Removing chlorine from CIP water?

[mattbk]

What's the consensus on removal of chlorine from CIP water, both for caustic cleaning and for rinsing and sanitizing?

I can see the concerns over chlorinated attack on stainless, as well as leaving any residual chlorine on tanks prior to brewing/fermentation as they will be added to wort/beer.

On the other hand, unnecessary filtration of water can be expensive, and I imagine that with very little residual water left after cleaning/sanitization the risk of chlorine carryover to beer would be low.

To be clear, we currently chlorine filter all of our brew water and we may move to RO our brew water in the future; but I am considering some savings in operating costs to tee before these (more expensive) systems to supply water to our cleaning systems. Thanks.

[BuckeyeHydro]

I've seen breweries do it both ways. From what I've seen, dechlorinating the cleaning water is more common.

[WaterEng]

Remember that chlorophenols are recognizable to drinkers in the ppb range and drinking water supplies are chlorinated in the ppm range. So it doesn't take much chlorinated water to muck up a batch.

[barleyfreak]

FWIW, we use filtered water for all FVs, BTs, and the mash tun. We use unfiltered reclaimed water after knock out for the BK. We used to use filtered for this but switched a couple years ago to unfiltered. Have not noticed any loss of efficacy in cleaning, or carryover in taste, though it is just the BK that sees the unfiltered water.

Dave

[BuckeyeHydro]

What's the consensus on removal of chlorine from CIP water, both for caustic cleaning and for rinsing and sanitizing?

I can see the concerns over chlorinated attack on stainless, as well as leaving any residual chlorine on tanks prior to brewing/fermentation as they will be added to wort/beer.

On the other hand, unnecessary filtration of water can be expensive, and I imagine that with very little residual water left after cleaning/sanitization the risk of chlorine carryover to beer would be low.

To be clear, we currently chlorine filter all of our brew water and we may move to RO our brew water in the future; but I am considering some savings in operating costs to tee before these (more expensive) systems to supply water to our cleaning systems. Thanks.

If you have a backwashing carbon tank, like most breweries, the cost of running water through that tank is pretty low. How are you dechlorinating?