Washing a Carboy?

[passedpawn]

I've never understood how some people continue to feel the need to "see what's going on" inside the fermenter. After the second brew, I no longer felt that. It's what made moving to stainless so easy.

I still like clear fermentors, though after this many yrs of brewing I don't look much. But for cleaning purposes, I KNOW they are clean by inspection.

I like the big mouth bubblers. Have a ton of them. For cleaning, fill with water and oxyclean, next day sponge out, rinse with hose. So easy.

 

[Golddiggie]

I still like clear fermentors, though after this many yrs of brewing I don't look much. But for cleaning purposes, I KNOW they are clean by inspection.

I like the big mouth bubblers. Have a ton of them. For cleaning, fill with water and oxyclean, next day sponge out, rinse with hose. So easy.

Conical with a CIP ball in the top spraying PBW all over the place for ~10 minutes, inspect (hit with brush or hose as needed). Rinse with hose and/or CIP ball then sanitize with CIP ball (running out the bottom drain during the process, looping back in).
I've also used the pumps on my brew stand to do this where they just loop through. Those times I get to use hot PBW solution (usually from the BK). Right now I have PBW in the BK that I'm using to clean the plate chiller. I'll get it heated before brew day and also use it to clean out the fermenter that's going to get emptied (might be two of them before the weekend).
I like how the conical fermenters have wheels, so I don't need to do any lifting. Since I fill them with about eight gallons of wort on brew day, it weighs a bit.

 

[The_CuRe]

I clean it this way with an alcaline "cleaner", rinse, then fill it up with a iodine solution, rinse agaion and store. On brew day I would pass the alcaline again with the mechanic cleaning showed in the video, rinse, then sanitize with starsan. so far so good.

 

[Deadalus]

I use glass like to see what's going on during fermentation. Regarding cleaning, get a pond pump from Amazon (mine is 13 GPM ) and put it in a 5 gal bucket , cut a 6" hole in the lid and connect a 20" long 1/2" pvc pipe from pump and drill a pipe cap for a spray head Drill several small holes in the pipe cap to direct flow up and around the inside of the carboy. I put about 2 gals of 100 degree PBW in the bucket and let it run for about 1 hr. Always cleans up well, do my corney kegs like this also use a smaller pump to cleans all my tap lines.

I built a similar washer, maybe even the same pump. I put a CIP sprayer ball though, there's a skinny one that fits a carboy neck. I may switch to a tote instead of the bucket because occasionally the PBW (mine's homemade) foams so much that foam and water build up in the neck. Could also be a slight angle when the carboy is seated though. Antifoam might work too, I haven't tried that. I don't run Starsan through the pump but there's the other similar product that is low foaming as an option there. I just pour some Starsan in and swish.

@MrBJones Since you renovated your bathrooms, fair assumption is you are the homeowner? I recommend a utility sink of some kind if you don't have one. I have a cheap one bought from Lowes that came with a faucet with a pull out sprayer. But I added a cheap second faucet for a dedicate bottle washer. Although I keg mostly, I do sometimes bottle as well and that sprayer as you have learned is very useful for carboys. One day I will score a second stainless sink, 2 or 3 compartment with side boards is what I am after. I have a new faucet sprayer coming as a matter of fact, the old one developed a leak which resulted in a tsunami!

Also useful are some cheap foam kneel/sit pads. I keep one handy for putting the carboy down. I have a two different types of straps I use that sort of cushion the bottom but the sit pad is also helpful.