottom drain sanke so that's a piece of cake.

 

[Dgonza9]

If you want to clean in place, here are a few ideas:

Bottom drain keggles. You can hose these out effectively without relying on a pump and a dip tube. If you flip a keg over and use a tri-clamp for the drain, it's pretty effective. If you keep the dump pipe 2" I've heard it's like flushing a toilet.

The second thing you can try is using a hop spider to easily remove hop debris prior to cleaning. I know how much people like free floating hops. Although I've had great results with hop spider and bags, I too weirdly yearn for free floating hops. But for CIP, bagging hops is a miracle.

Here's mine. Still under construction, but this is the idea I'm going with. Drains well and great for rinsing out with hose.

 

[EarthBound]

I plan on having a utility sink right next to the brewstand. I also plan on installing a receptacle on the junction box that's installed on the BK. I would then be able to pick up the BK (as I do the MLT) and walk a few steps over to the utility sink, where I would have one of those overhead pressure sprayers.

Everything that needs to be cleaned (CFC, pump heads, etc) is also easily movable to the nearby sink, so it shouldn't take much effort. Using this technique, I don't actually pump cleaning solution (PBW, oxyclean, whatever) through the system, so that's a good thing, I think.

I do wish I could CIP like Dgonza9, but I think this technique won't be much hassle.

 

[Zeppman]

Thank you all for your responses.

It seems that unless I have a bottom drain in my kettle, the consensus is to take the kettles (or keggle) off the table and to the sink, and then pump cleaning solution and a rinse through the system. I'll be brewing my second batch on my new system soon here, and I'll keep all your advice in mind. Thanks.

Is it common to have white film on the BK element after a brew?

 

[Dgonza9]

Thank you all for your responses.

It seems that unless I have a bottom drain in my kettle, the consensus is to take the kettles (or keggle) off the table and to the sink, and then pump cleaning solution and a rinse through the system. I'll be brewing my second batch on my new system soon here, and I'll keep all your advice in mind. Thanks.

Is it common to have white film on the BK element after a brew?

I often have something like that. Scrubs right off. My understanding is that it's protein build up.

Can't say enough about the bottom drain keggles, though. Cleaning and pump priming are so much better.

 

[bullywee]

3 X 30g Boilermakers/2 pumps/Plate chiller

As soon as the second running's are in the BK, I take the Mash Tun outside and dump it, take out the false bottom and give it all a thorough spray with the hose
After this all cleaning is pretty much CIP I will then Run H2O/OXY through Pump2 and the RIMS tube and follow with H2O. Once the boil/transfer is done I first dump whats left in the BK into a bucket and then transfer (via pump 1) h20(saved in the HLT from chilling) to the BK mix with OXY and let it sit. Then I flush all hoses and pumps with H2O and flush the plate chiller in both directions. I then drain the OXY/H2O from the BK through a drain manifold and spray it out with H2O. It took a few brews to get this down, the key is clean as you go! I get the BK element with a scrubbing pad and it comes out good.

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

Thanks for posting the question, I was curious how other people do it as well. My mashtun (10gal igloo) is pretty easy, but getting the keggles spotless with all that beautiful stainless inside them can be a bit of a chore. I'm going to have to try the 1/2 hr recirculation with oxy to see if that will save me some bent-over scrubbing.

 

[kevink]

For you people who clean with PBW, do you rinse with the same temperature water that you clean with? That's what PBW recommends, but I don't understand why you would need the rinse water to be warm/hot also.

 

[hatfieldenator]

Not really necessary. Just make sure you rinse a good 3 times.

 

[jusware]

While I'm boiling I scoop out my MLT with a big scooper since I can't dump mine. I found using a big sponge, like the one for washing a car works great for getting grain and liquid out of the bottom. I also use a hop spider to limit debri in the BK. After I get my MLT emptied, and I'm still boiling, I mix saniclean with water in the MLT and circulate it through my RIMs. After my beer is out of the BK, chilled, and in the carboy, I run the saniclean through my entire system. That's it, nothing special. I've never ran PBW through it, but am planning on doing it at some point. I do the same process before I brew too. Only takes 10 mins at the beginning of brewday.