Thinking ahead to potentially upgrading to larger all-grain equipment (perhaps equipment on a stand), I’m curious how you all clean out larger (10 gallon+) SS equipment? Are you using a hose outside?
Currently everything I use can be cleaned out in a deep sink but that’s becoming a bit of a chore.
Mash cooler gets a thorough spraying outside with hose, and my new 15G brew kettle sits on kitchen floor while my old $&@ kneels on floor to scrub it out. Too big for sink, sits too high to clean on counter. Once I have the basement set up a little better, it will be cleaned in slop sink down there
Both tun and kettle get a hosing. I might take a scrub sponge to the kettle, but nothing really serious. I clean my kettle a couple of times a year with bar keepers friend and clean the tuns maybe once a year.
ya i clean outside with a hose and non scratch sponge however not being in FL:) it sucks this time of the year snow/freezing. I do run PBW or mainly a caustic then acid solution though it every 4th batch or so ( EHERMS).
Hose outside if it’s not too cold, but even if only brisk, it’s not very pleasant. Otherwise I’ll need to get creative and gingerly with the kitchen sprayer. This time of year I’m leaning towards going back to small batch MIAB (2.5 gal)… frozen hoses suck…
So it seems that some of you don’t bother getting your MT and kettles spotless. Is that ok? I’m assuming the only thing that gets squeaky clean are the fermenters.
sanitation is only vital on the cold side. I spray out the kettle and mashtun and scrub a bit with a nylon hop/grain bag to get stuck on gunk and grain off. even fermenters I only scrub with hot water and a nylon grain bag to clean. once in a while they get a PBW soak and gentle scrub if they get sticky. I’m more worried about scratching the plastic then I am about getting it spotlessly white again.
Even though I’m not brewing on the large scale, I’m doing the same thing as others here. Hot tap water rinse/drain on MT, BIAB bag, and kettle is enough for most batches. I might need to swipe off the hop gunk from above the boiloff line with a blue scrubbie. If I start to see any crud buildup, then I’ll do a PBW soak.
if you can move it, i use the bath tub in basement to clean up. kettle just gets hosed out really well-no soap or anything. mash tun also just gets the hose. i use glass to ferment so i empty, rinse once, fill and add oxy cleaner and sit 24 hours. then its just pour , rinse again quick and hit it with starsan and cap it.
I used to win awards at homebrew competitions frequently. Then some friends of mine put my brew kettle and mash tun on their keg cleaning machine and made them all sparkly clean. In the years since then, I’ve been lucky to win anything. ???