Bottled a batch last night, scraped out some of the yeast cake for future use. Then comes that annoying time to clean out the buckets and equipment. I threw them in the bathtub and filled them with oxyclean solution. Long-term, I’d rather not have to clean my equipment in the same space as my toilet.
What do you all do?
Also, any suggestions about that white oxyclean film I get on everything? Even soaking my bottles in a bucket of Starsan (which turns cloudy the moment it hits my water) barely gets it off. Can I add a bunch of vinegar to the water, or will that affect the beer flavor?
How long are you soaking for? Days? If you are getting a film from soaking too long then you need to wipe it off. Oxyclean is just a cleanser you can get a soft sponge and wipe any residue away and rinse. And I wouldn’t use Oxyclean on my bottles anyway. If they are that gunked up you should be rinsing them as you go. You have a procedural or bad habit problem.
Buy distilled water to mix your starsan. It will last for a very long time that way.
i usually will brew a 2nd or 3rd batch on top of the current yeast. but when i clean it out i dump it down the disposal. use a plastic spatula to scrape the scale off and wash with dish soap and water. i am usually cleaned up from one bottling session by the time my boil is done and cooled.
Just soaking for an hour or two, tops. The water here is seriously hard, though.
I do rinse as I go. My procedural problem is getting buddies to give me bottles. Last set had some nasty fuzzies in them, but I’m still too bottle-poor to throw them out. That and living in an apartment that keeps having 6-inch slugs showing up indoors.
After clean bottles have been sitting for a whie, I feel like I ought to clean them again. Maybe I’m just being obsessive?
I would cut off my “buddies” that didn’t clean the bottles. If they don’t respect what you are doing for them then they are out of the loop until they do.
Also, there is always a source for bottles even if you have to go looking in recycling bins to get them. Ask your neighbors for them…
More than that. Maybe 1/4 - 1/3 cup for a 6.5gal fermenter. (I’ve been figuring about a Tbsp per gal, which is a figure I picked up somewhere. Then fudging it a bit.) Sounds like I’m overdoing it.
I find that even though I’m generally lazy, cleaning right away helps tremendously. For pails, I would fill them with water and wash them out right away. I wouldn’t soak them in the tub. Fill them with water and let them soak on their own if you have to soak them. I just use water and a bit of oxy clean. For bottles, I wash them (+1 on having friends rinse them first!) and then just before I use them I give them a quick rinse with a bottle washer and then into star-san. I wouldn’t give them an oxy clean wash a second time. I just sprinkle a tsp full or so into the bucket while the water fills.
I hate carboys with a passion compared to buckets when it comes to cleaning. I only use them when I have to or when I’m using Brett.
Rinse with hot water in between cleaning with PBW/Oxiclean and sanitizing. PBW/Oxiclean is basic, StarSan is acidic, so if you don’t rinse, you’re neutralizing the Star-San. Star-San gets cloudy as it loses its effectiveness.
Post brew cleaning is almost as painful as pre brew cleaning. After brewing, I honestly just spray everything down with a hose to make my pre brew cleaning easier. I store all my keggles, buckets, etc in my shed, so I need a serious pre brew cleaning every time either way. I’m looking forward to getting a plate chiller as my next upgrade, so while the warmer exit water leaves the plate chiller, I’ll attach a long hose to clean all my equipment. Also, with the film issue, I take steel wool to the inside of my keggles about every 4-5 brews before the oxyclean and starsan. This is obviously only helpful with steel equipment. Wouldn’t want to scar up an plastic, etc.
why do you starsan your keggles? I honestly only scrub my kettle with a nylon grain bag (just cause I have it out for scrubbing plastic buckets anyway) after each brew and only really hit it with PBW or whatever if the beerstone starts to build up.
I also use my chilling water to clean up. collect it in an empty bucket or my cooler mashtun
I use a sponge with a green scrubbie side to go to work on my kettles when the hop and protein gunk builds from the boil. For the fermenters it is just best to clean them immediately once draining. Otherwise you’ll be doing some real scrubbing there!
I rarely use oxyclean on my kettle or fermenters. I will use it on my kegs though.
I’ll try that, as I’ve been inconsistent about rinsing after the Oxy step. Honestly, though, my tap water is basic enough that the Star-san is cloudy the moment I add water, in a well-rinsed bucket. (That stuff, I use immediately. For longer-term use and spray bottles, I mix my Star-san with distilled. But I’d rather not have to use gallons of the stuff for a quick bucket of sanitizer.) If the water here were any harder, I’d have to switch to taking baths to avoid getting knocked out by rocks falling from the showerhead.
If you have stainless steel, don’t use steel wool. You will abrade the surface and even end up with iron from the steel wool, that can cause rust spots.
A copper scrubie is better. The green scrub pads are better yet.
I’m lucky to have a separate wash sink in my laundry room. I spray off the gunk, put the bucket in the basin and fill it with a bleach solution. It’s perfectly white in an hour. Spray the heck out of it with hot water and it’s ready for the next batch.
I rinse out my kettle and like was said above, clean it every 4-5 batches with a sponge. It’s aluminum.
I do have a potential trick for the bleach users. A little baking soda/bicarb in water kills the bleach-y smell immediately. Haven’t tried it on the beer equipment yet, but I suspect it’d be enough to ensure there’s no bandaid flavor without having to leave the plastic sitting in the sun for hours to de-stinkify.