I used to brew in the big city and normally I would just throw whatever down my drains, but now I live in the country and I have a septic system and drainfield, and I was about to send my spent BLC down the drain before I stopped myself and wondered if that was the right thing to do.
Some quick googling indicated that indeed, the chemicals present in BLC are in some volumes bad for your septic ecosystem. There’s also a chance it would probably be fine, but I was wondering about any alternative methods. Can I just dump this in some gravel or something? Anyone ever had any problems with their septic with cleaning solutions?
Just dump it in your driveway or somewhere you want to kill weeds. Not enough volume to harm the environment. If you’re overly concerned, put it in a shallow pan where no animals can get to it and let it evaporate. Brush the powder into your trash and you’re done
I’m not sure what is in BLC, but I imagine it has a high pH. You can reduce the pH by mixing it with spent Starsan (and take care of your spent Starsan to boot).
I live in the country with a well and septic tank also. All of my brewing waste water goes down the drain. Dirty wash water, used Starsan… everything. No problems.
BLC is potassium hydroxide solution which is a very strong caustic similar to sodium hydroxide (lye). Please don’t just dump this stuff on the ground because if it gets on kids or pets it will eat holes in their skin. It’s a simple matter though to neutralize it with an acid as was already mentioned by using spent starsan. You could use any acid though: sulfuric, hydrochloric, phosphoric etc. Just get the pH below 9 or so and it will be safe to dump anywhere.
I do the same and have never had any problems. But as others have said, you can neutralize it with an acid like Star San or Saniclean to be on the safe side. I would be way more careful with the concentrate. That is the stuff that will really cause burns.
As a side note, products like Draino and Liquid Plumber are similar to BLC and are made of sodium hydroxide (lye) instead of potassium hydroxide (BLC). They are meant to be poured into drains that feed septic systems and cause no issues with the bacteria in the septic tank since they will be way diluted by the amount of liquid in the septic tank.
