How well do YOU clean?

[Jim Karr]

After you have started brewing your own beer at home, and focusing on sanitation....do you find yourself really trying to get other things really clean?

When I do dishes, or wash the sink, I catch myself paying attention to really little details and making sure everything is spotless!

Any thoughts?

 

[Madtown Brew]

Cleaning is probably the most improtant and most overlooked factor in homebrewing - second only to temp control.

 

[the_bird]

My wife was complaining the other night that the kitchen was "filthy" (it wasn't, she was just stressed because her uber-neat-freak mom was coming to visit). I told her the problem was that I hadn't brewed in a while, so I hadn't done a really, really thorough cleaning of the kitchen in a couple months.

She agreed!

 

[Ryanh1801]

I have gotten really lax on cleaning and sanitation in comparison to when I started. Its takes a lot to infect a batch. IMO.

 

[david_42]

Not me! I have two large greyhounds with outside access & clean just isn't part of the plan. I brew in the old garage and since the dogs don't go there, it is much easier to keep clean.

 

[Reverend JC]

I have gotten really lax on cleaning and sanitation in comparison to when I started. Its takes a lot to infect a batch. IMO.

You should have never said that. That is the same thing as saying " you know, i have not been pulled over for speeding in years"



BANG...................you get pulled over the next day.

 

[PseudoChef]

I have OCD. It sucks.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I'm usually very sanitary (during the times that count). It's when I realized I forgot something or start doing something that I hadn't planned on that I get careless. I'm usually a pretty neat-freak kinda guy anyway, but I wouldn't say the obsession with things being sanitary has carried over from brewing.

 

[zoebisch01]

My take on it is you need to know what should be clean and when. Anything preboil I could care less. (not saying I don't rinse stuff out, etc). As soon as that wort is cooled, and prior to ferment is the critical window. That is really the time to take care as to what touches the wort. We try to keep a clean home in general (easier said then done though), but when it comes to brewing I think if you think about it logically you can eliminate a lot of the worries.

 

[Evan!]

I'm not OCD when I don't need to be. Anything that comes into contact with post-boil wort or beer, I'm OCD about. I try to keep my brewery as clean as possible, but it's an old house and it's a basement/mudroom/laundry room, so sometimes it gets messy. No big deal. The most important part is keeping my beer sanitary...sometimes, when I have long brew days and my sink is occupado with an icebath for my fermenting wort so I can't clean my stuff, I just let it soak outside until a day or two later when I have time to get to it. My last brewday, the stuff sat on my patio soaking for like 4 or 5 days before I got to it. But when I'm all cleaned up, it's a great feeling.

 

[Ryanh1801]

You should have never said that. That is the same thing as saying " you know, i have not been pulled over for speeding in years"



BANG...................you get pulled over the next day.

I ain't scared. I was pretty paranoid when I started. I have been considering doing a batch with no sanitizer just to see if I can get away with it. I mean hell they did not have sanitizer back in the day, and still made beer.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I follow the same cleaning steps that I started with. Everything gets sanitized before I use it. Utensils sit in a bucket of sanitized water while I'm brewing - I get them out when I need them and put them back in the bucket when I'm done with them.

I might go a bit overboard with sanitizing equipment but I don't even think about it anymore, I just do it.

The kitchen on the other hand, SWMBO says I could stand to improve on that a bit. I do my bottling in the kitchen using the dishwasher door as a drip tray and I usually end up transferring from boil to fermenter in the kitchen as well. Although I have to say that last night was particularly bad so I ended up running the swiffer wetjet to prevent a future buttkicking.

Honey, that floor was sticky before I even started, I SWEAR!

 

[GrundleCruncher]

I know what you're talking about, the basic principles of a specific task suddenly apply to many facets of your life.
Fortunately I don't like cleaning, but I worked in a chemical production facility that was dangerous as all hell. I find that I apply many of the basic safety guidelines to my everyday life. Random sidethought, if you have never seen the SawStop search it right now, its so cool.

 

[BrewDey]

Can't say that cleanliness has bled over into my normal life. The wife does seem to like the fact that when I'm brewing it means that I'll need to do the dishes first to clear space.

 

[Kevin Dean]

I think I'm pretty attentive when it comes to brewing and sanitization, I too have a bucket of sanitizer next to me which has all of my tools in it come brew day.

As to non-brewing, I'm probably one of the most lax people on the planet when it comes to cleaning and I don't care... My wife does, so was quite happy when I clean the counter off to do the inside parts of my brewing.