crupp wrote:Thanks, Tasty,
After every brew I blast reserved (hot) chill water through mine. It always runs clear, but I can’t help but wonder about any protein junk left in there. I use a nice hop screen, so I don’t really worry about hop matter. After every few brews I give mine a hot PBW recirculation followed by a hot water rinse.
Any other advice you could offer for proper maintenance?
Thanks
I also pump a lot of water through mine after every brew and blow it out with compressed air (with inline oil filter). Then the day before each brew day I countercirculate caustic beer line cleaning solution with a pump designed for beer line cleaning. The output from the chiller (normally the input) dumps into a bucket and the pump sucks up solution from that bucket through a fine stainless steel strainer. At the end of a few minutes of this the solution has turned dark and the strainer is covered with material. After an hour of circulation the solution is much darker and the strainer has a remarkable amount of crud on it. IOW, there is still plenty of material left in the chiller and it's not soluble even in caustic (the crud on the screen does not dissolve). It's probably bits of hops petals that made their way into the system. I have to disassemble the thing one day and clean it properly but it's not a job I'm looking forward to. No infections so far (touch wood) so I guess my protocol has been successful thus far, at least.