Hi guys so I have a week before my 5 gallon glass carboy is to be cleaned. I’ve heard some horror stories on cleaning a carboy. What is the best cleaner to use I’ve been using oxyclean on my equipment.
Oxyclean is just fine.
Also, put it in a milk crate and rack the solution into it, and rack it back out. Don’t pour it out if it’s full, they aren’t meant to support the weight of their contents when on their side.
The only real stuck on dirty spot with a carboy is the krausen ring. Add a gallon of water to the carboy, soon after racking to the keg or bottling bucket. Slosh this gallon of water around to remove the loose stuff, dump and rinse again. Add two tablespoons of Oxyclean to the carboy, fill one-third full with tepid to warm water and invert to cover the krausen ring. Let it soak for 24 hours and most of the ring will float off. Give the carboy a quick brushing to make sure spots aren’t left, and then rinse very well.
There is no need to fill the carboy full. A full carboy is heavy and can lead to accidents. Glass can shatter and plastic carboys deform with a misstep. Don’t shock a glass carboy with hot water. This can cause stress failures of the glass.
PBW rinses out easier than Oxyclean.
Big help! Thanks!!!
Resist temptation to put off cleaning anything brewing related. Clean immediately after use and you will have no horror stories of your own.
THIS. Absolutely.
I personally find it much easier to put the carboy in a milk crate, fill with room temperature water and a little oxy, and let it soak overnight. Rack oxy out of carboy (cleans the auto-siphon nicely too), lightly brush if necessary and swirl a little water to rinse.
My method is to first rinse with a jet bottle washer (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/jet-bottle-washer). That gets out everything but the kreuzen ring. I then fill it with hot water and 1/2 scoop of OxyClean. After 24+ hours I rack out most of it then rinse well with the jet bottle washer.
I have always used hot water (with no problems), but flars comment has me rethinking that.
^^^ It’s solid advice. Glass carboys can’t handle a temperature shock, even with hot tap water, and it will cause them to fail. OxyClean will still work with cool water. Not as well, but you aren’t risking shattering your carboy.
Oxiclean is very good. so is powdered dishwasher soap.
PBW is a bit better.
Craftmeister oxygen cleaner is better than PBW and Crafmeister alkaline cleaner kicks butt on them all. It works better in cold water than Oxiclean or PBW do in hot water. The test…http://www.experimentalbrew.com/blogs/d … arboy-test
^^^ It’s solid advice. Glass carboys can’t handle a temperature shock, even with hot tap water, and it will cause them to fail. OxyClean will still work with cool water. Not as well, but you aren’t risking shattering your carboy.[/quote]
Oxiclean will not fully dissolve until the water hits 140F. Same with PBW. That’s why there are better options.
Very true. There are some granules that do not dissolve on the bottom of the carboy that need to be rinsed away. I’ve found it to be effective with an overnight soak, but not having tried Craftmeister I don’t know what I’m missing! :cheers:
Am I the only one that uses One Step? I have used it for years and before starting to use Star San, used to to sanitize equipment before use with no infections. I used it to soak my SS conical that had built up “brew stone” after years of use and it took the crud right off after overnight. Recently had a Kreuzen ring in a plastic bucket that I was afraid to scrub to hard to get out and same deal with that. Soaked it overnight with One Step and it basically disappeared.
Always like and still use PBW but it is way expensive. Never tried Oxiclean guess I should since it is inexpensive and readily available. Craftmeister oxygen cleaner is about the same price as One Step so I will give that a try next.
If you want to be truly amazed, try the Craftmeister alkaline with hot water on the grungiest stuff you have.
