Beer Forum

Hey All. I'm about to give the homebrewery an overhaul/cleaning going through everything from my HLT down to my kegs, and I had a couple questions about PBW:

- The instructions reccomend sanitizing after rinsing... Is this really necesary, or can I just give everything a real good rinse, and sanitize on brewday as normal?

- How warm/hot does the water really need to be to achieve a proper cleaning?

- Also, will one dose be enough to clean close to 10 vessels, or should I make a few 5 gallon doses?

Thanks in advance.

listen to the sanitation show. All the advice your looking for is there. I prefer to rinse with hot water then spray with starsan myself. and yes 5 gal of PBW goes a long way.

- You can/should sanitize before brewing/fermenting/kegging/bottling.

- Hot works faster than warm, warm works faster than cold. Cold works, but at a slower rate.

- As Pete sez, 5 gallons goes a long way.

While I use PDW on all brewing/fermenting/kegging vessels, I only sanitize the fermenters and kegs. Basically, I sanitize anything that contacts the beer, post-boil.

I sanitize the kegs then store them under pressure.
After sanitizing the carboys, i just pop some foil over the cap. On brew day, I do a minimal starsan rinse. Like two cups of water and a dash of starsan. Then I shake the solution so that it coats the interior. Wait a few minutes and dump it. I don't rinse it.

If you prefer not to sanitize ahead of time, definitely be sure to completely rinse the PBW. Ditto Sheens reply about temps.

Unless all your vessles are full of crud, I'd think a 5 gallon mix would be sufficient. It's strong stuff.

PDX homebrewer wrote:Unless all your vessles are full of crud, I'd think a 5 gallon mix would be sufficient. It's strong stuff.

Even then, no real reason to do more than 5 gallons, just up the concentration. Although depending on how long you want to leave things to soak, doing 10 vessels one after the other could take a while.

Yeah, time is the real factor. 30+ minutes per item makes for a long time cleaning 10 items with a single 5 gallon batch of stuff. I'll start with my fermenator or brew kettle, so close to 15 gallons, then split that up for cleaning other vessels. -Eric

Thanks for the tips all. I kinda figured it was going to be along day either way... I'll be sneaking in my cleaning between finishing the garage and yard work.

Cheers!

One more question... should I leave all my manifolds etc. intact while cleaning or should I remove what I can and clean them seperately?