Cleaning Sanke Fermenters

[BrewMasterBrad]

Ever since I started using the Brewer's Hardware Sanke Fermenter Kit, I have struggled with the best method of cleaning my fermenters. It has proven to be very time consuming and I still worry that it is not clean since it is nearly impossible to give a good visual inspection. Sanitation is simple; just put a couple gallons of water in and boil it.

My latest method has been to put the rinsed, but still dirty, keg on the brewstand and fill it with about 12 gallons of water. I boil the water, turn off the burner and add oxygen cleaner. Let that soak for a while, then occasionally agitate it with my lees stirrer to help with the cleaning process. I siphon the cleaner out of the keg until there is about 7 gallons left. Remove the keg from the brewstand, lay the keg on its side and rock it back and forth to further agitate the liquid inside (I subscribe to the Charlie Talley "TTA" method of cleaning - Time, Temperature and Agitation). Rinse with a few cycles of hot water and drain. This method has proven effective, but very time consuming.

I just purchased a Sanke Keg Cleaner from http://www.carboycleaner.com. It's just like their carboy cleaner, but with larger cleaning pads for the larger diameter Sanke kegs. I will report back on how it works. If anyone else has used this device, I would love to hear some feedback. I am hoping that it saves me some cleaning time, not to mention conserving some energy and water.

[bwarbiany]

I just purchased a Sanke Keg Cleaner from http://www.carboycleaner.com. It's just like their carboy cleaner, but with larger cleaning pads for the larger diameter Sanke kegs. I will report back on how it works.

I'm very interested in your report... I pretty much use PBW and a carboy brush, which I'm sure is not anywhere near as good as I can get when it comes to cleaning... If you find this to work, I'm going to have to buy one as well.

[JonW]

I built a keg cleaner that I use for cornies and sankes. I used a submersible pump from Harbor Freight in a 5 gallon bucket. The output has a T on it with QD lines for the corny dip tubes. I just put the corny or sanke over it upside down with 2 gallons of water and PBW and let it run for a while. I then rinse with water and a shot of StarSan for the cornies and for the sanke, I just leave it until the next brew day when I do the 2 gallon boil in it to sterilize.

Note that all the extra T's show in the plumbing are not needed, but made for a nice deck to hold the corny upright while cleaning. The Sanke kegs rest on the outer rim of the bucket/lid. Cost was about $75 to build.

KegCleaner.JPG (147.63 KiB) Viewed 4740 times

[lexuschris]

Nice looking DIY cleaner Jon!

I also enjoyed the carboy-cleaner demo video! I was just waiting for him to say, "but Wait! NOW how much would you pay?"


--LexusChris

p.s. What is the proper PBW ratio for cleaning your kegs & carboys? I didn't see a real clear indication on the little jar I have... 1 tblsp/gal ??

[BrewMasterBrad]

Nice work Jon. I really like that idea for cleaning cornie kegs. I still like the idea of being able to physically scrub the inside of the Sanke kegs since I can't see inside them at all. Morebeer is selling a product that does what your bucket does (http://morebeer.com/view_product/11869/ ... boy_Washer). I am justifying either copying your design or buying the Morebeer one since it will pay for itself with saved CO2. I use a ton of CO2 now since I push cleaner and sanitizer from keg to keg.

[Brew30]

Nice looking DIY cleaner Jon!
p.s. What is the proper PBW ratio for cleaning your kegs & carboys? I didn't see a real clear indication on the little jar I have... 1 tblsp/gal ??

0.75oz/gal for kegs/carboys if I recall correctly from this weekend reading it.

[BrewMasterBrad]

Nice looking DIY cleaner Jon!
p.s. What is the proper PBW ratio for cleaning your kegs & carboys? I didn't see a real clear indication on the little jar I have... 1 tblsp/gal ??

0.75oz/gal for kegs/carboys if I recall correctly from this weekend reading it.

The spec sheet for PBW says 1 to 3 oz. per gallon depending on soil load.

I got my keg cleaner just before Christmas. It works very well and it really sped up my cleaning time. Now I have a clean sanke keg that is just waiting to be filled with some fresh wort. Now, if I could just find the time to brew something. My next planned beer is a Blonde Ale and I hope to get in a brew day sometime before Jan. 2. I am going to the Rose Bowl game (my middle daughter goes to the University of Oregon), so if I don't brew before then, it probably won't happen until the following weekend. If that is the case, then I will probably do two beers (Blonde Ale and a Vienna Lager) on my next brew day since my Mexican Lager will done fermenting by then, so I will have two empty fermenters and that is completely unacceptable.

[JonW]

Brad, what was your process for using the new cleaner? 1/2" gallon to a gallon of PBW? How long did you run the brush (pad?)? Simple water, then StarSan rinse at the end and call it a day?

I'm really thinking of getting one of these now. I ran a Sanke on my keg cleaner last weekend for an hour and some of the really dried on krausen still wasn't coming off. The upper inside of the sanke actually looks like it has rust on it, but it is just the krausen that won't come off. I boiled water in the sanke to sterilize it, so I'm not real worried about the gunk doing anything to my beer, but I think I need one of these brushes to get it clean.

[BrewMasterBrad]

I used about a half gallon of hot water with some oxygen cleaner (I didn't have any PBW handy). I ran the keg cleaner for about 30 seconds, moving it up and down to get all the surface area covered. I waited a few minutes, then repeated the process. I need to get a mirror that will fit in the mouth of the sanke to inspect it, but I felt pretty good about it. I just rinsed with hot water then inverted the keg on my homemade rinser that hooks up to the garden hose. I will heat sanitize on brew day by boiling a couple gallons of water in the keg.

[brahn]

I've found that by using a solution of around 1.25oz/G of PBW I don't need to scrub the inside of the fermenter at all. I have a carboy brush that I re-bent so that it hits the outer wall and bends down a bit to cover more of the wall. I always use it to check after cleaning, but I haven't seen anything on the brush since I upped the strength of the PBW a bit.

My process is pretty time consuming, but easy and doesn't require using a ton of PBW and water. I heat up about 4-5 gallons of water and add the PBW. Then I lay the fermenter on it's side and give it a quarter turn every 18-20 minutes until it's gone all the way around, then drain. Check with the carboy brush, and if it comes out clean move on to rinsing with hot water.

[bwarbiany]

Just ordered one of these

[DrDually]

I just purchased a Sanke Keg Cleaner from http://www.carboycleaner.com. It's just like their carboy cleaner, but with larger cleaning pads for the larger diameter Sanke kegs. I will report back on how it works. If anyone else has used this device, I would love to hear some feedback. I am hoping that it saves me some cleaning time, not to mention conserving some energy and water.

I used mine for the first time last weekend and would recommend this to anyone. Use on either glass carboys or sanke kegs...works great