Spigots and keeping em clean...

[Erik the Anglophile]

I have a spigot mounted at the bottom of my fermenter bucket, and I suspect it may be the culprit in a wild yeast infection I suffered in my last batch, some beer residue must have stayed behind in the nozzle and started growing nasties in there that followed when i bottled.
I also noticed that they are never 100% tight, and some very small amounts get pushed out both in the nozzle and above the thingy you twist to open, my thought about that would be to wipe it off good with pbw and then use a glass of pbw to soak the nozzle in for a few minutes and then spray thouroughly with saniclean. I think the liquid that gets pushed out above the nozzle is not that big of a problem, since it will never come in to contact with the beer while emptying the bucket. But the nozzle on the other hand is more critical, so Ithought about using plastic cups, tape them to the fermenter where the spigot is, and keep the nozzle and as much as the spigot as possible submerged in saniclean during the fermentation. Does this sound like a reasonable idea or is there a better way to keep the stuff clean and nasties out?

 

[McKnuckle]

I use my spigots for refractometer samples during fermentation. After each sample, I spray StarSan up into the closed nozzle while holding a paper towel beneath it to soak up what dribbles out.

When I clean the fermenter, I just make sure to open the valve and run out a portion of whatever liquid is in the vessel itself - be it hot water, PBW, or cold water. Knock on wood, no problems yet.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I use my spigots for refractometer samples during fermentation. After each sample, I spray StarSan up into the closed nozzle while holding a paper towel beneath it to soak up what dribbles out.

When I clean the fermenter, I just make sure to open the valve and run out a portion of whatever liquid is in the vessel itself - be it hot water, PBW, or cold water. Knock on wood, no problems yet.

I clean my spigots thouroughly before and after usage, the problem is just spraying the nozzle doesn’t seem to suffice to get everything out after sampling and there is a constant, small amount of liquid being pushed out. My thought was to have the nozzle submerged to prevent having the droplets coming out sticking to the nozzle and never get the chance to grow any nasties.

 

[Transamguy77]

After fermentation totally remove the spigot and place it in hot water that will soften up the plastic enough and you’ll be able to pull it apart and then be able to clean the inside of it. I rarely use a bucket with a spigot anymore exactly for that reason.

 

[Birrofilo]

I think the liquid that gets pushed out above the nozzle is not that big of a problem, since it will never come in to contact with the beer while emptying the bucket. But the nozzle on the other hand is more critical, so Ithought about using plastic cups, tape them to the fermenter where the spigot is, and keep the nozzle and as much as the spigot as possible submerged in saniclean during the fermentation. Does this sound like a reasonable idea or is there a better way to keep the stuff clean and nasties out?

After having used the spigot to take a sample, you can turn the nozzle upward and fill it with sanitizer, after having rinsed it well. You can also wrap it with a piece of tinfoil or plastic film ("domopak", that stuff) so that it doesn't evaporate.

Sometimes the spigot has a hole. In that case the hole is good news because you can clean the nozzle better, and is "bad news" because you cannot really keep the nozzle filled with sanitizer. In that case, I put the nozzle in horizontal position (turned 90°) and spray sanitizer into it. If you want to fill it, close the nozzle with some plastic film, put it in horizontal position and fill it from the little hole, then close the little hole with film.

Spigots are probably the biggest danger to your beer. They are practical but it's a double-edge sword. After the fermentation, I clean them with hot water and dish soap, actioning the mechanism several times so that I wash well both the "closed" position and the "open" position. I also clean well the thread, the hole in the fermenter, the inner nut, paying attention to the inner thread. In a SS fermenter, I clean well the thread on the hole, and the thread on the SS. Be delicate with plastics, it's easy to scratch it if you clean it with too much intention: glass and SS are very good because they don't easily scratch. Scratches are where the bacteria can hide. Hot water and soap and a soft sponge are what I use.

There should be no loss of liquid from ways which are not the nozzle. Either you have a very large fermenter, or your tap might be worn out. I wouldn't discard the possibility that bacteria can travel "backword" from the drop on the outside of the tap to the inside, from the crevice. The liquid is substantially standing still and it creates a microscopic bridge, a communication from outside to inside.

This is the only part of the cleaning-sanitizing procedure where I apply some maniacality because I see risks in taps and hoses, rather than in bottles and fermenters. But I don't use racking canes, because they are harder to clean and sanitize than spigots.

For SS bucket, I also sanitize the SS tap in the microwave oven.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

I have one with a little hole in the top end of the nozzle, I'll spray it daily and after sampling with saniclean. When I think about it, my gushers may also have been bc of reactivated yeast when bottling, my attenuation was suspicially low...thanks for the tips, may try the plastic film if I get very wary of infection risk.