Replacing parts?

[CaliBrewnia]

This is probably a stupid question but my 5gal brew bubbled up out of the airlock leaving a nice beer smell in my closet for me this morning. Nothing bad, I had the carboy on a cookie sheet. I cleaned it all up and resanitized my airlock and hooked up a blow off tube off the airlock into a clean cup of sanitizer.

Question: how in the eff do you really clean the gunk outta the center tube on the airlock or do you lot just toss the little guys? The foam just bubbled up through the tubing. So does everyone just buy 5-10 bucks of tubing and airlock every brew? Because I don't get how to clean the krausen/ trub out of the airlock and such. I had no new airlock and used some paper towel and a chopstick and sanitized but long term... is it standard to replace all that?

 

[Conan]

Boil it in a saucepan with plain water and/ or use a pipe cleaner. PBW is fantastic and available at your local homebrew shop.
I'll typically soak my airlocks/ hoses in sanitizer for ~15 minutes before putting them in use and have never had a problem.
The best way to prevent it is using a bigger fermenter. 7 gallons should do the trick. Kyle

 

[Rhumbline]

I'll run mine through the dishwasher as well. Soak it overnight beforehand.

 

[unionrdr]

I soak my airlocks & tubing in PBW. I also have a 3-piece set of aquarium filter lift tube brushes to clean airlocks, spigots, etc with. And a 66" long, 3/8" diameter keg line brush for cleaning inside tubing with.

 

[IslandLizard]

Welcome to brewing beer!

You need adequate headspace in your fermentor to reduce the chance of blow-off. 20-30% of headspace is usually recommended. 5 gallons of wort should go in a 6 or 6.5 gallon fermentor.

Some yeasts are more prolific in krausen formation, but the key is to keep your fermentation temperatures at bay, toward the lower range for your yeast. Use some form of temp control, being it a cooler room, a tub of water with frozen water bottles in it, a swamp cooler, an electronically temp controlled fermentation fridge/freezer, or any other method that works for you. Lower temps ==> better beer.

Aside from soaking in washing soda or (homemade) PBW, you can use various brushes to clean the inside of tubes, airlocks, and other equipment. Just be careful not to scratch them. For tubing (thin hoses) they sell long line brushes 3' and 6' in various diameters. For the larger diameter tubing a wad of fabric (or brush) with a string tied to both ends also makes a good tubing cleaner in a jiffy, pulling it back and forth.

 

[unionrdr]

Aye, that last one is the redneck shotgun cleaner. We used that set-up a lot in WV. Even clip a large split shot to the end of the string to get it through the other end more easily.

 

[Hello]

Careful about soaking plastic in PBW overnight. A couple of hours is probably okay, but not overnight. It's a caustic and it could cause plastic to crack and break prematurely.

I have an airlock brush. That is how it was marketed in my home brew shop. I do use it when I have a little krausen escape. A soak in warm water should be useful as well.

 

[unionrdr]

Never had that sort of problem soaking plastic overnight in PBW. Just rinse'em real well after a soak-n-scrub.

 

[IslandLizard]

I still use the same racking tubing since I started 7 years ago. I keep them permanently submerged in a 3.5 gallon bucket filled halfway with Starsan.

Vinyl tubing kept in Starsan gets cloudy, but when dried thoroughly (hanging up for a few days) they do clear up. Since I'm always racking something, I just keep a few things under Starsan. They all get their overall brush scrub every once in a while and a thorough rinse (with or without a brush) after each use.

Silicone tubing gets opaque and "chalky" with prolonged Starsan soaks, so they're better off dried. Just hang them up after cleaning and their few minute Starsan dunk.

Most metal parts, except for stainless steel, will get attacked by the acid in Starsan. So better keep those dry between uses.