In order to get my kegs to hot water, I have to lug them up some stairs and my knees are not into it. I was looking into using alkaline brewery wash since it says it works well with cold water as opposed to PBW. I have all the basic new cleaner questions.
a. Will this stuff work on dirty corny kegs with cold water?
b. If so, how many times can I use the same solution? (I have many kegs)
c. How long does it to clean a keg if soaking?
d. Is it safe on copper and stainless?
e. is there anything special I need to know?
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! This could really help my game.
I use Craftmeister Alkaline pretty much exclusively, and with cold water. I only have a 3 gal. water heater in my garage, so cold water it pretty much my only option. I often use my Pico Z1, which uses a corny as a brewing vessel. I then ferment in the same corny, so it’s pretty grungy after all that. I put some alkaline cleaner in it, fill it with cold water and let it sit overnight. Next day I just rinse it out. I have never tried reusing the solution. I suspect you shouldn’t (same with PBW) but I’ll check with my contacts to see what they have to say. Obviously it works on SS and I have used it with copper also.
That’s a great side-by-side comparison. The Alkaline Wash is impressive.
My small local health food store that sells some brewing supplies usually has PBW but only had B-Brite on hand on a recent run. I forgot how effective it is …but it does call for warm water.
Craftmeister user here - I rinse out all vessels before cleaning them with the alkaline wash to get the crud off first. I try to get a few vessels for cleaning in one session. I have a dedicated 6.5 gallon bucket with spigot and lid with a 4” hole in it. I then use a small sump pump inside the bucket with a copper pipe coming through the hole in the lid (pipe is drilled at various spots) and lines for QDC’s to connect to keg posts. I run the solution for a few minutes per vessel, then rinse and sanitize for the next use. I can clean 4-5 kegs or other vessels in 20-30 minutes.
a. Will this stuff work on dirty corny kegs with cold water?
yes. (Hot water just works really really well when I’ve used it on smaller parts that I can get to the tap, but with kegs, carboys, kettles, I use the hose.
b. If so, how many times can I use the same solution? (I have many kegs)
I reuse within a 10-20 min window. Not sure if this is based on science but it’s what I’ve done.
c. How long does it to clean a keg if soaking?
10-20, I add then scrub minutes after.
d. Is it safe on copper and stainless?
yes.
e. is there anything special I need to know?
cleaning is the hardest part that I wish someone else would do.
Since I pre rinse to remove all visible crud, I get by at about half the recommended amount for cleaning. If I am deep cleaning, or soaking a really stubborn krausen ring, I will go to full strength.
I built one of those brublasters from the brulosophy page since I already had everything. It was awesome.
I put 3 gallons of water with craftmeister and connected my keg for 15 mins . I decided to clean my other four corny kegs. I filled the same bucket with saniclean and flushed them out. Sweet.
