Recommendations of what to clean the FV etc with.

[Froghunter]

G'day fellow brewers.

I haven't brewed for 30 years but excited to go again.

Seeking advise from the wise as to what "unscented household bleach" you all use to clean your equipment?

[Back Brewing]

Hi FH I use sodium percarbonate to sterilise my fermenter then sanitise with Stella San

[Classic Brewing Co]

2 hours ago, Froghunter said:

G'day fellow brewers.

I haven't brewed for 30 years but excited to go again.

Seeking advise from the wise as to what "unscented household bleach" you all use to clean your equipment?

Forget it, use what @Back Brewing just said.

[ChairmanDrew]

After use I clean my fermentor with good old dishwashing liquid and a brush. Before putting on another brew I sanitize with Mangrove Jacks no rinse sanitizer.

Edit: just found out Mangrove Jacks no rinse sanitizer is just branded sodium percarbonate. Now if I can just find the unbranded stuff, I might save myself a few $$$.

Edited September 7, 2023 by ChairmanDrew

[Back Brewing]

Gonna be a lot of views on this subject so I'm just gonna get me some and settle in

[Shamus O'Sean]

4 hours ago, Froghunter said:

G'day fellow brewers.

I haven't brewed for 30 years but excited to go again.

Seeking advise from the wise as to what "unscented household bleach" you all use to clean your equipment?

Aldi Di-San Pro Oxy does the job for me.  1 teaspoon per litre of cleaning water.

[Brauhaus Fritz]

3 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Aldi Di-San Pro Oxy does the job for me.  1 teaspoon per litre of cleaning water.

Never tried it, always thought it is too perfumed. Is it the white or pink package? pink has a little higher percentage of sodium percarbonate.

[jennyss]

Hi @Froghunter,  I have been brewing for 20 months, using Coopers extracts.  I started with a Coopers kit and instructions, which said 'sanitise with unscented bleach'. I use White King un-scented bleach with the strength of 1/4 cup bleach to 20 litres of water when I am sanitising my fermenting vessel, taps, clips, scissors, spoons, can opener; and 10 days later my PET bottles and filling wand.  A good soak is followed by a good rinse. I haven't had any problem with infections or off flavours or bleach odour.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Straight sodium percarbonate is what I mostly use. The nappy soakers work as well but more difficult to rinse off fully. 

Occasionally I'll give it a bleach soak, as long as it's rinsed properly and air dried there's no issues with residual chlorine causing problems. 

[Aussiekraut]

You can use unscented bleach if you must. It doesn't hurt but ensure you rinse well afterwards. I usually stay clear of bleach unless something requires some heavy-duty action.

Many here use sodium percarbonate to clean or an "oxy cleaner" from the cleaning aisle in the supermarket. The latter contain SP but also bleach and other cleaning agents. Again, rinse well after cleaning. I usually soak the FV in a sodium percarbonate solution overnight, then empty it and wipe it down with a soft cloth.

For sanitation, the most common is probably StarSan or StellarSan (it's the same thing, just the latter is cheaper),  which is a no-rinse sanitiser. Mix one tsp with 3l of water in your FV, put the lid on and shake it well for about 30 seconds. You can reuse what's in the FV and pour it into a spray bottle for sanitising anything coming into contact with the beer. 

 

Edited September 7, 2023 by Aussiekraut

[Tone boy]

Hey @Froghunter

I use a home brand nappy soaker powder. It’s 25% sodium percarbonate. Give it a good soak (usually overnight before brew day) and rinse off well.

For a no rinse sanitizer I use phosphoric acid. 1ml per 2 litres of water. It’s half the price of the branded stellar San product and is beneficial to yeast (or so it says on the bottle). 
 

[Classic Brewing Co]

8 hours ago, ChairmanDrew said:

After use I clean my fermentor with good old dishwashing liquid and a brush. Before putting on another brew I sanitize with Mangrove Jacks no rinse sanitizer.

Edit: just found out Mangrove Jacks no rinse sanitizer is just branded sodium percarbonate. Now if I can just find the unbranded stuff, I might save myself a few $$$.

The best by far is Stellarsan for sanitising & the cleaning products sold by Keg Land, see the video below.

As far as detergent, bleach & the rest I have no comment as this has been hammered to death many times.

https://www.kegland.com.au/products/stellarsan-sanitiser-500ml-phosphoric-based-similar-to-starsan

[Froghunter]

Thanks for all suggestions.

Happy brewing.

 

[Back Brewing]

Another tip if anyone is interested is when I brewed my first stout no matter how much or what I ran through the tap I could still see a couple of dark stains

So what I did was put about a litre of hot tap water in a container and a teaspoon of sodium carb I mixed it up and put the tap in and put the lid on

I went back 3 days later and the stains were gone one thing to remember is take the washer off the thread you don't want to soak that in the mixture I just dipped it in the mixture then rinsed it off with hot water when you are ready to use the tap again rinse the tap inside and out with hot water put the washer back on spray the tap and fermenter threads with sanitiser and away you go.

Edited September 8, 2023 by Back Brewing

[Classic Brewing Co]

2 hours ago, Back Brewing said:

Another tip if anyone is interested is when I brewed my first stout no matter how much or what I ran through the tap I could still see a couple of dark stains

So what I did was put about a litre of hot tap water in a container and a teaspoon of sodium carb I mixed it up and put the tap in and put the lid on

I went back 3 days later and the stains were gone one thing to remember is take the washer off the thread you don't want to soak that in the mixture I just dipped it in the mixture then rinsed it off with hot water when you are ready to use the tap again rinse the tap inside and out with hot water put the washer back on spray the tap and fermenter threads with sanitiser and away you go.

Yeah, that is a good idea. I do the same with the Tap Spout Brush Caps, while you are pouring or even overnight, soak them in a glass & they clean up nicely.

 

[Classic Brewing Co]

2 hours ago, Back Brewing said:

Another tip if anyone is interested is when I brewed my first stout no matter how much or what I ran through the tap I could still see a couple of dark stains

So what I did was put about a litre of hot tap water in a container and a teaspoon of sodium carb I mixed it up and put the tap in and put the lid on

I went back 3 days later and the stains were gone one thing to remember is take the washer off the thread you don't want to soak that in the mixture I just dipped it in the mixture then rinsed it off with hot water when you are ready to use the tap again rinse the tap inside and out with hot water put the washer back on spray the tap and fermenter threads with sanitiser and away you go.

Yeah, that is a good idea. I do the same with the Tap Spout Brush Caps, while you are pouring or even overnight, soak them in a glass & they clean up nicely.

 

[Shamus O'Sean]

18 hours ago, Brauhaus Fritz said:

Never tried it, always thought it is too perfumed. Is it the white or pink package? pink has a little higher percentage of sodium percarbonate.

I use the purple container.  It has a slight perfume, but rinses off odourless.  32% sodium percarbonate.

[NBillett09]

I use StellarClean PBW since it seems purpose designed and cheap enough for the volume needed. My question about this is how long can you leave an FV soaking in this sort of cleaner?

[Classic Brewing Co]

1 hour ago, NBillett09 said:

I use StellarClean PBW since it seems purpose designed and cheap enough for the volume needed. My question about this is how long can you leave an FV soaking in this sort of cleaner?

The most I have left it is overnight, but I have read it is not recommended to leave it for longer periods. It would have done its job in a few hours.

 

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

GOOD OLD DISH WASHING LIQUID AND CHUCK UR GLASSES IN AND LET IT ALL SOAK.

[Classic Brewing Co]

14 minutes ago, Uhtred Of Beddanburg said:

GOOD OLD DISH WASHING LIQUID AND CHUCK UR GLASSES IN AND LET IT ALL SOAK.

Ar****

[Kegory]

6 hours ago, NBillett09 said:

I use StellarClean PBW since it seems purpose designed and cheap enough for the volume needed. My question about this is how long can you leave an FV soaking in this sort of cleaner?

I had bit of a look on google and this is one of those subjects on which there is very little information. There certainly don't seem to be any warnings from the manufacturers or suppliers. The subject is discussed in a couple of forums I found but they just contained the usual range of opinions and there was nothing of note quoted or cited.

[Stickers]

i regularly leave a FV soaking in water and sodium percarbonate for up to a fortnight at a time. several rinses and it's smelling neutral and ready for the sanitiser.

[Classic Brewing Co]

25 minutes ago, Kegory said:

I had bit of a look on google and this is one of those subjects on which there is very little information. There certainly don't seem to be any warnings from the manufacturers or suppliers. The subject is discussed in a couple of forums I found but they just contained the usual range of opinions and there was nothing of note quoted or cited.

Everyone is always going to have different opinions, it's pretty good stuff. So from my experience a couple of hours usually does the job.

Your FV/equipment shouldn't be that dirty if you know what you are doing. 

[Popo the Reprobate]

Usually overnight but have done longer on the older style fermenters on occasion if something comes up. Probably a week or two like Stickers above.

It does depend on the fermenter.  For the Fermzilla, KegLand say Stellarclean for up to 30 mins (it's on a PDF on their website). Having said that, I've done overnight and probably longer with perc with seemingly no ill effects.

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Popo the Degenerate