Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

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secondratemime

Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by secondratemime » Tue Mar 08, 2016 9:33 pm

Hi all,

I'm aiming to brew a whole bunch of beer for my wedding next year and have picked up some used stainless casks that I'm really excited about. They're in need of a thorough clean and I've been reading around trying to figure out the best way to do it and have come up against a lot of conflicting advice. Aside from the expected spiders webs and old hops, there appears to be some significant scaling on the inside which I'm guessing is beerstone? The guy that sold them to me suggested a caustic wash, followed by a rinse and then an acid wash which seems like decent advice, but I'm a bit stuck on which noxious chemicals to pick up.

What are the best chemicals to use for this? What kind of safety precautions are necessary - obviously skin and eye protection, but how about disposal?

Also, whats the best method to do all this without the use of a recirculating cask washer? Could I leave the kegs to soak in a half filled flexi-tub (flipping halfway through), or will the caustic/acid eat plastic?

I'm a bit lost, so help me out!

James

secondratemime

Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by secondratemime » Tue Mar 08, 2016 9:45 pm

Also, as an added complication - I've been gifted two more that I'm told are Aluminium (I've not seen them in the flesh yet), so what kind of approach would I take with these?

Mr. Dripping

Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by Mr. Dripping » Wed Mar 09, 2016 10:46 am

The best product I have found for removing beer stone and organic deposits in Antiformin....it is a chlorine based cleaner and disinfectant.
I would give them all a soak in a hot solution of this, maybe at 1.5 times the usual dose.
It is not suitable for aluminium though.
Aluminium is a bit of a funny one.....seen reports of pbw pitting it......I think oxyclean is okay to use.

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Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by rpt » Wed Mar 09, 2016 2:06 pm

I don't think oxiclean is OK on aluminium. TSP is effective at cleaning stainless steel but not sure about aluminium. Be careful with chlorine cleaners on SS as they can cause pitting. To remove beerstone requires acid. None of these products should attack plastic.

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Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by Kev888 » Thu Mar 10, 2016 10:15 am

The aluminium kegs used to have a sort of lacquer on the inside to protect the metal IIRC. This was relatively fragile so if your casks also have it, it could be worth inspecting first to see if the effort of cleaning is going to be worthwhile.
Kev

stuey

Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by stuey » Sat Mar 12, 2016 11:13 pm

Edta is superb for beerstone. Add it into a hot caustic solution. Aim for 70 degrees centigrade for your hot caustic and Edta mixture. Stick a keystone in and top the cask up to the brim through thw shive hole and leave it to soak. Don't close the cask to avoid pressure buildup. It may take a few soaks with the Edta as it removes the beer stone layer by layer. What breweries are the casks from out of interest?

ManseMasher

Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by ManseMasher » Sun Mar 13, 2016 1:57 pm

For ss I use citric acid. 100g from an Asian supermarket cost me 66p, I added it to 50°c water, and it works a charm. It also passivates the metal.

secondratemime

Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by secondratemime » Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:20 pm

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

How long a soaking to they normally need? To save on water and energy I was hoping to siphon from one cask into the next and try to clean as many as possible in one go, but I'm guessing it won't be as effective if its cold.

The guy that I bought them off suggested citric acid, but how strong a solution should I be making?

James

ManseMasher

Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by ManseMasher » Fri Mar 18, 2016 8:03 am

I used 100g in 50l of water, heated it in my HLT to 50°c, left it for about 30 minutes. Then transferred it to the mashtun, another 30 mins then into the copper. I heated it back up to 50°c. It cleaned all 3 no problem. I would say you could do a couple or three casks, topping up with hot and maybe a little more citric as you go along. I was flying by the seat of my pants though....

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Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by orlando » Fri Mar 18, 2016 9:22 am

secondratemime wrote:
The guy that I bought them off suggested citric acid, but how strong a solution should I be making?
Are you sure they were his to sell? You may be able to check on Kegwatch.
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Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by secondratemime » Sat Mar 19, 2016 3:13 pm

[quote="orlando"][quote="secondratemime"]

The guy that I bought them off suggested citric acid, but how strong a solution should I be making?
[/quote]

Are you sure they were his to sell? You may be able to check on [url=http://www.kegwatch.co.uk/]Kegwatch[/url].[/quote]

Pretty certain yeah, I bought them direct from the brewery as they seemed to be going to plastic kegs.

James

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orlando
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Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by orlando » Sun Mar 20, 2016 7:51 am

secondratemime wrote:
orlando wrote:
secondratemime wrote:
The guy that I bought them off suggested citric acid, but how strong a solution should I be making?
Are you sure they were his to sell? You may be able to check on Kegwatch.
Pretty certain yeah, I bought them direct from the brewery as they seemed to be going to plastic kegs.

James
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Re: Thoroughly cleaning stainless steel casks..

Post by phatboytall » Wed Jun 01, 2016 4:45 pm

secondratemime wrote:Thanks for the suggestions guys.

How long a soaking to they normally need? To save on water and energy I was hoping to siphon from one cask into the next and try to clean as many as possible in one go, but I'm guessing it won't be as effective if its cold.

The guy that I bought them off suggested citric acid, but how strong a solution should I be making?

James

I had a similar scenario last summer. The cask I had smelt like it had been storing vinegar (it had Greene King markings on it :D thats a joke kegwatch folks!) Anyway my wife declared it not good enough to ever be used (it was for her friends wedding).

I put the bung in and filled it with a strong mix of soda crystals and a splash of thin bleach for good measure, and left it for about a week. It was then washed out, at this point it looked and smelt pretty bloody good! I think made up a caustic soda solution (prob 1 litre) that I put inside and swirled around for about 5mins. Then I hosed it clean and filled it with water and left for a few days. Emptied and hosed out again. At this point it looked and smelt like new, I filled the beer and used new keystones that the local brewery kindly gave me for free.

The result? Worked perfectly.

Next time I am confident that just step one, a strong Oxi and thin bleach mix will do the job. Others may disagree, and i'd be happy to hear...
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