New Brewer: Recommendations for Brewery Chemicals

[Mills]

Hello all,

What are your recommendations for caustic, acid, and sanitizing stainless brewhouse equipment? I am a total rookie when it comes to pro side products.

Thanks,
Mills

[GlacierBrewing]

Hello all,

What are your recommendations for caustic, acid, and sanitizing stainless brewhouse equipment? I am a total rookie when it comes to pro side products.

Thanks,
Mills

Hi Mills,
Five Star Chemicals in Commerce City, Colorado, just outside Denver.

Prost!
Dave

[Frankentrostjim]

Mills,
Check out Debbie at Enerco 800-292-5908 or dsmith@enercocorp.com Michigan based (Grand Ledge) and a big supporter of the industry in Michigan!

[BrewinLou]

Birko has the best.

http://www.birkocorp.com/

Bru R Ez is the best cleanser I have ever used, caustic or noncaustic.

They have a fantastic selection of high quality acids, caustics, non-caustics, foamers and non-foamers.

[el_mocoso]

Lou,

I went from 5-star to Birko for one order, then realized how much more ammt. of Birco CIP powdered chemicals were needed. I just switched back for cellar and fermenter. I bought liquid for brew house from them and I am happy with that.

[barleywhiner]

For my $$$

I have used Five Star, Birko, Loffeler...

They are marketing themselves heavily to the brewing industry and they all make great products. Here is what I am currently using and why.

Caustic:
Zep FS CIP cleaner. By far and away the strongest caustic cleaner I have ever used. Far cheaper than anything from the the three mentioned above. Needs no de-foamer during CIP. Once a month I will do a 2% caustic + 1% Chlorine cycle on my brewhouse (never let the temp rise above 140F) followed by a passivation cycle.

Acid:
Every manufacturer makes a Phosphoric/Nitric acid cleaner. How much you have to use it will depend on your equipment and what your level of anal retentiveness is. I am currently using Loffeler, but when that runs out, I will probably be using Zep as their prices are better and I don't have to pay for shipping. All 304/316 stainless equipment should be passivated at least once quarterly.

Non-caustic cleaner:
In my career I have tried just about all of them. Sodium metasilicate is the main ingredient in the better powdered products. It is pretty $$$ but I have yet to find something that works better than PBW. I don't use it on my fermenters, but I rotate between this and caustic for my brewhouse CIP. Some of the proteins and other organic solids that this will clean is pretty shocking. Can work as well as chlorinated caustic in some applications.

Sanitation: Iodophor works fine for a soak bucket but foams up when used with a pump and spray ball. Some will ardently push PAA (peroxyacetic acid; Loffeler) and others will tell you chlorine dioxide is the best. Still others use Starsan or something similar. PAA and chorine dioxide are both fairly dangerous, especially their fumes, but they have the widest kill range. I am no chemist, but I think that chlorine dioxide is both a little more dangerous and has a wider kill range. Again, I have found the price from Zep for both to be far cheaper than the 3 that market to the brewing industry.

Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Jeff

[grassrootsvt]

Chemical

Talk to a local dairy farmer and ask who they are using for a supplier.
Enerco is too expensive.
Five Star is too expensive.
Birko is cheaper but their concentrations are weak.
I haven't used Loeffler...
Generally, any chem company that is targeted at the brewing industry charges more for their product. Chemical is chemical (ie. % sodium hydroxide is the same, regardless of who manufactures it!).
Save money. Shop around. Look for chem suppliers not targeted at the brewing industry...

[grassrootsvt]

Sure, Brian.
And, most of the time, new brewers end up paying more chemical because they are allowing the chemical company (ie. company "specializing" in the brewing industry) to tell them what they need. We've all read "What is Enlightenment" ... right? Anyway... no, I'm not talking about homebrew equipment and pricing from Chem companies that market to "home" brewers...

[pbutlert]

We are using Shephard Bros. chemicals. Good prices, and great results.

[HinduKush]

Birko has the best.

http://www.birkocorp.com/

Bru R Ez is the best cleanser I have ever used, caustic or noncaustic.

They have a fantastic selection of high quality acids, caustics, non-caustics, foamers and non-foamers.

This.

IMHO, 5 star is over rated and over priced. PBW can't hold a candle to Bru-R-Ez. (PBW was knocked off Bru-R-Ez after a great article on non-caustic cleaners in New Brewer back in the 90's. The article presented all the R & D that Birko did with a metallurgist to develop Bru-R-Ez.)

[kugeman]

It depends a bit on your water & shipping costs. I've used PBW in both hard and soft water locations, and with a soft water location I was able to use it effectively at about 1/2 the recommended strength.

But the deciding factor for me has been shipping cost and convenience. My malt supplier (North Country Malt, or I guess just Country Malt Group now) will throw a 5 gallon pail or 4 x 1 gallon box onto the pallet of malt I order. So the shipping cost is basically nil. AND it all comes as part of the malt order I'm already getting. It makes things way easier. But I'm also in a 7bbl brewpub, so if you're ordering in larger quantities you might find something different works better for you.

All of the suppliers & products mentioned are good and will get the job done. Just find out what works for you.

[TwoFisted]

There is some great info in here. Subscribed...

[bütterknüt]

We use Lerapur 283 as a caustic soak for a day or two and then a Peracetic rinse on brew day.

http://www.loefflerchemical.com/tanks.htm

[Greenbushguy]

PBW, Hell ya!

This.

IMHO, 5 star is over rated and over priced. PBW can't hold a candle to Bru-R-Ez. (PBW was knocked off Bru-R-Ez after a great article on non-caustic cleaners in New Brewer back in the 90's. The article presented all the R & D that Birko did with a metallurgist to develop Bru-R-Ez.)

I disagree. I have used both side by side to clean dirty fermenters. You can get the same effect of PBW with Bru-R-Ez but it took more in my experience. Any upfront savings at our brewery was negated by dosing quantities. We're still using PBW. It works great . Usually you can get away with using half to three quarters of what they recommend and still get the job done. Just my personal experience.

[TGTimm]

Who makes and sells PBW? I've seen it mentioned frequently, but never with the manufacturers name.