Leaving your e-brew setup assembled?

[pat_carnig]

I've looked all over and can't find an answer one way or the other. I have a 3 vessel electric HERMS setup using all tri-clamps. Do you guys leave your setups fully assembled when not in use or do you tear it all down and only set it up for brew day?

 

[matt_m]

I leave it all set up. I find I need to do a deep clean every few brew days and pull it all apart to get in the nooks and cranies, especially on the element. When I do I let everything dry and reassemble. The hoses I typically hang up for a couple days so they dry fully then put them back in place so I'm ready for the next brew day, and so it looks tidy in my brew area which is visible from our finished basement.

One thing I learned the hard way, don't drop a BIAB bag in the kettle and put the lid on even if you think its dry. Even after washing in bleach that bag was ruined by mildew. I usually hang the lid by its handle over one of the kettle handles now.

 

[itsnotrequired]

i'm on threaded connections, 50+ brews on the system, have yet to rip the whole thing apart (fittings that is, hoses come off every time). i'll do a 160 degree pbw clean of the boil kettle every 10 brews or so, mlt maybe every 20 brews. cleaning on brew day is a scrub with a sponge and a hot water rinse.

 

[NewJersey]

I brew and ferment in SS triclamp.
I do biab and have a Spike flex+
It's quick and easy enough to just take it all apart and clean it, leave it out to dry, and I reassemble in between brewdays
I've brewed back to back to back during the covid so I'm emptying my fermenter, cleaning it fully apart, reassembling, and filling it again in the same day.
You really start to get used to it.
The only annoying thing I haven't gotten rid of yet is ONE ball valve. It's tc 3 piece but still needs to be dissambled and is more time consuming that butterfly valves

 

[jcav]

I have a three vessel e-herms with keggles using all tri clamp connections and valves. 52 batches in since I built it. Since I brew on my lanai and store the system in my garage I do break it down after every brew day and set it all up the night before I brew. I wish I had a basement to have a permanent brewery set up but since I don't this works for me. After taking all the fittings off I throw all the fittings and valves in two separate buckets of Star San and I also soak the hoses in another bucket. I then hang the hoses to dry. I spread all the fittings and valves on a towel on a table and then when dry I store all of these in a rubber maid container until I set it all up again. After 5-7 batches I do a full deep clean with hot PBW and recirculate. After every brew day I do scrub the vessels with a sponge or a white scrubby outside the lanai and use a garden hose to rinse out the vessels. I also remove the element in the boil kettle (mine detaches with a plug) and scrub that out in the sink. I do take apart the pump assembly on the wort side and clean that out also as gunk can accumulate in there as well.

John

 

[Cato1507]

I've looked all over and can't find an answer one way or the other. I have a 3 vessel electric HERMS setup using all tri-clamps. Do you guys leave your setups fully assembled when not in use or do you tear it all down and only set it up for brew day?

I break mine down as its on my workbench in the garage and i use that for bottling as well. Mine is just single vessel set up though: ekettle, controller, pump, BIAB.

 

[etk29321]

I remove hoses and hang them to dry each brew. I leave most of the other fittings assembled save a few on the kettle that tend to need hop and break residue cleaned out. If I try leaving the hoses on, everything stays just a bit damp and it starts to smell slightly. So long as everything has a chance to fully dry, all is good.

I would like eventually to switch to butterfly valves though. I know that 99% of my nooks and crannies are in those ball valves. I break them apart every few brews too, but I’d love to be able to go full CIP one day.

 

[Beholder]

After reading this, I’m rethinking my PBW recirc after every brew... generally I do that, along with disconnecting the silicone hoses and breaking down the pump heads (riptides), but I don’t break any of the threaded connections.

Every few brews, I also break down the Blichmann linear flow valves every 5 brews or so on the kettle and pump outlets.

 

[carpathia]

I have an involved cleaning process. I have a 2 tier K-Rims set up. My mashtun has threaded fittings, my BK is all tri-clamp.

The mashtun gets non-threaded parts taken off (the autosparge gets broken down except for the parts mounted to the kettle, otherwise, it's the false bottom that holds the BIAB bag and the dip tube) and hosed off. I'll break down the ball valve and clean that as well with just plain water.

I break the BK down and blow water out everything (fittings are removed and flushed and back flushed with water; I spray the CFC in both directions). The next day, I'll give everything a hot PBW soak. This is because my element inevitably gets a lot of hop residue stuck to it that comes off no problem after overnighting in PBW. I'll also flush and back flush the CFC (a Z-Chiller, so a convoluted star-shaped interior pipe) to avoid any chance of contamination. I'll typically rinse off everything once the kettle is dried (especially the riptide) and call it a day after that.

The initial rinse is to get most of the main debris off. the PBW gets the baked in/on crap off, and ideally prevents a hard-to-kill infection in the chiller.