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Cleaning 8.5bbl Boil Kettle

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  • Cleaning 8.5bbl Boil Kettle

    Posted this in another thread as well.

    Good morning everyone. I was recently hired as head brewer at a local place. First brew I did a week ago never reached a good rolling boil. There were some issues with the steam boiler. So there was little left on the sides of the kettle to clean. Had it spotless after a while. Well this last brew day the problem with the boiler was fixed. Had some close calls with boil overs but managed to beat them back. Well needless to say, this time there was a lot to clean. What would you recommend for cleaning. I did a hot water rinse through the spray ball and that did a good job. Is there something else I can run through the spray ball? I can always scrub of course but didn't know if there was a preemptive step. Thanks for any help.

  • #2
    PBW or Caustic

    We cycle both our whirlpool and kettle together through our heat exchanger.

    1. First we back flush heat exchager with Hot Liquor then set up for our cycle.
    2. What we do is we use either PBW and Sani-clean or Caustic and Sani-clean. We use PBW more often than not because it is much easier but be sure to rinse the hoses well as PBW can corrode the inside of the hoses.
    3. Run your cycle (sometimes it takes longer than 20 minutes to sufficiently clean the kettle after a long day). Turn on the jackets and set the temp somewhere between 140 and 160 degrees to keep you solution at temperature.
    4. Drain and Rinse well with hot liquor. Cool everything down for Sani cycle.
    5. Run Sani cycle pack out the heat exchanger with sani-solution prior to drain kettle and whirlpool.

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    • #3
      I'm not sure of the formulation of PBW, but if it contains chlorine, I strongly suggest you DON'T use it routinely. Chlorine is liable to chew its way through stainless in next to no time at all where the plate dimples meet (to keep the plates apart) and at the edges of the gaskets, where the chemicals hide under the non glued edges, and there will always be some areas after a while.

      If you are passing chemical through a sprayhead of some sort, and not ponding your kettle, then don't put the heating on, as all it generally does is bake on any fouling. If you cover all heating surfaces with a pond of caustic, then fine, turn them on as noted.

      If I am right in my interpretation, it has been suggested using a sanitiser. Why bother? save money, time and water by simply rinsing off the caustic. This kit is going to have wort in it at boiling point - no brewery type bugs are going to survive that.
      dick

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      • #4
        PBW is non-chlorinated

        PBW is non-chlorinated so there are no problems there. CMC is the Chlorinated version of PBW, as Dick said don't use it it will ruin your equipment pretty quick. As far as sanitizer goes we are basically using the kettle and whirlpool as a grant to get the sanitizer mixed in well prior to packing out the heat exchanger. The cycle is usually 5 minutes or less just enough to get the sanitizer mixed the contact time for the sanitizer comes from sitting in the heat exchanger.

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