Removing Beer Stone

[J_P]

Hi All

I was wondering if anyone had any tips for removing beer stone from my fermenters please?

I believe it's calcium oxalate precipitate which some breweries remove with acid, I have tried lemon juice with only minor success and I am understandably reluctant to try vinegar. Folks I know have tried industrial dairy cleaner with no success. Are there any readily available cleaning products out there that will help?

The stone doesn't affect the beer as such but I'm worried it may provide a place for beer spoiling bugs to hide out.

Cheers in advance

John

[steve_flack]

The proper stuff is a phosphoric acid/nitric acid blend but that's a bit nasty - even I'd have second thoughts about that one.

You could try PBW or another percarbonate-based cleaner I guess.

[J_P]

Cheers for that Steve. I've done a little googling for "Percarbonate Cleaners" and it seems to be present in the so called "Oxi Cleaners" and dishwasher tabs.

If I've read the interweb right then it's OK to use on plastic but it would be unadvisable to use it on aluminium or stainless steel, does this sound about right to you or am I barking up the wrong tree?

[Garth]

John, the 'Wizz' Oxicleaner that was discussed a while back on here has 30% Sodium Percarbonate in it,

I think Tesco still sell it, it's dirt cheap. I have a tub for particulary stubborn crap on fermenters and cornies, it seems to do the trick, much stronger than soda crystals, on the label it says its fine for stainless as under 'uses' it lists dishwashers.

at that price, it's worth a go,

[Vossy1]

You can get it for a quid in the pound shop...if you have one
Co-op also had it on offer recently,

[BlightyBrewer]

Tis true DaaB. I had my hair cut up here in the Midlands and it was 40% cheaper than down south at a comparable barbers.

[Chris B]

Hmmmmmm DaaB living upto his name!

[Vossy1]

You don't get much for a pound down south

You need euro's or leks down there

[J_P]

You don't get much for a pound down south

You need euro's or leks down there

I think they only accept arms and legs when you're buying beer down there these days

[AT]

Pah, no scabby Euros down here mate, I wont be going back to the continent now they're using Mickey Mouse money.

Hey what did you say about our scabby currency

[J_P]

Well initial results with an Oxi Cleaner are favourable.

Initial scrubbing with a small amount of the cleaner lifted the vast majority of it, a long soak removed all but the most stubborn bits which were swiftly polished off by another quick scrub. I'm not sure how the stuff will work on some of the deposits of beer stone I have seen but they did the trick in my fermenter so that's a start. I think it will become part of my cleaning routine as I reckon it'll be good at preventing the build up rather than cleaning off great thick deposits.

Thanks for the advice