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CIP for tanks that sat for 2 years

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  • CIP for tanks that sat for 2 years

    Hi Folks,
    This is my first post on here as I'm new to the professional brewing community after deciding to leave a different career of 15 years. ProBrewer has been an excellent resource for me as I make this change. I've reviewed several threads on a variety of topics, including this thread.

    We are resurrecting a 7 bbl brewhouse under new ownership and the FVs (4, 7bbl and 3, 14bbl) have been closed up for the past ~ 2 years, one tank was full of spoiled beer and the others with full cones of trub. The old CIP process consisted of the following (quick overview) steps (all tanks were previously opened and sprayed with hot water to loosen/remove solids):
    1. 1% caustic (CirQLate) for 15 min, mixed at 170'F (total of 15 gal in 7bbl tanks)
    2. 1.5% acid (Ultra Niter) for 15 min, mixed at 150'F (total of 15 gal in 7bbl tanks)

    Upon inspection of the tanks, they were a lot cleaner than before, but there are remnants of the krausen ring and other biosolids. There appears to be some beer stone as well.

    My thoughts were to (a) pre-rinse with a hot water loop, (b) up the concentrations of the caustic and acid by 0.5-1%, and (c) lengthen the loop times. CIP is done with the manway door closed without the gasket, so volume loss from my initial 15 gal starting volume is a concern before the time is up. Perhaps I can affix the gasket and just crack the manway door enough to vent slightly, or crack the PRV, and up my starting vol?

    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks and Cheers.

  • #2
    In a nutshell, you have simply got to reclean until clean - no magic, it is simply this kit has had the craps dried on it for so long, it just takes a bit more effort to clean.

    I am not in the US, so these specific materials are not familiar to me. However as they are sold by Birko, I assume they are completely suitable - providing your water is not stupidly hard. I would simply up the caustic strength to 2% and leave circulating for longer at the same temperature. Are you able to heat the caustic whilst circulating? I would be tempted not to use a hot water pre-rinse. as this sometimes cooks the proteins and makes them harder to remove. You could also try adding hydrogen peroxide (Pur-ox) to the caustic as this will normally help to break up residues - contact your Birko rep for usage rates. I know not everyone is a great fan of chlorinated caustic, but for simple pipework and tanks, I have used it happily for years. The main concerns are rinsing thoroughly afterwards to ensure no hypochlorite is left that could be decomposed in acid conditions. I usually do a caustic & hypo clean, rinse thoroughly and reclean with non chlorinated caustic before rinsing and acid washing if necessary. But don't use chlorinated caustic on plate heat exchangers unless really forced to - too many crevices to trap chlorine residues. Having said that, I have used chlorine on PHEs - before H2O2 came into use, without problems.

    Once cleaned, re-rubber the whole system as they are likely to have started going brittle, and cracking, so creating bug traps and possibly poor seals. That also goes for the wort /beer plate chillers, and hoses.

    dick

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    • #3
      Thanks much! I did indeed call Birko and spoke with Dana. We added a third step to our existing SOP that involve Bru-R-EZ and the tanks came out shiny!

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