Has anyone used Five Star BS Remover in a cip system? My fermenter is a converted 15-1/2 gallon keg with a 4" opening in the top. I use a cip arrangement with a spray ball and pump to clean it using PBW. This does a good job of cleaning the fermenter without using large quantities of water and chemicals. Has anyone tried using BS remover in a cip system?
I am sure that it can be applied via CIP, but for stubborn beerstone deposits, a soak might work better.
I recently soaked 5 kegs with this and had excellent results:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/dairyland-sterosol-milkstone-remover-acid-rinse.
Plus I suspect that it is a bit cheaper. Just exercise caution and wear protective gloves and eyewear!
+1 on the milkstone remover. On the order of 10x cheaper for essentially the same product, ~42% phosphoric acid, surfactants, and water. And I find it is actually, for some reason, slightly more effective than the Five Star formulation.
I’ve heard good reviews about this milk stone product. What is the dilution rate? PBW is about 1-2 weight ounces per gallon of water and at $30 for 5 pounds, it doesn’t last long for the money. I’m preparing to retire and need to save everywhere I can!
Do you actually have beer stone or are you just paranoid? I can tell you that on the commercial level I have always used an acid rinse after every caustic and have never had beer stone. Cheap insurance as the acids are inexpensive. That said I hear a lot about beer stone from homebrewers but I doubt it happens much.
I use the milkstone remover at 1/6 oz per gallon as an acid rinse. As an acid cleaner for beer lines, or in case of actual milkstone buildup requiring a soak, I use it at 1/4 oz per gallon. It is very economical as you can see, as it costs $15 a gallon.
I don’t have any beer lines or beer stone to be concerned with. I use PBW for general cleaning a after brew day or fermentation and also for my bottles. So I’m thinking this product might save me a few bucks?!?!?
Not a substitute. PBW is an alkaline cleaner, this is an acid cleaner/rinse. A complete cleaning regimen requires both. But it will save lots of money over buying a comparable product packaged and marketed to homebrewers rather than the dairy industry.
Now I understand. Thank you!
I had beerstone inside my kegs - It could have been there for quite a while… someone mentioned taking a flashlight to see well - I had it terribly bad. (Rough calcium deposits). I tried alkaline cleaner unrinsed followed by other acid sanitizers - full strength Star San and then scrubbing with oxalic acid to no avail. A 4 day soak at 2 ozs per 5 gallons of rinse water eliminated it entirely - just a little brushing in tough spots and it was gone…now I will use it periodically as a preventative measure.
I picked up a 5 gallon container of Stronghold NPS Acid Rinse at my local dairy supply store last week. That was the smallest amount that they had and it was $42 for the container, so I now have a lifetime supply. It contains a mixture of nitric, phosphoric, and sulfuric acids, although I do not know the percentages of each (probably a trade secret). The recommended dilution is 1 oz in five gallons of cold water (5 ml per gallon). I used some of it to clean the beer stone out of my boil kettle on Saturday and it works well with very little scrubbing. It also passivates SS as well.
After cleaning the kettle I also acid rinsed my plate chiller which needed to be done.
Ahhh yeah that’s a problem. Acid #2 from Star San should clean it right up.