Just curious how cautious everyone is in terms of cleaning/sanitation. Do you clean right after, right before, or both? I guess what I really want to know is if a thorough cleaning right after will do, with thorough sanitization right before. With my limited space, cleaning can be rather frustrating.
Yeah, that’s what I do. And my cleaning got easier in a big way when I committed to doing it immediately after brewing, emptying a keg, etc. But I clean thoroughly after and sanitize very carefully before each use. A spray bottle of Starsan is a big help.
+1 ^^^^ all this combined with healthy yeast help make sure yeast get control before any potential bacteria get a chance to take over.
I brew in my shop. In the spring through fall my brewery gets in the way if I dont put it away after brewing. I clean before putting it away. Cleaning the brewery consists of rinsing everything, filling the BK with water, heating to ~130º, adding Oxyclean and hitting the recirculation pump. MLT and HLT just get a rinse. BK recircs for 30min, then drain and rinse. Then filled with cool water and I add Starsan which gets recirculated. I do that to shine the immersion chiller and sanitize the pump and lines. While doing all that I’m cleaning odds and ends like lids, spoon, autosyphon, test equipment, etc.
After long brew days I might just rinse, and finish cleaning the next day, or following weekend depending on schedule.
Kegs get a thorough cleaning and filled with 12.5% Iodophor on a day off sometime before I need them.
Bottles get rinsed and set aside until I have enough for a full case. Then I do a thorough Oxyclean soak, scrub, rinse. On bottling day I rinse again, then they get a Starsan dip and put on a sanitized bottling tree.
Overall, I’ve found that cleaning always takes X amount of time and its never better easier better or faster to wait.
Same here - clean as soon as you can after use, store it in a way that it will stay clean (i.e., covered, upside down, etc.), then sanitize immediately prior to use. No need for a second cleaning immediately before use if it’s clean aleady.
I brew primarily in my garage so I always clean as I go, and then finish up after the beer is in the fermentation chamber. I either cover the equipment or turn it upside-down. If it gets dusty, I’ll give it a good rinse and sanitize before using it.
Easier to clean sticky liquids when hot and fluid than letting them dry and have to scrub them off, especially with parts that may not be easy to scrub on all surfaces.
Always clean and sanitize plastic equipment prior to putting them away until the next brew day. With the exception of some items that may need a long hot soak in PBW (carboys).
Wash immediately after use and sanitize before. Sometimes soak fermenters and siphon tubes in v dilute bleach after use.
I bottle everything but don’t Wash bottles - too much work. After pouring a beer I rinse the bottle 3 times in water, shaking vigorously to dislodge sediment. Sanitize before bottling with a bottle rinser and drain on a bottle tree. But before pressing each bottle on the pump, I look inside and check for sediment/beer stone. The few that aren’t perfectly clean get set aside and washed with a brush.
Like others have said I clean everything as soon after brewing as possible. I sanitize anything on the cold side just before using it.
Keep the dust off and the critters out and you shouldn’t need to clean much on the hot side.
Paul
Agreed on the clean as you go (and rinse well and sanitize cold side items) method. For storage I cover openings with aluminum foil if they are carboy like or a full bucket lid with small piece of aluminum foil and clean tape over a grommet for an airlock hole. The kegs I will allow to stack up occasionally (just rinised out as they kicked), as I use a keg washer set up with a pump in a bucket with a copper drilled post - that works pretty quickly, so I just rinse well and put the keg on the washer bucket and connect the QCD’s and let it rip with PBW or Oxyclean or Craftmeister. Letting a couple 3 kegs accumulate allows me to use the same solution and sanitizer at one setting on all of the kegs then being cleaned and sanitized…but I always sanitize again before filling on the cold side.
So times kegs do back up in cleaning cycle. But I just keep them in fridge empty until I can get to them.
I clean before and after.