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Chemicals for cleaning brass

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  • Chemicals for cleaning brass

    Hi, young brewing pup here who until know has been spoiled by the modern age of stainless steel.

    We have a valve in our filling equipment that's partly made of brass, and I'm not sure what to use for cleaning and sanitizing.
    Hot water works in the short run for sanitizing, but I'd like some desinfectant to use in a bath for the parts.

    So, what are my alternatives?

  • #2
    Acid will clean it right up, but at the cost of removing metal.

    I might suggest a medium strong solution of an acid-based sanitizer? Beware, though...it will eat at valve seats, knife edges and check valve seats, leading to failure. It takes about a year for a brass check valve to fail in an area that sees a daily caustic-rinse-acid-rinse cycle. But I can buy a LOT of $7 brass check valves for the cost of a $128 stainless check valve :-D

    Nat

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    • #3
      We use a mild caustic solution for cleaning and hot (190+) water and/or dilute Sanadyne (iodine/phos acid) for sterilizing, with a periodic acid wash. Our brass valves on our hot liquor system need replacing much more often than those in the product stream that are cleaned as above.

      Curiously, our supplier is currently getting SS fittings and valves for considerably less than brass or bronze. Go figger.
      Timm Turrentine

      Brewerywright,
      Terminal Gravity Brewing,
      Enterprise. Oregon.

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