Heat Exchanger Cleaning

[brewingnewbie]

found alot of info on how everybody cleans their tanks but not on heat exchangers.
blitzed it today with a good caustic concentration then back flushed it with water and i was amazed at the amount of hops coming out. i dont have a strainer before the ht ex. which would help i'm sure.

usually after the brew i'll back flush it with potable water. then a caustic or pbw wash, rinse, acid cleaner/sanitizer wash, then followed by +180 water rinse/sanitize for 15+ minutes.

should i cip in both directions? how long? what concentrations of chemical are usually used? should it get packed overnight then rinsed? how bout an iodophor packing when not in use?

what do you guys do to keep you ht ex in proper working order?
p.s. i've never have had a sanitation or flavor problem with what i'm doing, i just think i might be inefficient.

thanks

[Guest]

Heat Exchanger Treatment

We flush ours with hot potable water right after brewing, then we backflush with hot potable water. Then we CIP with caustic for 45 mins and allow it to soak overnight in the same caustic. In preparation for the next brewday we flush out the previous caustic and then CIP with ACID #5 along with the Fermentation vessel we are going to fill. Then allow to dry night before brewday. Then sanitize along with Fermentation vessel on brewday. Take apart heat exchanger every 9 months and clean by hand with PBW and ACID 5.
We have had no problems with anything!


Michael Uhrich
Carter's Brewing
Billings, MT

[pbutlert]

I would recommend cleaning in reverse whenever possible. Also you need to have cleaner going at least 1.5 times faster than beer goes through.

[Jephro]

A couple good threads:

http://www.probrewer.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=3742&page=2&highlight=heat+exchanger

http://www.probrewer.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=4925&highlight=heat+exchanger

I alternate Glo San (PBW) and Caustic after brews followed by acid and leave packed under pressure with acid. Sani from FV prior to knockout. And yes as stated a reverse CIP w/ portable pump at least every couple of weeks. When i have time i do like to CIP w/ 200+ water for a couple hours for that complete kill off of the bugs in the nooks & crannys-> Heat will kill in those areas where chems cannot get.

[brewingnewbie]

thanks jephro for the links!

i've got 2 different pumps on my newlands 7bbl brewhouse. one labeled lauter and one wort. i haven't bothered to check the specs on them yet. reading the above links mentioned to cip backwards at a rate 1.5 times faster than wort transfer. is this absolutely necessary?
i do have a variable speed portable pump but i'm thinking it can't flow much more faster than the wort pump.

by the way, made some rootbeer today (a day after i cleaned the heat ex) and i really didn't see the hop particles that i saw yesterday. i am thinking maybe i dislodged some hops stuck in there. it seemed that there was some whole leaf floating around and whole leaf hasn't been used in that brewery for over 1 1/2 years

[Jephro]

reading the above links mentioned to cip backwards at a rate 1.5 times faster than wort transfer. is this absolutely necessary?

Any of your pumps running full speed via the HX is most likely 2-3 as fast as you wort transfer, but IMO the important part is to get some extra pressure in the exchanger to spread the plates apart those extra few microns and flush out the crud. Sometimes i will restrict the outflow just a bit or pulse the valve open and closed, this is when i can actually see the particles that dislodge. I will pulse it 2-3 times and then leave it closed for a moment so i can see the stuff floating in the sight glass that has just been knocked free.

[brewingnewbie]

i definetly saw the biggest clumps of matter shoot out when i restricted and opened the valve.

thanks again for the help

[brewbonghm]

If you are seeing clumps being dislodged, it may be time to disassemble and clean by hand.

[GlacierBrewing]

Hiya',
My procedure is to back-flush 30 minutes w/ PBW at temp, then rinse, then back flush 30 minutes w/ Acid 5 at temp, then rinse, then back flush 15 minutes w/ StarSan. I leave the Heat Ex packed w/ StarSan until I use it again. I've used this protocol at four different breweries with success. Luck to ya'.

Dave