Putting a Brewery Into Hibernation

[rafters_brewer]

Well, it looks like I'll be putting our 14-barrel brewpub system into hiberation
I don't know how long it will be before beer is made again... Does anyone have recommendations for the best ways to leave the system?
My questions include:
1. Should the HLT/CLT be empty or full?
2. Should glycol reservoirs be empty or full?
3. Should the beer lines (to bar) be empty, filled with caustic line cleaner or sanitizer (peracetic acid)?
4. Should all the fittings/gaskets be removed from fermentation/serving tanks?
5. Is there anything that should be done to the mill/auger/grist case, aside from a quick cleaning?

Any other recommendations? Thanks for all your help.

[Øl-sheik]

3. Should the beer lines (to bar) be empty, filled with caustic line cleaner or sanitizer (peracetic acid)?

you should clean and sanitize them, and them blow it out with CO2 and leave them.

caustic line cleaner and peracetic acid is to agressive to the coating of the lines.

do not leave them under water or you have a hard time getting the rotten flavor out again

we have excellents results leaving the lines of our portable draft systems just filled with beer and clean it again prior use

[Moonlight]

I would (food grade) grease all the mill/auger zirc fittings. Ideally do a little more complete job getting grain dust out, too or you would likely have a beautiful harvest of grain beetles or even rodents. Perhaps leave some nasty rat/mouse bait nearby.
Don't waste the glycol!
I wouldn't worry about triclover gaskets,but manway gaskets likely just keep dry but not compressed.
Mostly, keep the faith! I'll be looking for the beer!

[ifrdriver]

Why

Why are you closing down the Brewery? If you are putting it up for sale.

[BeersmithMT]

Rafters,

Hang in there, hopefully you will be back in production soon! Having purchased numerous pieces of stored used equipment, I have a few suggestions.

For all beer related tanks (and HLT/CLT/MT/Kettle):

Give a thorough CIP & rinse and leave manway doors open. You should consider an acid wash (repassivate if possible) if you happen to have some remaining chemical handy.

Remove manway gaskets, spray/wipe them with some food grade silicone lube (if you have some) and leave inside of tank or zip-tie them to something.

Tri-clover gaskets are usually good for awhile. If it looks like an extended mothballing, you might want to lube those as well.

I would leave the glycol inside of the system for now. It is easy enough to remove later if you need to, but much harder to refill a system. Definitely check the concentration with a hydrometer before restarting operations.

If you have a process steam boiler I would do the following: drain down the system, rinse if you can, and leave boiler valves open to dry out. You can put some screen over open valves to keep debris from getting inside.

Excellent advice has already been given above for the grain equipment and beer lines. Also, if by some chance you do have a silo/bulk bin. I would definitely get rid of the grain now, rather than risk the mess that might occur otherwise. Hope that helps!

[rafters_brewer]

silicone the rubber... good idea

Thanks for the input, guys. Hopefully the equipment doesn't gather too much dust... at least my recent copper polish job should look great for a lot longer than usual.