Brewery Chemicals - Zep vs Five Star

[BrewSD]

I am finalizing my decision on what chemicals to use in the brew house. I have always planned on using 5 Star, but I've received a very competitive quote from Zep for brewery cleaning products. Does anyone have experience with Zep products? Here are the products I am looking at:

R-5886 Fortified Brewery Cleaning Powder | R-5886 is a buffered alkaline CIP detergent that effectively substitutes for caustic cleaners. Safe on soft metals such as stainless steel, aluminum, and on plastics. R-5886 uses active oxygen to penetrate carbon or protein soils. Free-rinsing, not effected by hard water.

FS Low-Foam Acid Sanitizer | Zep FS Low Foam Acid Sanitizer is designed for use in no-rinse applications. It is suitable for use in CIP systems; it both sanitizes and acidifies in use. .Zep FS Low Foam Acid Sanitizer is a non-corrosive formulation will not create metal integrity issues. USDA applicable.

FS Formula 3685 | Premium blend, low-foam, acid cleaner with a proprietary blend of boosting chemicals to give more effective beerstone removal than phos-nitric solutions.

[wailingguitar]

Honestly, I wouldn't mess with either… I highly recommend Birko and Loeffler

[BrewSD]

Honestly, I wouldn't mess with either… I highly recommend Birko and Loeffler

Thanks - any other suggestions? FWIW, We're a small 3 BBL Brewery.

[wailingguitar]

If you like a non-caustic cleaner, I would recommend Birko specifically. The reps at Birko and Loeffler are really good folks. When it comes to brewing chemicals Dana Johnson and Dirk Loeffler may well be the most knowledgeable guys in the industry.

I am using Birko because I like their BruREze and CellRMastr non-caustic cleaners. I use them for all of my basic CIP needs. Using their UltraNiter with XPuma for keg cleaning and their BirkOx PAA for santi. Very happy with the products and results. Dana Johnson, the brewery rep, is the man.

[CharlosCarlies]

We're using Loeffler at the moment and as mentioned above, definitely at least check with the brewery specific companies like Loeffler, Birko, 5-Star etc. We have a friend that was a sales rep at Zep and even the "buddy price" wasn't really any better and they had very minimal knowledge of brewery specific applications. Being able to call your rep up and get quality information on your specific application was extremely valuable for us.

[FourSeasonsBrewing]

Brewery Chemicals - Zep vs Five Star

I use zep products. I've had no issues and my sales rep is very knowledgeable. Im also a 3 bbl. I use FS CIP CLEANER, acid 3685, and Peroxy-serve 5. When I compared prices with shipping zep was the lowest. Also many small micros around me use zep and I was very familiar with their products.

[MatthewS]

I have used all of the above. I will echo that Dirk and Dana both know their stuff. Loeffler and Birko are great options. Certain products from 5star are ok, but they are my least favorite. I had a great experience and deal with zep years ago. My sales rep was great! He knew his stuff very well. even got me on PAA very early on in my career before other local breweries even knew about it. I converted a few of those guys real quick Best part working with Zep was that they have an enormous catalog of other products that brewpubs could benefit from. even got stuff for my car here and there. they were always willing to 'donate' pumps and other cool gear with the purchase of chem. squeegees and such were also fairly priced.
Best thing to do is also look at shipping. depending on where you are, there may be a great local option.

[BrewSD]

Thanks everyone for your feedback!

[Buckley]

Another vote for Loeffler or Birko

[RedBrickJon]

We used Loeffler for a long time but have recently switched to a company called Craft Chem (craft-chem.com). Better prices and customer service.

[Thirsty_Monk]

For some reason I had a terrible experience with Birko.