Acid Rinse Necessary With Acidic Sanitizer?

[JSChicago]

Hi everybody,

If I use a built caustic for cleaning, in moderate-to-soft water (~35 ppm chlorine), does an acidic sanitizer (e.g. StarSan) eliminate the need for a separate acid rinse?

Thanks,

John

[JSChicago]

Sorry, I meant 35 ppm Calcium. That makes more sense, huh?

[Trickster]

I think you need an acid rinse

I believe that a big part of good cleaning in a brewery is the change in pH. For example if you have an Acid rinse, then caustic rinse, and then a acid sanitizer you would be changing you pH 3 times (Acid, Base, Acid). Most bacteria will not be able to survive that amount of pH change in the matter of an hour, along with proper temperature cycles. Hope this helps.

Cheers

[GeorgeJ]

from my understanding, acid inbetween caustic and i.e. peroxyacetic acid.. is the prevention of beer stone primarily.

usually i have done an acid cycle in between every 4 or 5 brews to keep scale down.
doing it every time you brew seems a little too eager to waste chemicals and money.
Rinse, Caustic, Rinse, Peroxyacetic acid has always been fine for me in the past 6 years. Some people like to rinse after peroxide, but i feel it's dangerous as unless all your water is UV treated, you could have all kinds of nasties in it.

However, you can never have things too clean in a brewery. but i feel it is a little waste of time and resources to do an acid wash every time.

[Mike Elliott]

Silica scale.

Brian,

What will remove silica scale? I have some on the outsides of tanks that I can't get rid of.

Cheers,
Mike