CLEANING BARREL

[andyjc]

What is the best way to clean and sanitise a barrel after beer inside has all been drunk!

[BrewStew]

a barrel brush and a powerful stream of water from a garden hose or shower head

oh and your usual fermenter sanitiser before you rack the next batch into it

additional: it's also worth unscrewing the tap and giving that a good clean, as i've found sediment likes to hide from you

[andyjc]

Is it best to strip the s30 valve from the cap of barrel before cleaning....?

[BrewStew]

tbh i don't tend to pay much attention to the cap, as my beer has never come into contact with it for it to be a concern for me (although i do leave it in sanitiser for 10 mins while the rest of the sanitiser is at work in the barrel just before i plan to rack something to it), if you think it's a bit gunked up then leaving it to soak in sanitizer for an hour wouldn't hurt i suppose, but i don't know what the long term effects would be on the rubber release valve.

I don't think taking it apart would be totally necessary unless your previous brew vented itself and the beer foamed through it.

[Steve1262]

Hi Guys & Gals.
On the back of the original question has anyone found a good way of steralising large vessels without using copious amounts of water and extortionate amounts of powder ?
For example, one should be able to treat a 200ltr barrel with a litre of solution if you could get it to flow over it's entire surface by some means.
What I had in mind was something like a sparge pipe arrangement with the solution being pumped around continuously while it steralised the vessel if it would flow over it's surface.
Small kit as we know is easy, 5 Litres in a container with your kit chucked in it and away you go.

Any ideas. Regards Steve