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Post by drez on Jul 15, 2020 8:34:27 GMT -6
o How often do you break down your kegs and give them a good cleaning?
My kegs go on a keg cleaner with PBW or equivalent each time they kick. I will change o-rings as needed.
o How often do you clean & sanitize your draft lines?
Not as much as I should but I try for every second run. I have changed all my hoses out to barrier lines recently and plan to get in a good cleaning routine.
o When you save yeast in a flask, Mason jar, etc., do you just clean & sanitize it or do you use boiling water?
Boiling water
o How many times might you use the same yeast before retiring it?
I use a lot of dry yeast and overbuild starters so I do not use slurry that often
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Post by Leftympfrmde on Jul 15, 2020 9:01:32 GMT -6
"summer micro-flora" is interesting; things tend to grow in warmer months; and that can be controlled if you want to acid wash your yeast; but that's something i won't bother with even on a 3 BBL commercial level; dump trub, harvest yeast, chill, decant and make a starter- if it has a good drop in gravity and pH, and passes the smell test no worries.
also, at home I tend to go overboard with cleaning and sanitizing; all my cold side gear is stainless minus tubing; every each session there is a PBW cycle with micro srubbies to clear any speck of gunk in the fermentors or kettles. after each keg kicks, a complete tear down, pbw cycle and grease the gaskets and poppits.
one the commercial side, its expected. even run a beer stone removal chemical after every 3rd brew to keep the conicals and hot side in check. the commercial side has some gnarly chemicals available, and they do the job well, but, i wouldn't want them in the garage; a lot of things can go wrong quick; i already lost a pair of work pants due to a splash undiluted caustic.
o How often do you break down your kegs and give them a good cleaning?
after every beer. replace gaskets as i see fit.
o How often do you clean & sanitize your draft lines?
every 30 days.
o When you save yeast in a flask, Mason jar, etc., do you just clean & sanitize it or do you use boiling water?
PBW cycle, dishwasher, star-san.
o How many times might you use the same yeast before retiring it?
gone as far as 7 generations.
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Post by Ken on Jul 15, 2020 9:57:00 GMT -6
It would figure that I might do a subpar job on the crappiest part of the hobby... cleaning and sanitizing. The tricky part with this area (and yeast) is that things happen on such a small scale. You don't really KNOW that you have something completely clean and sanitized. Drez, I like your concept of boiling a flask before adding yeast to it. There may be some here who think "hello? that's why we have sanitizers!" but sometimes I feel like I'll do a little scorched Earth first... then clean and sanitize and that's what I've been doing with these kegs, tubing, etc. I have this Bayern yeast in a flask in the fridge now and plan to brew with it again this weekend. It's been used in three batches. I carefully poured off some of the flat, clear beer and took a sip of it. None of this flavor. Zero. I'm going to continue to crank up the cleaning & sanitizing and go a little overboard and see how it goes. I plan to clean & sanitize the draft lines tonight as well. Cheers guys.
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