Cold rinsing caustic

[Bierkoenig]

Anybody using cold water (as is municipal/groundwater temp) to rinse caustic from vessels or kegs. Curious about folks' experiences and validations.

[brewmaster 2011]

I use it to rinse my kegs after I do a cellar master run and havn't had any issues.

[Bierkoenig]

What's your water rinse volume and or duration?

[brewmaster 2011]

100 gallons 5 min

[Bierkoenig]

100 gallons 5 min

Meaning that you have 100 gal of rinse water that is reused during a keg cleaning run?

[Ted Briggs]

Caustic should be rinsed hot.

[Bierkoenig]

Way to contribute to the discussion.

Looking for more experiences of folks that are cold-rinsing caustic from vessels or kegs. I've seen it mentioned in passing on several threads, but have not found a specific discussion of it. Anyone else?

[brewmaster 2011]

For my kegs I clean manualy so i take the stem out and fill them 2/3 full with cold water after cellar master and turn them upside down to drain. i also do the same thing after my acid rinse.

[brewking69]

Cold rinse is fine. Rinse time will correlate to caustic strength.

Phenolphthalein indicator will let you know when the rinse water is clear of caustic.

Following acid wash will sort out any residual caustic and beer stone.

PAA final rinse or will help sterility.

[liammckenna]

Burst rinse with hot water until the rinsings feel "clean" (not slippery). Usually takes two or three or four. (Burst rinse til you see flow, shut the water off and let the tank drain.)

Start cooling the tank, ensuring vacuum relief functioning.

Use cold to slake the tank to the desired temperature.

That's the way I do it and always have.

Very early in my career, someone explained that the initial hot rinse helps to remove any remaining 'loose' protein prior to slaking the heat from the tank. Whether this is true or not, it kind of makes sense to me.

I have also observed that it takes a lot more volume of water to lose that 'slippery' feel when rinsing with cold vs hot.

Test strips (simple and cheap) can give a more reliable 'feel' for it all.

Pax.

Liam