How do you clean your no chill cubes?

[Beer666]

As the title says i am interested in how you good people clean your cubes. Mine have started to get a flaky build up inside. I normally rinse them with some hot water and a scoop of oxyclean but its obviously not enough.

 

[Beer666]

Surely there are some no chill brewers on here?

 

[Toxxyc]

Golden rule - never let them dry with stuff in them. I rinse mine as soon as I empty it, and it helps. I've never had issues with stuff getting stuck inside.

 

[Beer666]

Golden rule - never let them dry with stuff in them. I rinse mine as soon as I empty it, and it helps. I've never had issues with stuff getting stuck inside.

Thanks for the reply. If i am busy sometimes i leave mine a few days before using and i think that is what helps stain it. They were fine to start with but after a while stuff starts to build up.

 

[Toxxyc]

Yeah that's no good. Letting it stand is what causes the issues. I'd get some Sodium Percarbonate and add that into the cube with some hot water. Do not seal the lid, it will pop. Give it half an hour or so to clean the inside and rinse. See if that makes a difference. If not, thick bleach and water, and let it sit with the bleach solution on the stain/crap until it dissolves away. I'm not sure how it'll affect the cube's future performance.

 

[IslandLizard]

When you put your warm cleaning solution (Oxiclean, Percarbonate, Homemade PBW, etc.) into the cube, add a clean rag or washcloth to it. Then swirl, shake etc. The cloth creates enough friction to remove any stubborn sticky bits. That's the preferred cleaning method for PET fermenters. You want to avoid scratches.

Same for bleach.

You definitely don't want anything to dry up in there. Rinse out after use, add some detergent, warm water, shake/swirl, you know the rest.

 

[Toxxyc]

That's a good tip, thanks mate. I'll remember it for the future as well. I've heard of people using pebbles and sand and stuff but it just sounds like a mess to me.

 

[IslandLizard]

I've heard of people using pebbles and sand and stuff but it just sounds like a mess to me.

Ouch! Definitely not to be used on plastics. Deep, narrow scratches can harbor bacteria and hold onto dirt, creating an infection heaven.

 

[Pkrd]

Bit of hot water, shake the heck out of it to dislodge as much of the krausen ring as possible. Repeat. Then soak in hot water and oxy, rotating to get the handle soaking too.

 

[rancocas]

I half fill mine with oxyclean and hot water and leave overnight upside down. Yes the sides get sucked in as it cools, but next time I dump hot wort in it, they pop right back out.
I like the rag trick. Gonna try that.

 

[LuxFromFrance]

Hi, old post but I am interested if you have other tips to clean cubes.

We fill them with mout at 85°C and it is a sanitizer but I would have tips to clean krausen lines.

Impossible to get out all liquid in theses cubes so bleech will be hard to rinse correctly...

 

[IslandLizard]

Welcome to our forums!

We fill them with mout at 85°C and it is a sanitizer

What is mout sanitizer?^
Do you have a link to that product?

Please realize, cleaners and sanitizers are 2 basically very different products, for best results used separately, with a thorough rinse out in between.

To remove biofilm and caked on krausen, etc. and are safe to use with plastics. you'd need an alkaline (high pH) cleaner such as washing soda (Sodium Carbonate) which is the old fashioned laundry detergent your mother or grandmother used. Modern products in a similar realm are Oxiclean (released oxygen) or homemade PBW, which is 70% pure Oxiclean and also includes Sodium Metasilicate (a TSP substitute), a very good detergent. Any of those can be used cold to prevent damaging (shrinking) plastics, just takes a little longer to soak.

Real sanitizers (Starsan, Iodophor, etc.) don't have cleaning capabilities in the way we brewers would need, but they're very good at killing all the microflora, once the equipment is already clean.

 

[Broken Crow]

When you put your warm cleaning solution (Oxiclean, Percarbonate, Homemade PBW, etc.) into the cube, add a clean rag or washcloth to it. Then swirl, shake etc. The cloth creates enough friction to remove any stubborn sticky bits. That's the preferred cleaning method for PET fermenters. You want to avoid scratches.

That works great, but when I had a stubborn gallon jug, I tossed several dimes and nickels onto the cloth, folded it over and sewed them in.. worked so well I started using them on my glass carboys too. (...just a bit annoying to fish it back out )

 

[IslandLizard]

(...just a bit annoying to fish it back out )

Use a cut and straightened metal coat hanger (from the dry cleaners) with a hook bent on the end.
Also useful for cleaning sink drains... Some of us may be able to even afford one for each job.

 

[SanPancho]

That's a good tip, thanks mate. I'll remember it for the future as well. I've heard of people using pebbles and sand and stuff but it just sounds like a mess to me.

like islandliz says, nothing that could scratch. much safer and pretty easy to use the rag method. you can also use a soft sponge. but the key part he left out is that you dont want it full of water. tends to make the rag/sponge float around. better if you just have maybe a pint or two in there, so the rag/sponge will get moved around by the water, but not have enough to float. if it floats, its not wiping your walls down. best way ever to get carboys clean of stuck on trub/gunk. should work just as well in a cube.

 

[Broken Crow]

Use a cut and straightened metal coat hanger (from the dry cleaners) with a hook bent on the end.
Also useful for cleaning sink drains... Some of us may be able to even afford one for each job.

My girlfriend went all 'Mommie Dearest' on me years ago, so now I have to keep the last precious few wire coat hangers I have well hidden... I do keep a few gauges of mechanics wire on hand though.

 

[Beer666]

One of mine is still stained. Have left to saok with oxyclean and bath hot water for a week but its still there. Pretty much given up as it does not seem to affect my beer. To drain them i put them upside down at an angle in a bucket. You do not wanna leave water in there as it can start to smell.

 

[IslandLizard]

One of mine is still stained. Have left to saok with oxyclean and bath hot water for a week but its still there. Pretty much given up as it does not seem to affect my beer. To drain them i put them upside down at an angle in a bucket. You do not wanna leave water in there as it can start to smell.

The stain could be in the plastic, discoloration. You won't be able to get that out, no.
You could try with some bleach, it may lighten it.

I agree not leaving them with water, it gets scummy. Once cleaned, rinsed and sanitized, let them air dry inside.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

With bleach, the sun seems to help.

 

[LuxFromFrance]

What is mout sanitizer?^
Do you have a link to that product?

Thanks,

It is nothing but my poor english.

I said the "mout" mash in french.

At 85°C it seems sanitize the cube.

Cubes are very interesting but the little hole is the big problem to clean and empty them.

I use soda crystals or sodium percarbonate but sometimes it needs brush.

I need to find stainless steel fermenters...

 

[Beer666]

This is one of mine that must of had stout in it. Sure it would come off if you could scrub it.