Cleaning/sterilising cornies

[jrugman]

After a happy summer quaffing bottles of home brew, I now have to attend to my two neglected cornies and get them really cleaned up for my winter ales. So I propose an overnight soak in washing soda solution followed by a good rinse then a refill with dilute bleach to finish off any remaining nasties that might still be lurking. But on my bottle of thick bleach (not Domestos), not gel, it states "not to be used on metals." It simply states that it contains sodium hypochlorite and sodium hydroxide but no mention of its concentration. Can I use it safely (diluted) in my cornies? If so how long for a soak? If not, what are the alternatives - I live miles from any home brew shop.

Any advice, please, but strictly non-technical - it just turns my grey beard a whiter shade of pale.

Thanks.

John

[jubby]

Bleach is fine for metals, but contact time must be kept to a minimum. About 20 mins is good and rinse well.

[umpa]

After cleaning the keg with a soft souring sponge (white not green type) - I'm luck I can get my arm through the hole ! I mix up 1 cap full of chepo Aldi bleach and leave for 30 mins, pressure the keg and then let it empty from the tap.

Then I rinse the keg and fill up with water - pressure it up and empty it out through the tap again. This might be overkill but since I but so much effort in to mashing - boiling - hopping - fermenting - filtering (I always filter for a Corni) never use finings! I dont want to muck it up - lol

[6470zzy]

Bleach cleaners are in fact NOT good for stainless steel. The chloride ion penetrates the chrome oxide layer that protects the metal then attacks the remainder of the metal components in turn. Get yourself some iodine and dilute that to 12.5 ppm its cheap easy and wont hurt the steel.

Cheers

[umpa]

I'm glad you told me that !!!! - I did not know that. From now on I'll use iodophor.

Thanks

Ump..

[jubby]

Bleach cleaners are in fact NOT good for stainless steel. The chloride ion penetrates the chrome oxide layer that protects the metal then attacks the remainder of the metal components in turn. Get yourself some iodine and dilute that to 12.5 ppm its cheap easy and wont hurt the steel.

Cheers

We are obviously reading different books

[Northern Brewer]

I always use a 1% solution of supermarket bleach or a chlorine based cleaner. VWP confirm on the tub that it's OK with stainless.

The issues arise when it's too strong, or left in contact with the stainless for too long. I once ruined a cornie by leaving it filled with a bleach solution for several weeks. It developed pin holes

[6470zzy]

I always use a 1% solution of supermarket bleach or a chlorine based cleaner. VWP confirm on the tub that it's OK with stainless.

The issues arise when it's too strong, or left in contact with the stainless for too long. I once ruined a cornie by leaving it filled with a bleach solution for several weeks. It developed pin holes

I can see your view point, however my stainless 2.5 gallon cornies are too dear to me and I won't trust them to the bleach.


Cheers

[boingy]

Palmer:

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixB.html

[Northern Brewer]

My main brewing detergent is good old dishwasher powder. I went through a phase of simply using that in my cornies and then following a couple of hot rinses I would fill the keg with a kettleful of boiling water, fit the lid, give everything a good shake and vent some of the boiling water via the out post. Kegged maybe 50 brews this way without seeing any infection. Thinking about it, I'm not really sure why I reverted to using bleach. Probably calculated it was cheaper at the time, but never dialled in the possible cost of cornie replacements!

[wilfy1970]

Hello Northern Brewer,

What sort of a mix do you use with the dishwasher powder, and how do you clean the inside of the keg, shake and soak or lightly scrub?

Thanks.

[Northern Brewer]

What sort of a mix do you use with the dishwasher powder, and how do you clean the inside of the keg, shake and soak or lightly scrub?

It depends upon what I'm using it for. For day to day washing out of fermenters and boilers I use approx one level tablespoonful in a gallon of warm water and a dishcloth. If you try this you will find that the solution feels very slippy between your fingers and is a very effective detergent. I have previously soaked away the yeast ring from a fermenter simply by diluting a rounded tablespoonful to a full fermeneter. However, I normally wash out boilers and fermenters immediately, so the first method works out fine.

With kegs, I leave them with the dregs under pressure until I'm ready to refill them. I then empty them and give a couple of rinses before adding a similar quantity of dishwasher powder, then I fit the lid and give the keg a good shake, empty and rinse a couple of times before refilling to the brim with water containing 200ml Morrisons' bleach. After 10 minutes I empty and rinse 3 times with cold water. I always vent the dip tube at the start of cleaning and when the keg is filled with sanitiser as part of this process. I either re-use some of the sanitiser to treat the lid and O ring, or boil these up separately if sanitising the keg with a kettleful of boiling water.

With bottles I firstly rinse them out, then use 1 teaspoonful of dishwasher powder in hot water, which I transfer from bottle to bottle, giving each a good shake in the process.

[WishboneBrewery]

Would a good soak with soda crystals do the job of cleaning?

[Andy]

I use an oxygen-based cleaning agent, Oxyclean or similar. Does the biz fine. Have used Soda crystals also with good results.

[WishboneBrewery]

For my first time cornie cleaning I've just done a quick rinse with a mild bleach solution followed by a swish around with Sodium met, and left to drain and dry until I need them