Aeration Stone CIP

[aswissbrewer]

I have trouble getting my metal aeration stone clean. It keeps getting clogged up on me. I have to regularly dismantle it and soak it inside and out, usually with phophoric acid.

A real pain, any suggestion out there for a good "in line" cleaning method?

[Jephro]

Well i am cleaning mine now i will post the pic if i can get it from my phone to my PC. Just make a hose to run from a pump or keg cleaning station and blow/recirc caustic, acid, sani through it. I run cycles with the stone soaking in the chemicals.

[monkeybrewer]

Stone CIP

I simply soak the stone in a 3% caustic solution over night after use. I then rinse it clean by forcing hose water through it the normal direction of the gas. It then gets at least a half an hour in a 2% phos. bath. Then a quick rinse and into my iodine storage bin. Including it in a CIP can work but there is a danger of actually clogging it depending upon what is being CIP'd. I wouldn't worry if its a bright tank CIP but a fermenter CIP may have too much soil load and may do you more harm than good. Hope this helped.
Cheers
Jay Brown
Brewmaster
Legends Brewpub
Plattsburgh, NY

[Michael Murphy]

I used to soak mine in Caustic but I found that the dirt would resettle after the caustic power diminished (overnight) I recently soaked them in ethynol alcohol and they are much more "free flowing". I have a steam outlet which I can hook up various quick connects, such as my carb stone and co2 hoses, but it only hits 1 bar before it blows off, before I couldnt get steam through the stones even after caustic soaking, I tried the alcohol and it came out like new...

[BrewinLou]

Good question, I learned this one the hard way. I soak ours in caustic after removal from the tank. I often found one of the stones would be clogged more often then naught. What I found really worked was before I pulled the stone out of the caustic blow some co2 through it, just for a minute. This seems to blow the stones out very well. Then I insert the stone in a hose and back flush it with 180 degree water for 20 min,(you have to remove the backflow preventer) then back to the tank for the sanitization cycle. Right before the tank is used it is hot rinsed, we blow co2 in during the hot rinse. Have not had a problem sinse.

[dick murton]

We used to take them out and clean them up in the lab in an ultrasonci bath - with some sort of detergent - sorry, forgotton what, but I guess it isn't that critical

[DavidS]

After the tank is drained we put the stone in a diluted water/caustic solution, allowing it to soak for a while. When we are ready to clean/sanitize the tank for the next use, we rinse the stone with a a high pressure jet of hot water inside and out. After this the stone is placed in a pressure cooker for 30 or more minutes.
When assembling the stone to be placed back in the tank, we handle the stone with surgical gloves. This prevents any skin oils, grime etc. from clogging the stone.
This process works like a charm

DS