Hx Protocol

[LongLiveLagers]

What's your heat exchanger protocol?

Hot rinse, caustic, rinse, pack with water? Leave open to air dry? Pack with disinfectant? Back flush when? Use a beerstone remover like nitric or phos?

After reading multiple threads about infection from the heat exchanger, I wanted to get an idea of a yearly QA/QC routine. Our HX is about two years old and I want to make sure no "biofilm" builds up. That stuff scares me.

Kevin Davey
Chuckanut Brewery

[Geoff Logan]

Here's my routine:

1.) Post knockout, hook hose to kettle spray ball
2.) Flush with hot water
3.) Run Caustic.
4.) Drain, rinse with hot water.
5.) Reverse hose direction.
6.) Run Caustic and oxidizer.
7.) Rinse with hot water.
8.) Run Nitro/Phos. cycle.
9.) Rinse with cool water.
10.) Run PAA cycle and leave packed. (If left unused for a couple days, repeat PAA cycle before use just to be anal.)

Every 2 months, run heavy acid cycle. Every 6 months, open up that bad boy and check gaskets and cleanliness. Oh what fun it is! Hope that helps.

Geoff

[aorrick]

Hey Kevin-

My cycle is:

After knock out, hot water rinse in process direction.
Back flush w/ caustic cycle.
Hot water rinse in process direction.
Day of brew, caustic cycle in process direction.
Hot water rinse.
Pack with sanitizer.
Every 5th or so brew, run an acid wash and pack overnight.
Every 6 months, disassemble and wash and inspect by hand.

Never had any problems using this routine.


It's been a couple years. How's things up in B-Ham?

Adam Orrick
Grove Street Brewhouse,
Shelton WA

[LongLiveLagers]

Every 2 months, run heavy acid cycle. Every 6 months, open up that bad boy and check gaskets and cleanliness. Oh what fun it is! Hope that helps.

Geoff

So you're saying I should take apart my hx? Shoot, I really don't want to do that. It's been in use for over two years. Do you find lots of build up when you take it apart?

[imakewort]

after knockout we backflush with warm water while opening and closing the heat exchangers output valves. then a hot caustic solution (170-200F) wash in the knockout direction and leave packed with caustic. make sure to turn your stone on and rinse it.

we open our heat exchanger up every couple months to check it and its always very clean. we brew anywhere from 3 - 6 times a week.

[Eric Brewer]

So you're saying I should take apart my hx? Shoot, I really don't want to do that. It's been in use for over two years. Do you find lots of build up when you take it apart?

I found lots of build up when I took mine apart (learned it'd been three years since the last tear down). And the batch prior to taking it apart developed a lacto infection resulting in the loss of a few thousand in materials, two weeks, and upset customers who aren't getting their hefe on time.

It really isn't that hard. And it's most certainly worth the effort -- if only to discover your HX is squeaky clean, and is likely not the cause of anything that goes awry.

[LongLiveLagers]

Alright, I'm taking mine apart.

I know that it can't be that hard, but I've heard some horror stories and I don't want to add repair cost/down time for the brewery. I had it drilled in my head at Doeman's that taking them apart can be a real nightmare. I tried a few other things, pulsing, higher temps, more caustic, etc and found lots of build-up. Thanks Eric Brewer! Your infection got me off my ass to keep my hx cleaner.

I guess that's why forums are so great,
Kevin Davey
Chuckanut Brewery

[Moonlight]

The aeration stone is too easily overlooked as a source of infection.
I finally traced a coliform infection there. If you think about it, most protocols don't have a method for running cleaning solution through the pathways of the stone. I had to re-plumb mine with 3/4 inch Tri-clover fittings and valves so that I could flush caustic/sterilant through it and out through the oxygen line. Problem now solved, but imagine how comfortable those creatures were- living in the crevices of the stone and being so well fed every couple days!
This also solved the plugged stone/poor oxygenation in the wort problem. I sleep better at night, too!

[hophead82]

The aeration stone is too easily overlooked as a source of infection.
I finally traced a coliform infection there. If you think about it, most protocols don't have a method for running cleaning solution through the pathways of the stone. I had to re-plumb mine with 3/4 inch Tri-clover fittings and valves so that I could flush caustic/sterilant through it and out through the oxygen line. Problem now solved, but imagine how comfortable those creatures were- living in the crevices of the stone and being so well fed every couple days!
This also solved the plugged stone/poor oxygenation in the wort problem. I sleep better at night, too!

did you have a filter for your oxygen?

[MJMurphy]

Opening up the HX will give you a true measure of the effectiveness of your cleaning. Once or twice a year should be enough, most likely once.

Also, it can give you a chance to check for mineral buildup on the water side (if you have a water only or a two-stage exchange). We have discovered some buildup on ours when we opened it up a few years back after not doing so for a couple years.

A clean heat exchanger not only helps with keeping the beer clean, but ensures that the exchange works as efficiently as it is designed to work. You can waste time and water with a heat exchanger with a lot of buildup.