• CleaningAndSanitation

Cleaning and Sanitation

I haven't been brewing that long (since October 2003) so I am no expert in this area but I have picked up a few tips from many places. If you are a newbie then you might have noticed quite a bit of contrary information out there. Or heard people rave over products only to find they are not available in Australia.

There are lots of sites out there with good information on this topic, one that comes to mind is How To Brew chapter 2. Still, I find lots of the information from homebrewing sites is presented without support and it is sometimes difficult to separate myth from fact. This wiki page tries to combine input from the homebrewing community with references from other relevant sources. Don't forget to relax and have a homebrew.

From what I have gleaned from talking to experienced people, the greatest risk of infection is before the yeast takes hold in the wort. Apparently, once the yeast gets going, the environment is a whole lot less friendly for unwanted tenants.

I make no claims that the information contained here is accurate and/or correct and is provided for educational purposes.

Always read the label. Some of the materials mentioned here can do you serious damage.

Also note that this page includes contributions from various people - I don't necessarily have first hand experience with their recommendations.

Definitions

Cleaning

Removal of oils, dirt and crap like that. If you don't do this before you sanitise then bugs can find a place to hide from the sanitiser.

Sanitising

Reducing unwanted micro-organisms to unnoticable levels.

Links

• links on different kinds of cleaners for beverage industry

• Cleaning In The Food Industry

Cleaning

Most of these cleaning products, even if relatively "safe" will defat the skin on your hands.

• First time cleaning if something is really dirty (eg 2nd hand kegs I have just bought) I use sodium hydroxide and among other things it is apparently a bactericide and calcium remover. Be really careful using this stuff - it burns like buggery. I use safety goggles and gloves when using it. I add a little surfactant so it can stick to the walls after you give it a shake.

• TSP (trisodium phosphate) is a great degreaser. In Australia this is often marketed as "sugar soap". If you have just modified a keg for a boiler or whatever and have cutting oil all over it then this could be the go. It is not aggressive as sodium hydroxide but that doesn't mean you should handle it.

• For most cleaning I use sodium percarbonate. Adding a bit of surfactant helps it get around. See expresso group head photo below for destaining ability. This is the active ingredient in Napisan (personally I wouldn't use Napisan due to other stuff it contains but that is just me). Although it is generally listed as a cleaner, there seems to be some evidence that it can act as a sanitiser also - it releases H2O2 into solution (up to 15%) - I found this reference on PUBMED which indicates it (H2O2) is an effective sporicide and bacteriostatic.

• A high pressure water jet (like Karcher) is great for blasting away a krausen ring, I find it even removes what look like superficial rust stains (maybe its the "Coke Ring") inside 2nd hand postmix kegs.
• Clean stuff right after you use it. An empty, sealed keg kept in the fridge might be an exception to that.
• I rarely fill kegs right up but add a few litres and shake it up. I rely on the action of a little bit of surfactant to create lots of foam which tends to stick to surfaces. Th exception is a fermenter with a really sticky yeast ring - this usually gets a full soak in sodium percarbonate.

• Some recommendations from other sources, I haven't tried these myself:
• Diversol is a pink powder cleaner and sanitiser that is a mixture of TSP and bleach. It works well, but must be rinsed.

Sanitising

To be honest I haven't had an infection yet so everything I have tried works

For what it is worth, I use an alkaline (high pH) cleaner and acidic (low pH) sanitizer. I figure this produces a pretty unfriendly environment for micro-orgamisms but I haven't done any research on whether this has any basis.

• Sanitise stuff just before you use it.

• Bleach is readily available, cheap and lots of people swear by it. I don't use it routinely however occasionally I make a up a solution to soak tubing, airlocks and that kind of thing. I basically avoid bleach anywhere near my stuff on brewday - chlorine and phenols can combine to make nasty medicinal flavours in your beer at extremely low concentrations.

• I have used phosphoric acid I add some LABSA to foam it up a bit (or just use dishwashing liquid). "Phosphoric acid is registered as a bactericide and disinfectant. It is used to disinfect dairy farm milk handling facilities, equipment and dairy animals, and food processing water systems. It is also used to disinfect food processing/handling areas, kitchens, and bathrooms. It may also be used in eating establishments for sterilizing equipment and utensils."

• I generally add some phosphoric-acid/LABSA solution to a container right after cleaning it and giving it a shake every now and then. I am not sure of the shelf life of the solution but I believe it is fairly stable.

• I have used sodium metabisulphite, simply because that's what was on the shelf at my LHBS. According to "Disinfection of an RO System Clearing the Issues" "Sodium metabisulfite is a bacteriostatic agent. It does not kill the bacteria but simply prevents them from replicating." Be careful with this stuff, it isn't a great sanitiser and can cause severe respiratory reactions. If you are meticulous, you can sometimes get away with it, but it's not really worth the risk most of the time. Use one of the other sanitizers recommended here or a reputable commercial homebrew sanitizer (eg Iodophor).

• If it will go in a dishwasher then it should come out reasonably clean and sanitary as long as you use the hottest, steamiest settings and avoid rinse aid.

Keep this all in context, if you have to rinse after you sanitise and your water supply is dodgy then think again. Remember that beer and fermentation were originally approaches to making drinking water safe (so I have been told). One reason I use the phosphoric acid solution is that I don't need to rinse it and it has little if any odour.

Suppliers

• Your LHBS.

• Advance Chemicals In Altona will supply stuff like phosphoric acid ¹ and LABS Acid in 1 litre quantities (for under $10). Feel free to do the ringing around for yourself but most other chemical suppliers won't do less than 20 litres. Make your own StarSan clone. The bag of sodium percarbonate pictured below cost me $75 in March 2006.

• Hucon Australia in Bayswater supplies larger quantities but reasonably priced and quite friendly. I purchased 25 kg of sodium percarbonate from them (ok so we go through lots of nappies). If I had my choice again I would try the uncoated sodium percarbonate because the coated stuff takes a little while to dissolve. This stuff is apparently none too shabby on sanitation, it really destains coffee equipment really well. The following picture is of my 6 year old expresso machine group head after dunking it in a warm sodium percarbonate solution for 1 hour. I kid you not, there was no rubbing or scrubbing to get it like this. I didn't realise how dramatic the clean would be - that is why there is no "before" photo.

Cleaning Pics

Ok so its no secret I like sodium percarbonate for brewhouse cleaning applications. And its not because I just heard a rumour about it from some LHBS or on a web forum somewhere, I have used it in many household applications and it is:

• Relatively safe to handle.
• Environmentally friendly decomposing into oxygen, water and sodium carbonate.
• Very effective.
• Inexpensive.
• The missus loves it so much I get to buy it on the grocery budget.

My expresso group head and filter after dunking in sodium percarbonate solution for around 1 hour.

Now with the group head experiment above, I missed the opportunity to do a before and after comparison, so when I cleaned my coffee rocket, I remembered to take a pic before I cleaned it.

Note that the scum is not really baked on, it is that oily coffee film, which certainly doesn't dissolve in the washup water.

A teaspoon in the rocket.

Mmmm shiny. Since the coffee process is not totally unlike the beer brewing process (organic materials, boiling, metal surfaces) you have a fair idea on what it can do for fermenters, kegs etc.

And if you think "you're not a real brewer unless you have a MarchPump", I reckon "you're not a real brewer unless you buy sodium percarbonate in 25 kg lots (or more)".

Summary Info

paul sorenson