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We all know it, cleanliness is next to Godliness, especially where our craft is concerned. However, not all of us have the luxury of having a completely closed-off, controlled brewery. So we brew where we eat, sleep and do other things. I'm interested to see where we cut corners and what - if any - major or minor effects have been.

Tell Uncle Ruby your "dirty" secrets. Tell me if they had an impact on your brewing. I'll start.

1. I don't sterilise scissors before opening packets of dried yeast. (hasn't had an impact that i'm aware of)

2. I have been known to clean a fermenter quickly after use and then just spray Star-san before I use it. Even if weeks have passed. (I have had a Brett infection passed from a wild brew to a clean brew and I suspect this was why)

3. I am waaaaay too confident in the abilities of Star-san.

Go on - I wont tell!

Uncle Ruby
1. I don't sterilise scissors before opening packets of dried yeast. (hasn't had an impact that i'm aware of)
My teeth are fine!

2. I have been known to clean a fermenter quickly after use and then just spray Star-san before I use it. Even if weeks have passed. (I have had a Brett infection passed from a wild brew to a clean brew and I suspect this was why)

Nope. I have done no chill and let the wort at 100' do the work for me, but the work of brewing makes me more aware of the process and Ill take the time to sanitize.

3. I am waaaaay too confident in the abilities of Star-san.
I do PBW soak for days, rinse and hit with Star-san

LeafMan:
1. Like Uncle Ruby, I don't sterilize scissors before opening packets of dried yeast. I do however sanitize my liquid yeast packs. Go figure.
2. If I forget to boil and sanitize some water for rehydrating yeast, I've been known to use a fresh bottle of water, heated in the microwave. Haven't had issues that I know of with this.
3. Way back I used to run PBW, rinse and sanitize through my pump and ball valves. That is until I saw the crap that came out of the pump one day. After that it was full tear down each and every time. Scary what was inside the ball valves.

I'm sure there are more ...

I have so many! Def no scissors opening my yeast, never rehydrate my dry yeast, I use standard oxyclean for cleaning, and i have a bag of smoked malt that is probably 5 years old that I still use

Well..brewed this weekend. 10gal batch into 2 fermenters.

1. Also definitely did not sanitize scissors before cutting open the yeast nor did I hydrate.

2. Was short an airlock, so it is currently fermenting with a price of paper-towel twisted and jammed in the bung...this is definitely a first.


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I used to use my stand up shower as a fermentation chamber so the drain could handle the blowoff lol! Easy to clean up!


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I often repitch on a yeast cake that's been sitting in my fermenter for over a week. Granted its in 15 gal keg, sealed and sitting on co2. Guilty of using old malt too...from my days of rounding up random bags on the group buy haha.

Wow!

Some fantastic bad habits i haven't tried yet!

I always like to reuse yeast when i can, but i've been nervous about not pitching straight onto a wet cake. Maybe i dont need to sweat about waiting til the next brew day!

Ruby wrote: ↑

Sun May 27, 2018 7:28 am

Wow!

Some fantastic bad habits i haven't tried yet!

I always like to reuse yeast when i can, but i've been nervous about not pitching straight onto a wet cake. Maybe i dont need to sweat about waiting til the next brew day!

My scenario might be a little different...I ferment in 15 gal ball lock kegs and pressure transfer when kegging...so there is no oxygen in the fermenter at all.

I had such a large run of infections that I went though my entire process with a fine tooth comb and went above and beyond with the cleaning and sanitizing.

It was a tough process since I started getting infections prior to discontinuing the use of my CFC, I didn’t rule out the CFC as I still got them when I began no chill brewing using the coffee urn fermentors from Noble Grape.

Adding the wort at 180 to the urns helped to sanitize a low quality spigot on the them and I only had a noticeable infection every 8-10 batches. I replaced those with SS plugs but made the mistake of using my CFC again only to get more infections.

It’s really hard to narrow down infections when they are coming from two sources.


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about to do my first no chill with one of the urns . never liked the look of the cheap spigot but havent replaced it because I"ve never had a problem. Your opinion, should I replace them or just sanitize the sh8t out of them as I've been doing? keep in mind I'll probably still drink the beer (unless its really bad) but swear and lament about what I should have done.

there's my dirty little secret. I'll drink almost anything I've made but won't share it unless I can genuinely say I want feedback on how to improve an awesome beer

saosborne wrote:about to do my first no chill with one of the urns . never liked the look of the cheap spigot but havent replaced it because I"ve never had a problem. Your opinion, should I replace them or just sanitize the sh8t out of them as I've been doing? keep in mind I'll probably still drink the beer (unless its really bad) but swear and lament about what I should have done.

I think if I hadn’t used that dirty CFC I probably wouldn’t have had a problem.

But the fact that when I did start to have infections it was visibly obvious by inspecting the components inside the spigot.

I’d bet if you dismantled and boiled them they’d be fine but they are by no means meant to be a sanitary component at least not to the standards we need. Fine for serving coffee.


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I run 18 kegs, never taken one apart, never changed a beer line on three keezers nor a tap, and yes, I flush with 40% mixture of bleach and copious amount of water. Once the kegs are empty and flushed they get filled with 15 grams of Metabisulfite and water. Haven't had an issue so far.

saosborne wrote: ↑

Wed May 30, 2018 4:16 am

about to do my first no chill with one of the urns . never liked the look of the cheap spigot but havent replaced it because I"ve never had a problem. Your opinion, should I replace them or just sanitize the sh8t out of them as I've been doing? keep in mind I'll probably still drink the beer (unless its really bad) but swear and lament about what I should have done.

I still haven’t fixed my urn...got a weldless ball valve after reaming out the keystone hole that the coffee spigot set into...haven’t been able to find gaskets to seal it back up. Had custom nylon ones made but need to make them a touch larger. Knowing what I know now and after what I’ve been through I’d leave them.

elreplica wrote:

saosborne wrote: ↑

Wed May 30, 2018 4:16 am

about to do my first no chill with one of the urns . never liked the look of the cheap spigot but havent replaced it because I"ve never had a problem. Your opinion, should I replace them or just sanitize the sh8t out of them as I've been doing? keep in mind I'll probably still drink the beer (unless its really bad) but swear and lament about what I should have done.

I still haven’t fixed my urn...got a weldless ball valve after reaming out the keystone hole that the coffee spigot set into...haven’t been able to find gaskets to seal it back up. Had custom nylon ones made but need to make them a touch larger. Knowing what I know now and after what I’ve been through I’d leave them.

That’s surprising. The hole I ended up with after rounding out the the keyhole was perfect for the plugs I installed. I guess it depends on the differences of threading on the weldless spigot. Did Everwood have anything?

I have a flat rubber washer on the outside and on the inside there’s a SS washer that receives a gasket inside a slot in the washer. Works great.

However I do dismantle it and soak it after each use. I would much rather use a weldless 3 piece ball valve. Let me know if you find something that works.


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oceanic_brew wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 05, 2018 12:15 pm

elreplica wrote:

saosborne wrote: ↑

Wed May 30, 2018 4:16 am

about to do my first no chill with one of the urns . never liked the look of the cheap spigot but havent replaced it because I"ve never had a problem. Your opinion, should I replace them or just sanitize the sh8t out of them as I've been doing? keep in mind I'll probably still drink the beer (unless its really bad) but swear and lament about what I should have done.

I still haven’t fixed my urn...got a weldless ball valve after reaming out the keystone hole that the coffee spigot set into...haven’t been able to find gaskets to seal it back up. Had custom nylon ones made but need to make them a touch larger. Knowing what I know now and after what I’ve been through I’d leave them.

That’s surprising. The hole I ended up with after rounding out the the keyhole was perfect for the plugs I installed. I guess it depends on the differences of threading on the weldless spigot. Did Everwood have anything?

I have a flat rubber washer on the outside and on the inside there’s a SS washer that receives a gasket inside a slot in the washer. Works great.

However I do dismantle it and soak it after each use. I would much rather use a weldless 3 piece ball valve. Let me know if you find something that works.


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Haven’t got to Everwood yet ( in quite awhile)Glen but I appreciate the tip. Robert from the Grain Barrel was helping me with some custom ones...would you be able to provide me with the dimensions or part numbers or pics? I’ll then call Dave at Everwood and try and sort it out as my reamed hole (doesn’t sound good) is preventing me from using the fermenter. Btw I have the two piece Everwood ball valve but the nipple and measures should be the same for the gasket/washers.TIA oh and I have the SS inner gasket washer but need to find something for the outside.

Brewed tonight after reading this thread earlier. Did a double rinse with oxy clean, flushed with water 3 times, fresh star san all around, sanitized scissors, yeast pack, thermometer and my cat. Then wiped out the neck of my carboy and dried off the bung with my t-shirt when it wouldn't stay in place!

Excellent!

MikeMorrison wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 06, 2018 11:17 pm

Brewed tonight after reading this thread earlier. Did a double rinse with oxy clean, flushed with water 3 times, fresh star san all around, sanitized scissors, yeast pack, thermometer and my cat. Then wiped out the neck of my carboy and dried off the bung with my t-shirt when it wouldn't stay in place!

MikeMorrison wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 06, 2018 11:17 pm

Brewed tonight after reading this thread earlier. Did a double rinse with oxy clean, flushed with water 3 times, fresh star san all around, sanitized scissors, yeast pack, thermometer and my cat. Then wiped out the neck of my carboy and dried off the bung with my t-shirt when it wouldn't stay in place!

That's awesome!! How did the cat make out?

sgrhyno wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:01 am

MikeMorrison wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 06, 2018 11:17 pm

Brewed tonight after reading this thread earlier. Did a double rinse with oxy clean, flushed with water 3 times, fresh star san all around, sanitized scissors, yeast pack, thermometer and my cat. Then wiped out the neck of my carboy and dried off the bung with my t-shirt when it wouldn't stay in place!

That's awesome!! How did the cat make out?

Clean and bitter!! Hopefully I can say the same about the beer!