I live in a tropical country where a friend runs a brewery where he has allowed me to use their smaller system for their pilot batches. The place is pretty filthy. The exteriors of all the fermenters look dusty and covered in dried beer residue, certain areas of the brewery smell rotten, and on all of the glycol lines that run through the place there is a black colored mold covering the insulation of the lines. The insulation is a foam material, wrapped in what looks like a white electrical tape-like material. I guess I'm a bit too nice and felt he was doing me a favor by allowing me in there in the first place and didn't want to burst his bubble by saying, "dude wtf. clean this place!"
Anyway, instead I just asked him, "Hey since you're letting me hang around here and use your stuff at least let me help you do something. How about I just help you clean those fermenters?" He said to go for it and it took serious elbow grease and the green side of a dish spongue to scrub the crap out of the fermenters to even get them moderately clean. Anyway, the thing that bothered me the most was that there was loads of mold all over the glycol line insulation. Taking a wet spongue to it wasn't able to remove the 'mold stains'. I had a few questions about brewery cleaning procedure in a tropical environment- specifically where mold can grow rampantly. I've decided on just being a good friend and telling him about the booger in his nose because it doesn't help him to be 'nice' about it and not tell him how gross it is.
1.) How often should my friend be cleaning the exterior of all his equipment? (There are several 500-1000L fermenters not that it matters)
2.) Is there any solution that can be mixed to dissolve all the nasty mold 'stains'? I was thinking just diluted bleach solution sprayed onto the areas, letting it sit, and then rinsing it off would do the trick but I'm not sure.
3.) Once everything is thoroughly "demolded", what routines can he put in place to ensure it doesn't happen again? Like just spray it with the solution every week or something?
4.) I feel like that disgusting rotten smell is coming from the floor trench. It smells of rotten milk or rotten tooth smell. I was wondering if there is a solution I can suggest to him to "flush" the trench to perhaps get rid of that smell (there are loads of flies all over that place)
I know this all sounds terrible as I was under the impression that big breweries were run like hospitals and were clean as a whistle. I honestly feel embarrassed for him that a small fry like me has the nerve to come into a big brewery and tell him how disgustingly filthy the place is, but I feel it must be done. After all, customers drink the stuff that comes out of that place and I think if a customer ever went on a tour they'd feel very put off and might never want to drink their beer again.
Thanks in advance for the suggestions!
Anyway, instead I just asked him, "Hey since you're letting me hang around here and use your stuff at least let me help you do something. How about I just help you clean those fermenters?" He said to go for it and it took serious elbow grease and the green side of a dish spongue to scrub the crap out of the fermenters to even get them moderately clean. Anyway, the thing that bothered me the most was that there was loads of mold all over the glycol line insulation. Taking a wet spongue to it wasn't able to remove the 'mold stains'. I had a few questions about brewery cleaning procedure in a tropical environment- specifically where mold can grow rampantly. I've decided on just being a good friend and telling him about the booger in his nose because it doesn't help him to be 'nice' about it and not tell him how gross it is.
1.) How often should my friend be cleaning the exterior of all his equipment? (There are several 500-1000L fermenters not that it matters)
2.) Is there any solution that can be mixed to dissolve all the nasty mold 'stains'? I was thinking just diluted bleach solution sprayed onto the areas, letting it sit, and then rinsing it off would do the trick but I'm not sure.
3.) Once everything is thoroughly "demolded", what routines can he put in place to ensure it doesn't happen again? Like just spray it with the solution every week or something?
4.) I feel like that disgusting rotten smell is coming from the floor trench. It smells of rotten milk or rotten tooth smell. I was wondering if there is a solution I can suggest to him to "flush" the trench to perhaps get rid of that smell (there are loads of flies all over that place)
I know this all sounds terrible as I was under the impression that big breweries were run like hospitals and were clean as a whistle. I honestly feel embarrassed for him that a small fry like me has the nerve to come into a big brewery and tell him how disgustingly filthy the place is, but I feel it must be done. After all, customers drink the stuff that comes out of that place and I think if a customer ever went on a tour they'd feel very put off and might never want to drink their beer again.
Thanks in advance for the suggestions!
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