Anyone have advice on life of caustic used in a semi automatic keg washer? We just got a new washer and are revisiting the topic.
Background: We're mixing about 50 gallons of 2% caustic that runs for 30 second cycle x 4 kegs on the new washer. Our old rule was 60 washes from 20 gallons of a 2% caustic solution before needing to dump it. As far as anyone knows, that number came from an old brewmaster and no one knows the basis for it.
Chemical supplier says basically if the solution is cloudy you've gone too far, but we'll really need to pull stems and do a bunch of ATP testing to figure out where the bottom end of efficacy is. We are also measuring conductivity of the caustic, but I can't find anything to help establish a minimum value, again other than pulling a bunch of stems and swabbing.
Washer manufacturer says they won't give any advice on chemical use, but they have clients (of unknown volume) who only dump their chems weekly or less often.
Obviously for now we're running on the conservative end and doing ATP swabs regularly, but would like to have a little more science to establish new procedures.
I'd like to find some literature on the topic of it exists, but would be glad to hear your rules of thumb for discussion.
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Background: We're mixing about 50 gallons of 2% caustic that runs for 30 second cycle x 4 kegs on the new washer. Our old rule was 60 washes from 20 gallons of a 2% caustic solution before needing to dump it. As far as anyone knows, that number came from an old brewmaster and no one knows the basis for it.
Chemical supplier says basically if the solution is cloudy you've gone too far, but we'll really need to pull stems and do a bunch of ATP testing to figure out where the bottom end of efficacy is. We are also measuring conductivity of the caustic, but I can't find anything to help establish a minimum value, again other than pulling a bunch of stems and swabbing.
Washer manufacturer says they won't give any advice on chemical use, but they have clients (of unknown volume) who only dump their chems weekly or less often.
Obviously for now we're running on the conservative end and doing ATP swabs regularly, but would like to have a little more science to establish new procedures.
I'd like to find some literature on the topic of it exists, but would be glad to hear your rules of thumb for discussion.
Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk
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