Hey guys and gals, I am brand new to all of this so I am soaking it all in. I live in South San Francisco CA. 56 Years old, married with two adult kids. I love IPA most, but am willing to try and experience what you all have. My wife has given me the go ahead, so off I went. Jumped into the deep end, bought a small fridge that had been converted into a kegerator and all parts used. Bought a brew kit from a local place so I could talk to the guy there and learn some things from him as well. I cleaned everything with PBW before I started and StarSan all the parts that touched the beer the day of the kegging. I tasted the warm uncarbonated brew and it wasn’t too bad, so my hope is that with some bubbles and being cold it will be good.
I have put my first batch into the keg and it is currently soaking up CO2 and getting ready to drink. I cleaned my fermentor, a plastic bucket I got from a homebrew place near me, with just soap and water. I soaked the siphon hose in the soap and water as well. Not much seem to be sticking, and my thought is the next batch I will brew will probably not be for a while. Am I ok with just soap and water right now? I then let it all air dry and put it in the closet covered up. My boil kettle and spoon were also run thru the dishwasher as they are simply just a pot and metal spoon.
When my current keg is empty my plan is to hit it with some hot water and PBW to loosen up what may be stuck on the keg (including removing the valves and pickup tube), rinse and repeat. Let it air dry and close it up
My plan for next batch is to take everything out and clean it with the PBW the day before. The day of, I will run some StarSan into my fermentor and Airlock. When I a ready to keg it, I will run the keg (including all the valves and pickup tube( thru the StarSan and keg as instructed.
Given that I am really new to this, does this sound like a decent plan? Or is there a recommended way that I need to do. My fermentor has only been sitting a day with just a cleaning of soap and water, so if PBW is needed I don’t mind getting it out and cleaning it and anything else now.
Thanks guys and gals, looking forward to learning and experiencing this hobby.
Sorry to have gone so long winded, thanks for reading
With brewing, there will be varied opinions. Here are my thoughts.
Soap leaves a film that hurts head retention. PBW is really good. I use generic Oxi Clean - it’s cheaper and seems to be very effective for me. Some do use dish soap - it needs to be rinsed really, really well.
If you give it a thorough cleaning after use (which you definitely should) and protect it from getting contaminated, the equipment shouldn’t need to be cleaned again before the next use - just sanitize.
On the whole, you seem to have a good plan, but beware of the details. By necessity, your description is pretty general. I think you’ll do fine - good luck.
Thank you for your reply. Maybe I will take the fermenter, airlock and siphon tube out tomorrow and really clean it with PBW. Do you have an amount and way that you do it? I just fill up the bucket with 5 gallons of hot water, put in about 1/3 of a cup of PBW and let it sit for about 30 to 45 mins. I converted the recommended amount from the package and that is what it came out to. Seemed like a bit much, but I went with it. I tasted the beer before I kegged it and it tasted pretty good, but I am always looking for suggestions.
Thanks again for replying. I appreciate your input.
Cleaning with soapy water may cause you an issue. I like that you’re re-cleaning/ rinsing with brewery wash before the subsequent use. You need to ensure you get all that soap out of there or your beer could taste soapy. As long as you’re doing that I think you should be ok.
I personally don’t do that. After brewing I clean with brewery wash and store the equipment. I like to run a few gallons of hot water thru the entire system the night before a brew day to rinse any dust out.
Yes, 1/3 cup of PBW in 5 gallons seems like a lot, but you’re probably good using the amount shown on the instructions. I don’t use PBW, so I don’t know. Maybe others will chime in about PBW use. I use generic OxiClean. I have a 7.9 gallon fermenter. Fill with hot water and 2 oz of Oxi. I scrub the upper part that might not get good contact, then put the other misc. parts that also need cleaning into the fermenter. I let is soak overnight - that’s overkill, but the schedule works for me. I think I’ve read that too long of a soak can leave a film if hard water is used - you could limit the soak to a couple of hours if needed.
I learned it from Don O YouTube videos. He cited his resource as some guy name Denny. [emoji23]
I still batch sparge but I underlet vs pouring it in from the top. …and I recirculate via a HERMS with a brew bag in the mash tun atop a false bottom vs letting the single infusion sit and draining thru a toilet braid.
I used to live in Daly City, off of 280 at the the Hickey Blvd exit. We might have been neighbors!
Your plan overall is reasonable. One area where I differ with some of the replies is that using soap, as in dish soap, like Dawn, works just fine in cleaning fermenters. It does not leave a residue. One drop (just one) on a non-scratch sponge, along with some elbow grease, works better than anything out there to scrub off the krausen ring. Sure, you gotta rinse well, but you gotta do that for any cleanser. Soap is no different. But there will not be film remaining. Don’t worry about that.
It’s funny, people have been cleaning plates and glasses and other dinnerware with dish soap since the beginning of time. But it only leaves a residue on brewing equipment? Ok.
The idea behind using alkaline cleansers like PBW is that they chemically “scrub” the parts you cannot scrub physically. But if you can scrub those parts physically, that is always better, no PBW required (or dish soap). Physically scrub it if you can reach it, chemically scrub it if you can’t.
I wouldn’t soak the “delicates” in soap, like hoses and whatnot. Then you do risk some film. Laminar flow can bite you there.
Hey there. I live right off Westborough down be El Camino. I used whatever dish soap my wife had in the pump, lol. I will give it a really good wash before I use any of it next time. Thanks for the reply.
For me, I always mashed with the full volume of water, then drained to my kettle. Occasionally I would reserve some water on really small beers because I noticed a bit of a decrease in mash efficiency when I was mashing thinner than 3.5 qt/lb, but other times I would just roll with it since I was targeting a small beer to begin with. When I did reserve some water, I just had it preheated in my kettle and ran out into it to give me a head start on the way up to a boil.