How to Clean Brewing Equipment - Homebrewing

In this how to video we show you how to properly clean brewing equipment using Five Star PBW, or Powdered Brewery Wash. We start this video right after a brew day so you can learn just what it's like to clean your own equipment when you're done brewing. This process is basically as simple as measuring out the correct amount of PBW for the size of your brewing kettle (in this video we're using a 10 gallon kettle), pour it into your kettle, and heat your cleaning solution up as it's recirculating. Sanitation and cleanliness are crucial to making good beer so it's important that you regularly clean your brewing equipment to avoid off flavors. After you clean your equipment with PBW, you can use Star San to sanitize your brewing equipment. It's important to clean and then sanitize your brewing equipment in that order, otherwise your equipment will be sanitary, but not free from debris from your last brew day. Check out the resources below for PBW, brewing equipment, an article about cleaning and sanitizing equipment, and an interesting article about alternate ways to clean and sanitize your brewing equipment.

[gerhard]

"this stuff is pretty aggressive" immediately dunks bare hands in and then touches eyes

[billywray]

i been home brewing 35 years. back then we all used bleach. i still use bleach only but bought some of this i am not sure why. i have never made a bad batch of beer fwiw. i just bought your 110 10 gallon system but have not had a chance to assemble it yet. thanks for the video

[tsimmons]

Are you back-flushing your plate heat exchanger during the cleaning process? We use a much bigger plate high exchanger on the drilling rigs, on rig moves we recommend the customer hook the the pump outlet to the discharge on the plate heat exchanger and flush it with clean fresh water until it the water runs clear on the inlet, and then hook the system back up normally.

[robertbeauregard]

I make my own PBW by mixing TSP-90 and Oxiclean. 3 parts Oxiclean to 1 part TSP-90. Saves me lots of money.

[jerryramirez]

Like the star san rinse out 👍🏽 never thought to do that. Thanks!

[BarkeaterBear]

Sweet! Thanks for posting this! Seems like your brew day clean up is cake compared to mine!

[chrishainey]

Would recirculating the PBW through the spray nozzle not give a better clean of the system?

[Byshox]

You could also not throw away all the clean water you used to chill the Wort and use that to clean your equipment later.

[smitty]

The reason for star san is to passivate the stainless. It can rust if the top layer somehow gets compromised. This is why you can see rust on stainless sometimes.

[jeffmcbride]

Good video. This is one reason I do not use a plate chiller. The time invested in keeping a plate chiller clean is not worth it in my opinion. Deep cleaning of brewing equipment doesn't necessarily need to occur after every single brew session. It looks like the plate chiller is the only reason you are doing so.

[thomsondales]

I use the exact same procedure except I use oxi clean free!! Works great on my robobrew v3

[brewsandbass]

I would run the hose into a strainer bag to collect any junk

[nccitizen]

Thanks for the vid. One thing I never hear that I think should be said is to not dump starsan in a septic system

[dimash]

Wish pbw was not so expensive :-(
13$ per pound can wash 16 gallon keggle ... Once ?

[CreepyCreedy]

That seems like way too much pbw. Mine didn't even fully dissolve and i think i used less.

[LevelUpBrewcade]

question, I just bought the system, where so i set my machine, I noticed you place something underneath what is it?

[srki]

How do you clean the electric burner? I find it very hard to clean after the brew.

[Bodragon]

I just use a damp cloth and plenty of spit.

"Cleaning and sanitation are critical for making good beer"?
Try telling that to the 17th century London brewers.
You'd actually be horrified at the methods and procedures that were employed back then. And they rarely got a bad batch.
In fact, the water they used was often contaminated with all kinds of bacterial nasties but the brewing process actually "sterilised" it.
They'd once used the same cholera infected water source as that had made thousands sick and dead and it was actually noted, at the time that those who drank just the local ale, and not the water, didn't succumb. I'm talking about the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak here.
No, so long as you are relatively clean, there is no need to go over the top so far as sterilising goes.

PS I was joking about the spit.
.

[kahwigulum]

you lost me when you started to heat that vessel
not everyone has a set up like yours
not everyone is brewing beer or needs heat in the first place
bad content

[polarlab]

Wow nice equipment way too much info.I just mix it and wash it and rinse it done deal no fancy toys no long explanations ……..